Update! From october 1, 2012.
by coldbird,
The internet has been going wild the last few days over a leak of a Vita PSPEMU Kernel Exploit...
I will tell the true story about it... and use the chance to make a important announcement.
A person named Sam Jordam, aka. Batman:Beyond aka. Ipadboy has been making news the last few days...
"A kernel exploit for Vita got leaked!" - "artmaze / The Z did it...!" - "I'm a limp dick who can't please a girl!" - you could read stuff like that coming from Sam Jordam the last few days.
The thing is... all he did so far was lie and scheme to frame other people for it!
He's a evil mastermind of manipulation and I will tell you guys what has been going on for real, well knowing that if this story came from someone else other than me, a well trusted source of information and code in the scene, no one would believe it either way.
This all started 4 months ago, when I discovered the Urbanix user mode exploit and a fitting kernel mode exploit to go along with it... VHBL has always been interesting to me and I wanted to take it a step further, wondering whether a full CFW was possible on Vita.
What shall I say... 3 months later, it was done. A fully working CFW for Vita... but the time wasn't right for a release... so many things were still out of place...
PSX emulation worked, but we didn't have sound, Sony's new console was still having problems getting it's safe spot on the market and - while a whole lot of people think we are pirates, we are the total opposites.
Yes, the CFW could play ISO files, but no - we never supported piracy... and we knew that PSN sales of PSP games would dwindle if this became public.
With Vita still having a more than suboptimal amount of good games to go with it, the PSP PSN sales were what kept the console going... and we didn't wish to harm this very fragile ecosystem.
We knew the time for it to shine wasn't there yet... and we made sure this would stay this way for a while...
We placed a whole bunch of security locks onto the files, so that even if a leak occured from our beta testers, like the one you guys saw a few days ago, no one would be able to use it and Sony's new system would remain secure and tight, unharmed by piracy - which sadly - whether we like it or not... is a negative side effect of the work we do to enable homebrew.
So yes... the leak is real, yes it contains both a user exploit and a kernel exploit... and in fact, a tightly locked - publically unusable - CFW too.
So... what exactly happened here?
One of our beta testers, who's name I won't mention here to protect him from the flames of rage upon the request of several big names in the scene, decided it was a good idea to leak the files to rivaling developers for unlocking of our CFW encryption preventing it to run on unpermitted Vita units.
This wouldn't have been too bad... if the rivaling developer, who's name I won't mention either, would have just shut up and kept it to himself... he failed in breaking our security anyway, so no harm done there.
So the files kept getting handed on... until they reached a person named The Z, who carelessly handed it to someone by the name of Sam Jordam (real name btw, if you wish to contact him IRL).
Sam in turn leaked the files in public, pretending that he did it for the good of all people, which is a obvious lie and thankfully, most of the scene realized this, not supporting his ideals.
I congratulate the scene for showing so much courage and stability in staying - at least mostly - united here and able to detect who the bad person is. This is a rather rare sight in the scene.
The reason he did it was quite simple... he is a person who can't feel guilt, a selfish person which only does what benefits him, ignoring the fact that the rest of the world suffers for his deeds.
The thing is... this person, Sam Jordam, has been threatening Wololo and his entire community from behind the curtains, planning to attack the wololo.net server and taking it down for good.
Back then, he tried to frame a innocent person from the wololo.net/talk forums, saying this person was his "employer" - hiring a hacker to take down wololo.net.
The wololo.net Team and I did research however... we aren't the average user and know ways to detect whether someone's lying or not. We have found his "employer" was nothing but a average user of the forums, while he was the master mind behind it.
As we used shady ways to get the data on this however, without real proof - or at least - publically accessible proof, we couldn't legally do anything against him, and kept watching the situation.
His treason reached its climax however, when he tried to frame his most trusted friend, artmaze, for the leak of confidential work in progress files, hoping that we would buy it but we didn't.
We did our research here too... and made sure to double check the facts which easily proved that he was the culprit behind all of this.
So what do we have here, summed up in a single sentence?
