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The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

arstechnica.com

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Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#41

Post by khedoros1 »

av3csr wrote: post #8
deft wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just the surface, with personal politics and clashing personalities obscured. The scene is incredibly dramatic and childish.

The apex of the scene's pettiness has to be this http://wololo.net/2015/03/18/total-noobs-response-to-latest-... (tl;dr the custom firmware checks if a certain user is using it, if so it formats their memory card)

I remember that in part of modding the Wii, one of the tools asked if you were going to use the tool to play backups. I took it literally; my plan was to rip my game disks and run them from a USB drive. I answered "yes"...and the tool spit up a message against piracy, and set a flag somewhere in the NAND of the Wii.

I don't remember exactly how I fixed it...I think there was some undocumented way to clear the flag that you could only find by reading the tool's source. It was a good reminder of how much stupid, blind trust I tend to put into random tools from the internet.

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#42

Post by khedoros1 »

userbinator wrote: post #40
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I still remember the good old days, when the hacking/cracking scene was entirely composed of people doing it for the freedom, with no do-gooding snitches to worry about... >10 years ago, if you shared a way to bypass a DRM scheme in the right places, it would live on for a long time. Now, it's more likely that some bastard is going to report it and get it patched in days to weeks. From the article it looks like some…

If she truly wanted to make it free, why secretly tell Nintendo and nVidia first? It's a cat-and-mouse game, and this mouse wants to tell the cat how to catch the other mice. In the old scene, you'd be branded a traitor for doing that.

Because the plan wasn't to make it free until she saw that someone else was planning to profit from it. I doubt she wanted it free; she wanted to spite the other group.

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#43

Post by voltagex_ »

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #22

Great news for people who want to use their purchased hardware for things Nintendo won't allow... Ie watching movies on the great screen, using generic hdmi adapters, playing games they already purchased for older console versions, or backing up savegames. Also great news for people who want to use their hardware for things that are actively against Nintendo's interests, like playing pirated games. All around, seems…

Also archiving games+updates.

I'll be backing up all my carts as soon as possible. Publishers lose code, assets, entire games (or decide to never re-release them).

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#44

Post by jake_the_third »

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #22

Great news for people who want to use their purchased hardware for things Nintendo won't allow... Ie watching movies on the great screen, using generic hdmi adapters, playing games they already purchased for older console versions, or backing up savegames. Also great news for people who want to use their hardware for things that are actively against Nintendo's interests, like playing pirated games. All around, seems…

> backing up savegames

This. I decided against buying a switch because I discovered that it prevents owners from backing up save files.

I still don't plan to buy a switch until nintendo supports backing up save files officially like they do with cross-region compatibility. Having to loose 100s of hours of progress for what amounts to an arbitrary reason from a nintendo bigwig is not something I am willing to stomach.

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#45

Post by monocasa »

Pharaoh2 wrote: post #38
Someone1234 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed but since then the DMCA[0] has radically shifted to the law. Sega would win today. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A...

IANAL, but the two things seem related, why is GP being down voted? From just a reading of the wiki pages without much law knowledge it does seem like sega would win today? What I am getting wrong?

I don't think they would assuming that they wrote their own game and were only using of Sony's what was necessary to run their own code.

See Chamberlain v. Skylink for a post DMCA case on the matter.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._S....

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#46

Post by monocasa »

userbinator wrote: post #40
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I still remember the good old days, when the hacking/cracking scene was entirely composed of people doing it for the freedom, with no do-gooding snitches to worry about... >10 years ago, if you shared a way to bypass a DRM scheme in the right places, it would live on for a long time. Now, it's more likely that some bastard is going to report it and get it patched in days to weeks. From the article it looks like some…

If she truly wanted to make it free, why secretly tell Nintendo and nVidia first? It's a cat-and-mouse game, and this mouse wants to tell the cat how to catch the other mice. In the old scene, you'd be branded a traitor for doing that.

I mean, it's unpatchable in current systems, and the vendor would have it figured out quickly anyway. There's no reason not to go through responsible disclosure.

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#47

Post by simcop2387 »

voltagex_ wrote: post #43
ohthehugemanate wrote: post #22

Great news for people who want to use their purchased hardware for things Nintendo won't allow... Ie watching movies on the great screen, using generic hdmi adapters, playing games they already purchased for older console versions, or backing up savegames. Also great news for people who want to use their hardware for things that are actively against Nintendo's interests, like playing pirated games. All around, seems…

Also archiving games+updates. I'll be backing up all my carts as soon as possible. Publishers lose code, assets, entire games (or decide to never re-release them).

Not sure about the carts and saves but you can at least push patches and downloaded games to SD cards and back them up. They'll only work for your console as far as I'm aware but that's fine with me.for doing a backup.

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#49

Post by tzs »

monocasa wrote: post #45
Pharaoh2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but the two things seem related, why is GP being down voted? From just a reading of the wiki pages without much law knowledge it does seem like sega would win today? What I am getting wrong?

I don't think they would assuming that they wrote their own game and were only using of Sony's what was necessary to run their own code. See Chamberlain v. Skylink for a post DMCA case on the matter. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._S... .

HN's algorithm to turn a URL into a clickable link can have trouble with links that end in punctuation, and your link fell victim. Here's an attempt to make it work:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._S...?

That's a mobile link since yours was mobile. Here's the non-mobile version:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._Sky...?

Re: The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable

#50

Post by buildbot »

I wonder if this exploit would be workable on older Tegra systems, like for example a Tegra 3 int he digital cockpit on the Audi S3/R8/TT [1] or the K1 they are selling now [2] - it would be really great to be able to modify and customize those systems.

[1] https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/04/25/virtual-cockpit/ [2] http://www.nvidia.com/object/visual-computing-module.html

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