Hackers have successfully reverse engineered Sony’s PlayStation Portable firmware, making a downgrade of the console’s new security features possible, it was revealed today.

This will enable users who have upgraded their PSPs in the US and Japan to make use of various non-official functionality the device has to offer, including emulator software, a big selling point of the new handheld. All European PSP hardware shipped with the upgraded firmware, which includes easier file management, media management upgrades, a web browser and enhances anti-hacker routines.

According to various reports surfacing from the hacker community, a security hole in PSP firmware Version 2.0 has enabled a downgrade to be activated. A quick nosey around the Internet shows that the routine to remove SCEI’s upgrade is effective, often throwing up some amusing side effects.

Of course, Sony’s main concern will now be the availability of pirated software and the ever-present threat of solid-state storage being used to carry hacked versions of its UMD software.

Of course, it’s now up to Sony’s engineering executives to decide the next move for the electronics giant. Now Version 2.0 has been cracked, the PSP obviously needs a fresh firmware update, but surely that too will be cracked. Then bear in mind that all the functionality of Ver 2.0 will most likely be available in a hacked firmware modification.

To keep on top of the situation, Sony will have to release regular firmware upgrades, an embarrassing and costly process. Either that or accept that, once released, a gadget on the scale of PSP will never escape the crosshairs of the hacker community.

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=9159

Wha do you guys think?

honestly this is a very good news for me, i don' t own a PSP but now it' s really tempting, you know in my country they already started to sell PSP pirated games, give to the shop your psp, choose the game you like ( <1go) here only 1go flash cards are available and they are expenisve 90$ , and there you go of course they would tell you do not upgrade to firmware 2.0, i guess now that' s a possibility...

if it wasn' t for piracy i would never have today experience in gaming, sur it' s not honest yes i confess , but please open your mind a little bit , i' ve already said that long time ago, in my country and after piracy surfaced in the market, shops almost do not bring anymore official games , why?? because nobody will buy them, when the same game is for only 2$... before games costed over 80 dolar , i do remmeber when mortal kobat 3 was released it costed 120 dollar!!! same of zelda ocarina of time, i should have waited for my father to go to france and bring it at 75 euro ... we can' t cope with these expensive precises it' s way too much specialy for the cost of living here, it really scares me if they can hack xbox360 or ps3 , i' m very very worried; that almost means no more games for me, i' m now used ot get the latest games , sometimes even before the official release (halo 2, GTA SA and half life 2...) i swear that if i had the means i will not do it and i will buy the games that i love because i respect so much the developers but still i' ll buy the average games cracked yes oh and there are so so so many exemples , it' s not like i' m gonna beat them, sometime i just want to try them and usualy i don' t go farther than the first 2 levels ...

Sony should just contract Yuji Naka to do their next firmware for them.

Wow your country sucks if its that expensive? Where do you live?

morocco , and it doesn' t suck that much, it' s not even 60 (which is still expensive) i' m talking taxes as well and profits that these shops want to make, there is no control of prices from sony or microsoft and such, they decide the price they like, hell there was time when even final fantasy X cracked (when it was first relased) they sell it at (30$) , the rw-dvd costed no more than 4 dollars!!! look how many profits those bastard try to make from a game they didn' t even know what it is !!! but heeey there is no choice, if they bring the original copy they would sell it over 100 dollar... that' s expensive for people living in england , so what would you say about people who live in a third world country !!!! it' s really embrassing but that' s the way it is even in china (oh they are the first ) indonesia , north africa, brazil... the only thing we offer to this industry is buying the console and its accessories...

oh and if i lived in england i would still think that games like Matric path of neo (pc) don' t derserve even 50 cents...

Cant you order games from like Amazon.com or co.uk

no i can' t and nobody can since credit cards exist but you can' t buy something from abroad through the internet, u can use them only in the country... and let' s suppose it' s possible the game + shiping + taxes i guess + time + risk well that' s not a good deal... i also want to mention that there are so many foreigners, occidentals, who when they come to morocco they take the opportunity to buy a whole load of games and softwares and dvd movies ... wouldn' t u be tempted when all games u love are only for 2$ ??
and how about canada, isn' t it a developed country ?? why over 60% of internet users don' t think that using " pirated softwares" is stealing??
i think that even sony loves teh fact that ps2 can be modded, how many consoles were sold just because of that ? millions??
countries like us would not affect the industry negatively why?? because if piracy does not exist, we will not buy most the games anyway, because the power purchase is low !!! oooh man where am i going?? this is going deeper i' ll try to stop here...

Sony hates the fact that PS2 can be módded, they loose money on the production on hardware, maybe its breaking even now, but both Sony and MS make money selling games not hardware.

I wouldnt bother buying illegal games, if i wanted them id just download them myself, it aint hard to find them.

I havent been all " legal" myself, and i think most gamers havent. But all in all, i aint moving to Marocco :P

i ain' t staying in morocco either loool seriously teh country is beautiful and don' t think that low of morocco but when it comes to official games sure it' s not the right place lol

Just download the games man, LoL, don' t buy them. If ur set on getting illegal copies, there r tons or ways u could get them on the internet. I think that hackers contribute, in a way, to the market cuz they point out the loopholes and defects of products. This in turn makes the creators perfect their product. Look at Windows and how much it has progressed,always updating and getting better. Look at the x360, they gave hackers less reasons to hack their system. I don' t know about the PS3 or Rev, but I' m sure they will also be tough to hack.

Maybe they' re gonna update the PSP firmware to get rid of this loophole, therefore making the PSP better. I guess for third-world countries it is a good thing, and I kno cuz I come from one, even tho I' ve been living in Canada for 5 years now. But then again my country is so corrupt, they get legal copies of games and stuff and sell them for cheap, cuz they steal them. Everything is stolen there, man they are such crooks. Even brand new cars can be bought for 1/3rd of the price of europe.

Sony' s main motivation behind constantly updating the firmware is clearly because of ISOs of actual PSP games. I don' t think they care or are worried much at all about emulation.