PlayStation Portal Hacked by TheFloW0, PSP Emulator Running Natively!

Since confirmation of the PS4 Kernel RCE Talk by TheFloW0 at TyphoonCon 2024 earlier this month, Security Researcher Andy Nguyen announced on Twitter today, "After more than a month of hard work, PPSSPP is running natively on PlayStation Portal. Yes, we hacked it. With help from xyz and ZetaTwo." He went on to state, "We responsibly reported the issues to PlayStation. Bugs are fixed on 2.06."

Theflow0 also warns, "In order to keep using your PS Portal with your PS5 on 2.05, block dwc.dl.playstation.net in your router and reboot. Very important, do not factory reset the device, as otherwise it will force update you."

Although theflow0 noted "There's no release planned in the near future" he stated, "We may demonstrate some videos this weekend" for those interested in seeing Sony's PlayStation Portal (formerly known as PlayStation Project Q) handheld remote play device running the PPSSPP emulator supporting PSP (PlayStation Portable) emulation.

This PlayStation Portal hacking progress comes since news of PPSSPP on PlayStation Classics, the PSP Windows emulator running a GameJAM PSP Homebrew Game with Demo Video, footage of PS4 Linux TEarch Running PPSSPP at 60FPS with Vulkan Support and Sony's official PlayStation Portal Launch for $199.99 last November alongside some PS Portal Firmware / System Software PUPs and the release of Source Code for Open Source Software Used in PlayStation Portal Remote Player.

Spoiler: Related Tweets & Videos

 

[dsav]

i'm guessing this thing can run a bunch of emulators?

as powerful as a recent cell phone or so?

sounds good.

 

[rajtan]

nice stuff.

 

[Briggsy24]

Awesome... being able to remote play from my jailbroken ps4 would be the best

 

[Chumdiddy1]

I knew this would get done eventually but I didn't think it would be so fast due to how few people own it.

My guess was always that it has the power of an old cell phone, probably a good phone from around 2012 or so. Wouldn't shock me if it has a rebranded Rockchip or something, just enough to take in and export a wifi signal with some transcoding.

I'm surprised by the internal storage though! 6GB? I expected no more than 1 or 2GB. I wonder what kind of RAM it has built in though and how much. Even that I guessed no more than 2GB back at launch and when predicting if/when this would happen.

He's just a genius at software security and exploration.

 

[LazNo]

Awesome

 

[Gaboar06]

Never had a PSP myself, hoping to give this one a try.

 

[ysfex3]

has sony allowed use of portal as a controller? if not, would be cool if they enabled use as a regular controller. maybe use the screen for jailbreak info, cheats, etc.

 

[gabriellb]

Finally we have a good utility! In my opinion, the jailbreak is a good way to improve the sale of this thing

 

[stinger101mg]

well if it has the ability to install apk applications that means its clearly android based, and as demonstrated there is a way to bypass the apk installation security checks, which is how they were able to install a psp emulator on it. so id assume via the same mechanism of bypassing clearance for arbitrary apks you could essentially install whatever application your like so long as you did the bypass patch on your apk. this is really cool tho, love seeing thefl0w's work.

also thefl0w did add they do not plan on releasing this to the public, however i suppose time will tell but for now dont get your hopes up.