Malware for PSP

[SilverSpring]

True, but that was still malware. Dark Alex intentionally coded the thing so that it would brick the PSP if the software was hex edited.
And pandora didn't exist at that time.
Hurting the owner of that website was one thing, hurting the website's users (who had nothing to do with the site owner) was another story.
We all make mistakes, but I still count that one as the second malware for PSP (the first one being that other virus)

Absolutely not malware.

Every app out there that touches the nand has huge warnings both in the app and the readme that says something along the lines of "If you do 'X' the psp WILL brick", with 'X' ranging from 'flashing someone elses nand image', 'editing idstorage keys' etc. Even Sony's updater has it with 'X' being 'removing the power'.

If someone removed those warnings from the updater so that someone didn't see it anymore and they bricked, it is now Sony's fault? Did they just release malware?

DA's warning simply had 'X' as 'hexediting out this text'.

That website owner knew exactly what would happen yet still went ahead and hexedited out the warnings and credits.

Remember also that this person was hexediting out credits of all apps posted on his site for a long time before this happened (usually inserting his own name and website) and only stopped doing it after DA's release and has never done it again since then (AFAIK). So, well worth it (though it seems they haven't stopped stealing).

EDIT: about Pandora not existing back then, Pandora was released to the public BECAUSE of this (partly anyway). DA released his cfw knowing that Pandora would be released to save those users who bricked (refer to Noobz site on Pandora release to jog your memories). In the end, no one ended up with permanent bricks, just shitting bricks (for a few days).

 

[WalangAlam]

really?!!! Dark_Alex did that:w00t::laugh::laugh::laugh:
so what happened to the hex editing guy?:laugh:

We were really born to late in the world of PSP scene. We missed much of that fun:argh::laugh:

I wonder why Davee didn't pursue his anti-ISO code, was it anti-iso code he was talking about back then...oh well nvm

When is ChickHEN's birthday? no awesomeness yet this year aside from patapon2?

 

[wololo]

really?!!! Dark_Alex did that:w00t::laugh::laugh::laugh:
so what happened to the hex editing guy?:laugh:

Well, nobody mentions his website anymore, so I'm guessing they kinda went out of business after this problem? I never went there, but I think it was a pretty big site. Anyways he probably got what he deserved.


@Silverspring and x3sphere: I'm not trying to justify what that website's owner was doing was right or not. I'm saying there's an implicit "responsibility" as a developer to guarantee that our software is working as planned and as harmless as possible to the best of our knowledge.
Say it the way you want or not, intentionally bricking the PSP out of a planned revenge is exactly what doesn't fit in this category. Call it a Virus or call it a Malware, it has nothing to do with the "reasons" behind it. It is not a feature of the software, and it is not a "bug" because it was put there intentionally, which is way different from what happens when you remove the battery (this is a problem that occurs for which the update mechanism currently has no solution, not a piece of code in the updater that says "if the user removes the power, intentionally screw things up").

I'm not trying to be insulting anyone here, but call a cat a cat, this was a virus: A piece of code intentionally programmed to brick the PSPs under certain conditions.

Again, I'm not judging the reasons behind that (because from that point of view I think the guy got what he deserved by losing all kind of credibility), just sticking to the definition.
From Wikipedia:

Malware is not the same as defective software, that is, software that has a legitimate purpose but contains harmful bugs.

 

[n00b81]

Well, let's look at it this way: Did he have to do it? No. I'm sure he could have devised another plan to get "revenge" on that one guy without bricking innocent users' PSPs. Let's face it, a virus is a virus - no matter how you try and justify it. And c'mon, we all know noobs don' read a readme first He knew perfectly well there would be bricks.

 

[Cloudy]

It wasn't just because of hex editors. They stole the OE source code, and the message was an anti greet. The encryption was made to prevent these credits being edited out. I really don't think that you can be responsible for how your program works if someone hex edits it.

As a developer, you have an obligation to ensure it works correctly as you said. But you do not have an obligation to ensure it works if edited.

Also understand that the person in charge of the news site (which btw, is still going an unfortunately has prominent developers on the ps3 hacking scene under their banner) then posted it to the site, and removed any comments which stated they had been bricked.

So Dark_AleX's fault? I think not. If someone hex edits a dll and hosts it for download to replace a critical windows file, you wouldn't blame Micosoft.

 

[eldiablov]

So Dark_AleX's fault? I think not. If someone hex edits a dll and hosts it for download to replace a critical windows file, you wouldn't blame Micosoft.

If Microsoft coded a function that broke my PC into the hex edited DLL I most certainly would.

 

[SilverSpring]

Every app out there that touches the nand can brick the psp if used improperly. Take for example, cfwe installer which flashes cfw prxs to nand, just a small hexedit to the name of the flashed file will brick the psp.

If you coded some nand app with a function that erases the nand but is not enabled by default, someone hexedits the app so that the erase nand function is always called, it's the authors fault?

If I release Hellcats flasher and hexedit it to brick peoples psp's is it Hellcats fault? It is my fault alone, I have now released malware NOT Hellcat. If used properly, his app will never brick. Like cfw, used properly it will never brick. It WILL brick however if a malicious person hexedits it to do so (and that goes for EVERY app that touches the nand). It's that malicious person that has released malware, NOT the author of the original app.

The original app is NOT malware used as it is.

EDIT:

If Microsoft coded a function that broke my PC into the hex edited DLL I most certainly would.

Really? There's functions in dll's that will format the partition of the hdd, if I hexedited that dll so that every time it's loaded it run the format hdd function you will now blame Microsoft instead of me?

 

[Art]

I'm not trying to be insulting anyone here, but call a cat a cat, this was a virus: A piece of code intentionally programmed to brick the PSPs under certain conditions.

It's not a virus if it can't somehow send copies of itself to other PSPs.

Yes it's easy to make something that will wreck up your PSP.
Erase flash0, stuff up idstorage keys, make battery into a pandora without
user's knowledge...

You should really know where your homebrew apps come from.