The recently discovered PS Vita exploit by Yifan Lu is limited in the possibilities it opens up to homebrew developers. Lu says he is working on a homebrew loader, but the exploit cannot be used to pirate games as the exploit only gives “user” access to the system.
Speaking on twitter, Lu says it’s “physically impossible to decrypt or load retail games with my exploit”. But one independent developer notes that the exploit opens the door to others attempting to hack the system in order to install modifications, custom firmware or even ISO loaders.
The PSP was plagued with piracy early on in the life-cycle, with a number of ISO loaders, custom firmwares, and even mod chips. Naturally, Sony would have worked hard to develop secure code and put safeguards in place to prevent the new system being hacked.
On his stance regarding piracy, Lu reiterated: “I am 100% against piracy and no tool I will make will benefit piracy. This tool, in fact, cannot be used for loading backups/pirated content even if I want to because of the physical limitations of the exploit.”