AOL Instant Messenger in PSP

Even thought America Online is not likely to release a PSP Instant Messenger version of AOL soon, you don’t have to be without your buddy list. Using your PSP’s Web browser you can log on to WebAIM at www.webaim.net, type your username and password, and access your buddy list, send and receive instant messages, and more (see Figure for a look at WebAIM in action in a regular PC browser).WebAIM even has a login page made especially for PSPs, with an on-screen keyboard to save you time entering your username and password—just head over to http://dev.webaim.net/psplogin.jsp.

Figure shows WebAIM in action on my PSP using Sony’s Web browser, which is enabled in the Firmware 2.0 update. Of course, you can still use the Wipeout Pure Web browser, so you don’t have to upgrade to Firmware 2.0 and lose the ability to program your PSP and run homebrew applications.

WebAIM’s free servers are often pretty crowded, so getting one can take a while. I opted to pay for their premium service, which guarantees me access any time of the day, for around $4 per month or a scant $17 for six months.

Creating the Wipeout Directory

The Wipeout Web browser looks for documents to be stored in a folder called “wipeout,” so you need to create that folder. In your Web server’s documents folder, create a folder named wipeout. Create folder in the c:\inetpub\wwwroot, a folder that Microsoft’s IIS Web server generally uses. For MooPS you will simply place your files in c:\Program Files\MooPS\ROOT, where c:\Program Files\MooPS\ is where you installed MooPS—no wipeout directory is necessary.

Configure the DNS Server

You need to trick Wipeout Pure into loading your Web page instead of the one it expects. You do this by spoofing the location of the server that the game looks for. Once it finds your page, the sky’s the limit.
It’s probably not a good idea to make your DNS server publicly available. Not only may the traffic get unmanageable, but Sony’s legal team may call you telling you to cease and desist. If you leave this on your local network, or at least undisclosed to all the hack boards out there, you should be safe, but there are no guarantees if you open your hack up to the public.

If You’re Using Windows
Follow these steps:
1. Make sure MooPS is running.
2. Configure MooPS’ Server Settings menu

If you’re using a Web server other than MooPS, set the MooPS Port under Web Server to 33333 so it doesn’t conflict with your Web server.

If You’re Using BIND on Unix or Mac OS X
In the case of BIND, you will be creating a zone file to spoof Sony’s Web site,
ingame.scea.com. I will assume that if you have a BIND instance running, you already
know how to configure BIND, so we won’t go over it here. There are many fine books on setting up BIND, so hop onto Amazon.com or go to your local bookstore and you’ll find some excellent guides.
The zone file for BIND should have the following contents:
; scea.com zone file
$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA scea.com hacked.scea.com (
2005070942 ; serial number YYYYMMDDNN
28800 ; refresh interval
7200 ; retry interval
86400 ; expire timeout
86400 ; min. time to live (ttl)
)
; spoofed entries to point traffic to our local server instead of out on the Internet NS 192.168.2.1 ; says where the name server is (us, haha)
A 192.168.2.1 ; points the root to this IP address Ingame A 192.168.2.1 ; resolves ingame.scea.com to our local server Webcluster A 92.168.2.1 ; resolved webcluster.scea.com to our local server
Next you need to update your named.conf file and add the scea.com zone, as shown in the following code. Enter the text at the end of the file’s contents and then save the file. Like the zone file, be sure to use the tab key, not multiple spaces, when adding the entry.

zone “scea.com” {
type master;
file “scea.zone”;
};

Configuring DNS If You’re Using Mac OS X’s Built-In Web Server

Follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences from the Apple menu.
2. Select Sharing.
3. Under Personal Web Server, click the On check box and then click Start.
4. Close the System Preferences window.

Your Web site documents are not stored under your home directory. Your Web site documents go into a global Web document folder. To access this directory in Finder, select Computer from the Go menu, then open the Library folder, then the WebServer folder, and then the Documents folder. In the terminal, you can also type cd /Library/WebServer/ Documents. This location may be different depending on the version of Mac OS X you are running. If the directory isn’t right for your version, load Help and search for Personal Web Sharing.

Configuring DNS If You’re Already Using Microsoft’s IIS to Host Your Own Web Site

Follow these steps:

1. Follow the instructions for MooPS, but in the Server Settings window set the server port number to 33333 so it doesn’t conflict with IIS, which runs on port 80 (the standard port for Web and HTTP traffic).
2. Open the Control Panel and then click Administrative Tools.
3. Select Internet Information Services. This opens the Internet Information Services MMC (Microsoft Management Console) plug-in.
4. Click the plus sign next to the computer icon, then click the plus sign next to Web Sites, and you’ll see Default Web Site.
5. Right-click Default Web Site and select Properties.
6. Under the Web Site tab, make sure IP Address is set to All Unassigned and that TCP Port is set to 80.
7. Click the Documents tab and make sure Default.htm is in the list of documents
8. Click the Home Directory tab and make a note of where your Web site’s documents are stored. You can change the directory, too, but the default location of c:\inetpub\wwwroot is usually just fine.
9. All right, you’re good to go with IIS. In the next section, you configure the DNS server.

Configuring DNS If You’re Using MooPS

Follow these steps:

1. Select Launch MooPS from the Start>All Programs>MooPS menu. After a few moments, the MooPS status window appears.
2. From the Options menu, select Server Settings.
3. When the MooPS – Server Settings window appears, enter the following:

• Your computer’s IP address into the Redirect IP Address field.
• Change the drop-down selection under IP Address from (Any) to your computer’s IP address
• Your router’s IP address (the gateway address) into the IP Address field under DNS Client
• Change the IP address under Web Server from (Any) to your computer’s IP address Click OK when you are done. If you don’t change the IP addresses in the drop-down lists that say (Any), MooPS will likely crash when you attempt to use it. If you don’t know your IP address and router address settings.Now that your server is configured you need to start it. From the Server menu, select Start. MooPS should then start its services and tell you everything’s okay.