Sam has been doing evil things in the past, threatening the whole wololo.net community, which basically forms the center of the PSP / Vita scene, and yet - on his leak videos on YouTube he claims to do the leaking for the "good of the scene"?
This is ridiculous, a person threatening and attacking the whole scene trying to disguise himself as a hero of the people?
But the story doesn't end here either, he has been doing other - less critical crimes - and tried to frame the wololo.net moderators for it, fate6, a trusted person of the wololo.net administration team knows what I'm talking about here, as he has been one of his victims too.
He has been trying to trick us into doing as he pleases with everything foul-play has to offer, going as far as leaking our files hoping that the loss of a user plus kernel exploit would be enough to make us release public, unlocked CFW files for Vita, which would have been the final step for converting him from the traitor into a hero, bringing people CFW for Vita, and ruining a system before its prime time came by enabling piracy, even if just for PSP titles.
The CFW is real everyone... we have made the impossible possible, but due to what Sam did, it will never come to happen for any of you as he gave away the only bullet we had in our barrel, the only chance to make it come true.
This leak isn't a blessing, it's a curse... and one that the whole scene will have to pay a high price for.
4 months of work I've did for you all has been rendered useless in a single day, by a hypocrite who feels no guilt and no love for the scene, a person which in fact, just a week before the leak, still threatened Wololo with taking his website down for good.
I won't make a move anymore, I won't code for this scene anymore and I will make sure I take the CFW I've crafted into my grave with me.
If you wish to thank Sam Jordam for this, please by all means go ahead. He wasn't exactly too smart in hiding his real life data anyway, just check his blog, etc.
It's not like I encourage doing a house visit or something... *hint hint*
What is worst is... this person thinks he is above all things in the world.
Concerning the leak he did, I was so nice to contact him and tell him to take it offline, for his own good... well knowing that I had private data on him, data that linked him to the threat to Wololo and the scene and way more beyond that.
But this is what he had to say in response to my fair warning...
Coldbird: Mr Jordam, recently it seems you pretty much enjoy this leaking game of yours. However this is a dangerous game. For your own good I suggest you quit and delete all related files on your mediafire account. You have received your one and only warning. If you insist on walking this wrong path, something we both don't want to see will happen. And I am sincerely hoping you choose the path wisely.
Sam: By releasing these files, not only does Sony have the files to stop this exploit, but also the public is aware of what they need to do.
I win regardless of whether you release this yourself, or someone else patches the files I leaked to remove your protection, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. Unless, you have something to trade me.
I win regardless of whether you release this yourself, or someone else patches the files I leaked to remove your protection, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. Unless, you have something to trade me.
Nothing to regret. Not my files, not my problem.
Now does this sound like a hero of the people? Someone that has the good of people in mind?
I doubt it, but this made me realize why I left the scene the first time... and why I will - finally - after years of struggling to make this scene a better place to be, fully retire, taking with me all my unreleased work.
This isn't worth it anymore and to be honest, I don't want to harm Sony's new handheld either - I've done good work, but the world wasn't ready for it yet as this leak and betrayal of trust once again showed clearly.
I wish everyone in the scene, especially my team, who's command I will be handing down to Virtuous Flame, one of my most loyal team mates, actually, one of my best friends, the best of luck.
I also send greetings to Wololo, who has been a big asset in making this leak, at least somewhat worthwhile - by launching a instant Urbanix exploit ninja release upon me asking for it.
So hopefully, from the ashes of this empire I've built, at least one final revision of VHBL can be crafted for the people.
I admire everyone that has the strength to keep going even though this scene sucks so much.
Now Sam, I really wonder - was this the way you intended things to turn out?
You are left with nothing now, the truth is out there... and everyone knows what a big scumbag you are.
You got no CFW, you ruined your only chance of ever having one, and every team will be avoiding you like the pest in the future... which considering how ugly you were from the pictures I've seen of you - might actually suggest you do have the pest.
With this, Coldbird is out - this time around forever.
I wish that Sony manages to keep this system locked down for as long as possible, just so that the people can really feel what Sam ruined for them - and of course... so that it can shine, free of piracy - and sadly... also homebrew.