PSP Says "Hello, World!" and Soon Will Say Much More

Sony hates it when people mess around with the innards of their popular PSP. It’s an arms race, really, with the users putting together pieces of unsigned code to run on their units, and Sony updating the official firmware to kill the fun. Somebody at Sony is going to be up late tonight, as the sexy libTIFF exploit has hit the streets.

Using a buffer overflow flaw in the PSPs image libraries, you can run your own homebrew code encapsulated within a fake image file (it likes TIFFs). Not only will your perfectly harmless app load up from simply trying to view the fake image file, but it appears to work on all versions of the firmware, no modding needed. Really.

To run “Hello World” all you have to do is follow two simple steps:

1. Unpack the ZIP file to your PSP’s PHOTO folder
2. Navigate to your PSP’s PHOTO director and attempt to view the newly transferred picture

Note: You may find that the screen does not show correct (occasionally happens) – just restart your PSP (fully shutoff by holding the power button up) and open the picture again.

“Hello World” is a simple proof-of-concept piece of homebrew already on the Interwebs, so you can try it now. Other software is sure to follow soon, and the implication being that you could be downloading Madden 07 to your Memory Stick by this time next week.

2.0-2.80 Firmware PSP’s Say – “Hello World” as New Exploit is Found! [QJ]