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PSP fake patcher trojan gets a name

6 October 2005 21:33 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 6 comments

Symantec Corp. has named the first ever trojan found in a gaming device, Trojan.PSPBrick. The PlayStation Portable malware has only been given a category 1 threat level because it could only possibly effect a device which it is run on by use of an exploit. There have se far been no reports of infections. The PSP Team Patcher has been around for a few days now, and when run it deletes vital files from the PSP's flash memory, breaking it.

"It does not affect the average user," said Eric Chien, a principle software engineer at Symantec. "This is the first time we have seen a Trojan on a gaming device." It disguises itself as a file to let users run their own code on a PSP. "It goes to show malicious code writers aren't just targeting personal computers and aren't just trying to get some replicating code to infect the machines," Chien said "Anything that can run code is potentially being targeted."

Symantec learned of the malware while monitoring chat rooms used by the gaming community. Users who are worried about the eboot.pbp files they run can use PSafeP v1.1, an application by Dark Killer that aims to combat malicious homebrew. Check it out on PSPUpdates.

Update 2005-10-20: Our user igounfaze informed us that Symantec's anti-virus software deletes the overflow.tif regardless of its contents. Even the "valid" ones that are used for downgrading PSP v2.0 to v1.50 are identified as malicious by the software. What's even more strange is that Symantec's software does not care about the two other files (h.bin and index.dat), and that the overflow.tif cannot be ignored or put in the exclusions list.

Source:
Reuters

Permalink to this article

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Sony releases PSP 2.50 firmware (14 October 2005)

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Sony updates PSP firmware to v2.01 (4 October 2005)

Downgrade PSP 2.0 to PSP 1.50 (27 September 2005)

Progress being made with PSP v2.0 cracking (25 September 2005)

PSP sales break record in UK (6 September 2005)

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Discuss this article!
fnloser (Newbie) 7 October 2005 1:59
would you doubt that sony created this? just to scare ppl from using any patches and such. it would suck to use a patch or some "unauthorized" software to modify yr psp and then it never works again. [ + quote]
Reasons? (Inactive) 7 October 2005 14:01
If Sony is behind it, it's only because they're smart. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122915,tk,dn100705X,00.asp [ + quote]
nanu-nanu (Inactive) 7 October 2005 19:45
I believe Sony created it and/or sponsored it. Look at all the trouble Sony went through, when that Japanese created the hack two days after the PSP was released. [ + quote]
Fox-AJ- (Inactive) 23 October 2005 0:52
It'd be interesting to see a court case rise from this if it was in fact proven that sony created/sponsored the virus. Even if doing a downgrade was illegal, or breach of their terms of use or whatever, I doubt that they would be allowed to destroy people's PSPs because of it. I guess my point is, it seems very very risky to sponsor/create a virus like that. But who knows? Money is money is money. [ + quote]
rafpac (Newbie) 23 October 2005 11:14
Does anyone know on what what patches were the trojans discovered in and whether there is any way to scan it on the pc first then run it on the psp??????? I know you're good but I am better. [ + quote]
Fox-AJ- (Inactive) 23 October 2005 12:06
"Symantec learned of the malware while monitoring chat rooms used by the gaming community. Users who are worried about the eboot.pbp files they run can use PSafeP v1.1, an application by Dark Killer that aims to combat malicious homebrew. Check it out on PSPUpdates." ~From The Article Gragelgorp. [ + quote]