PS Vita hacked, but not for pirated games

Just over eight months after launch, the PS Vita has been hacked – but it won’t be used to evil ends, claims the coder responsible.

Yifun Lu’s Usermode Vita Loader is a homebrew loader for the handheld, and can be used to load custom (unsigned) software on the device. But according to Lu, it’s “physically impossible to decrypt or load retail games with my exploit”, because that’s the way he wants it.

“I am 100% against piracy and no tool I will make will benefit piracy. This tool, in fact, cannot be used for loading backups/pirated content even if I want to because of the physical limitations of the exploit – it is userland, no rights to decrypt/load games,” he told PlayStation Lifestyle.

He admitted, however, that the loader could be used as a backdoor for additional system compromise.

“When the exploit goes public, it could be used as a stepping stone to analyze the system for farther exploits, including the more desirable kernel exploit, which if found would open the system up entirely,” he explained. “However, it takes a lot of skills to find such an exploit, and those who I talked to with the necessary skills are all anti-piracy. However, not thinking of potential other exploits, this one can only be used to load homebrews and nothing else.”

The loader is still in development, and even a demo won’t be available “for at least a couple of months”, so that gives Sony plenty of time to issue a mandatory update that locks Lu out of the system. Or send assassins.