UNINNOVATE / Engineering At Its Finest

Since the PlayStation Portable (or PSP) was first released, Sony has doing it’s best to keep the platform locked down tight. On a regular basis, Sony releases semi-mandatory updates that close up any known holes which allow hobbist software programmers to create and run their own “homebrew” (unauthorized) programs.

On September 24th, I posted this summary of PlayStation Portable (PSP) software upgrades:

• Number of PSP software versions, including 1.00: 12
• Number of PSP updates that purposely broke homebrew support: 11
• Number of PSP updates solely intended to prevent homebrew: 4 (versions 1.51, 1.52, 2.01, 2.81)
• Longest amount of time the newest firmware prevented homebrew: 4 months

But with every new PSP software release, the homebrew community was left scrambling in search of increasingly clever ways to circumvent Sony’s security fixes so they could keep tinkering with their PSPs. While old versions of the PSP software could still run homebrew software, the newest version is always required to play the latest Sony games. Sony was showing no signs of slowing down and appeared willing to commit a nearly unlimited number of man-hours to uninnovating its products in order to retain complete control over them. And when the PlayStation 3 was released, the PSP was upgraded to version 3.00 which again locked out homebrew users.

Now the homebrew community has struck back in a big way. Instead of looking for new security holes in the latest PSP software, a hacker named Dark_AleX has created a customized version of the latest PSP software that removes all restrictions on homebrew software. Instead of trying to pick the locks, the hackers have removed the locks completely and replaced them with locks that don’t require any keys. This requires a much more thorough understanding of PSP hardware and software and is an impressive engineering feat for an outsider working without any documentation. This new development should keep Sony busy for quite a while thinking of ever more complicated ways to make its products do less.