PSP: malicious code warning...

Wertz

Just catching up on tech news earlier and came across this article....possibly old, I've been offline for a week or so.

PlayStation Portable Trojan Posted by Gergo @ 12:05 GMT

Older versions of the PSP firmware (eg. 1.50) have a vulnerability that allows easy execution of custom code on the device. Every since Sony has fixed the flaw in newer versions, the firmware downgrade to 1.50 became the "Holy Grail" of PSP homebrew development. After the discovery of a buffer overflow in version 2.0 of the PSP firmware, many rushed to be the first to release a working firmware downgrader.

Soon, one of these firmware dowgrade tools turned out to be a trojan that renders the PSP unusable. The infamous patcher from PSP Team removes a few important system files from the flash which makes the system unbootable. Our analysis confirmed these reports.

This tool has been reported to be the first "PSP virus" by many sources. Since it does not replicate in any way, by our definition we can call it a trojan at most. It definitely falls under the malware umbrella term, however.

It is worth mentioning here that, according to Sony, running any unauthorized code on the PSP will immediately void the warranty.

PSP Updates has details on the story.

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/

So the firmware downgrader bricks your shiny new toy? F*ck that...
Anyone used the PSP team release? Anyone banging their head off several walls? Or is this a scare tactic to try and warn potential downgraders off of actually rolling back the firmware?

koneko

Wertz wrote:

So the firmware downgrader bricks your shiny new toy?

Article that was posted wrote:

Soon, one of these firmware dowgrade tools turned out to be a trojan that renders the PSP unusable.

Just don't download the one with the trojan in it
We downgraded one of our PSPs and it's running homebrew stuff (Scumm, Neo Geo). It has v2.0 on it before the downgrade.

Kristok

just download it from the big psp sites you should be fine. Downgraded the week before last and its been running dgen and doom fine ever since.

Wertz

Luckily I already have a kosher 1.5 so won't need to use this app....just thought it'd be of interest as I've seen many threads asking about firmware rollback...hell the only thing I want v1.5 is to run .iso files on....never been a NES fan and CBA figuring out roms/emulators

CuLT

I only used 2.0 for a few hours like.

I totally miss the browser now

And the themes.

RuggieBear

CuLT wrote:

I only used 2.0 for a few hours like.

I totally miss the browser now

And the themes.

Ditto, but tbh the browser was always appallingly slow for me, perhaps it was my wireless connection but for me it sucked

Wertz

For novelty value I've used the wipeout browser...like ruggiebear I found it slow....I think it's the PSP itself as opposed to the wireless connection...

Kristok

i miss the wallpaper it sucks not having my own one especially now that I go into the psp menu all the time but guess thats the price i pay for everything else.

jcoote

good god lads i didn't even notice the wallpaper and the browser isn't that big a deal tbh...if its not worth it just upgrade again

projectmayhem

i'm sure you can just download an app to run wallpapers and browsers. they existed before 2.0 and sony responded to their popularity

Kristok

Yup you can didnt realise you could till id already posted, in fact the wallpaper changes every month so you can stick 12 on and let it change by itself.