Download the DNS Server

Now that we have the Web service part out of the way, let’s get the DNS server squared away.
If You Have Windows
Use MooPS. It has a DNS server built in that is pre-configured for use in this hack.
If You Have Mac OS X or Linux
On Mac OS X and Linux, you can simply install Berkeley Internet Name Daemon, or BIND for short. Refer to the BIND documentation on how to download and install BIND.
BIND for Mac OS X can be downloaded from http://www.versiontracker.com/
dyn/moreinfo/macosx/658.
BIND for Linux is usually included with the distro, so check your install.
If You Have Mac OS 9
If you’re running Mac OS 9, get your hands on MacDNS, a very simple DNS server that will do just fine for hacking DNS.

Enabling Personal Web Sharing (Macintosh)

Macintoshes have a Web server installed, but not enabled, by default.To enable your Web server, first make sure you run Apple’s Software Update to make sure your patches are up to date, and then do the following:
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Sharing.

Locking Down IIS

If you are running IIS instead of MooPS on Windows, you should lock down your IIS configuration
(because security is always key, even in closed networks). If you have not done so already, you should install and run the IIS Lockdown Tool, available for free from Microsoft at

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=DDE9EFC0-BB30-47EB-9A61-FD755D23CDEC.

If that URL doesn’t work, simply go to Microsoft’s Web site (http://microsoft.com) and search for IIS Lockdown Tool. Download the IIS Lockdown Tool and run it using the Dynamic Web Server (ASP Enabled) profile (just follow the prompts—it’s pretty self explanatory). Make sure the box for Install URLScan Filter on the Server is checked (this prevents certain types of hack attempts).
Once the IIS Lockdown Tool has completed its run, put the program away in a location you’ll remember so you can undo its changes later if you need to.To undo the IIS Lockdown Tool’s changes, simply run the application again and it automatically knows it’s installed and gives you options to remove its changes.

Installing MooPS

Download MooPS from the site mentioned earlier and double-click the installer to run it. You should be welcomed by the MooPS Setup Wizard, which walks you through the fairly straightforward installation Next, select the installation directory for MooPS. I suggest the default location of your Program Files directory, which is usually the C:\Program Files directory and is entered by default. Then click Next and then Next again and MooPS is installed.When MooPS has installed, click Close to exit the installer.

Get MooPS, the Free Web Server

There are many options if you don’t already have a Web server. If you have Windows, your best choice is MooPS, a free Web server and DNS server preconfigured for use in this hack. You can download MooPS from
http://seamonkey420.techrecipes.com/psp/Wipeout_moops.html.
If you have Windows 2000 or XP Professional and are already running IIS, you can still use IIS as the Web server—you’ll just use MooPS for the DNS configuration. If you have a Mac or are running Linux, there’s already a free Web server included with your system—Apache. Let’s go over how to install each one.
If you’re on a Mac or you already have a PC Web server, you can skip this step. Macintoshes since Mac OS 8 have had a service called Personal Web Sharing. Windows XP Pro and Windows 2000 machines have IIS built-in.
Before setting up any sort of server, especially if you will make it public, make sure you have the latest security patches. The last thing you need is for it to get owned by a hacker. Before installing any server product, make sure your machine is behind a firewall and is not allowing any external traffic. Before you allow other people (even you) access to services you provide, make sure your system is fully updated before and after you install server software. In Windows you do this via Windows Update, and on the Mac it’s through Software Update. Linux and other operating systems have various update paths. Also make sure any third-party server software is fully up-to-date, as the built-in update mechanisms in operating systems only update the operating system components, not applications.

Wipeout Pure: A Cool Game with a Fantastic Feature

They say most hacks are elegantly simple. They are so much sweeter when you can use a company’s own products to perform the hack. Such is the case with Web browsing on the PSP, where Sony’s own game— Wipeout Pure—has a fairly decent Web browser (well, enough to read blogs and the RSS feeds and lots of other stuff which we’ll get to in other chapters). Using tried and true DNS and Web server spoofing techniques, you can intercept Sony’s game’s calls to Sony’s Web servers and point all those requests to your own, hacked server. Of course, you should only do this on your local network, as Sony’s legal hounds would probably tear into your flesh with ferocious persistence, but this hack will work outside of your own network if you believe you have legal-bullet-proof powers.
While this hack will work on any PSP, it is generally intended to provide a Web browser to those who do not use a 2.0 PSP (such as software developers or those who want to run homebrew applications). Either way, by reading this section you should learn quite a bit about the art of spoofing.
Here’s what you’ll need:

• A Web server (otherwise known as an HTTP Daemon, which you’ll download in a moment)
• A DNS server (otherwise known as a Name Daemon, which you’ll download soon, too)
• A PC or Mac that can run both of the previous applications (called the “host PC”)
• Wipeout Pure PSP game
• 802.11b-compatible wireless base station (or the host PC with an 802.11b-compatible wireless card and configured as a wireless base station)

What we’re about to do is trick the game Wipeout Pure.Wipeout uses its own Web browser to access Sony’s Web site to download extra content.What you’re going to do is redirect it to a different site (your Web server) by spoofing Sony’s Web site’s IP address (via your DNS server) so you can surf the Internet through that same browser and do whatever you want online (for the most part).