Nintendo Switch hackers are being banned from online services
Not long after its March launch last year, it was revealed that a GPU exploit in the Nintendo Switch could be used to run unofficial software, like pirated games and homebrew ROMs. Since then, the Switch's hacking community has grown, and the discovery of a new 'unpatchable' exploit last month has only made the console more attractive to pirates and homebrew fans.
Nintendo isn't taking the assault on its walled garden lightly, however, and is taking steps to crack down and dissuade users from taking advantage of the security holes.
The Japanese company has begun banning hacked consoles from its online services, sending error notifications when users attempt to log in. According to the message, "The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo," and users will need to "Contact Customer Support via the Nintendo Support Website".
Also at Nintendo Life.
Previously: Nintendo Switch Homebrew Mode Coming Soon Due to NVIDIA Tegra X1 Exploit
Hacking Group Fail0verflow Shows Linux Running on the Nintendo Switch
The "Unpatchable" Exploit That Makes Every Current Nintendo Switch Hackable [Updated]
Related: Nintendo Switch is Fastest-Selling US Home Console
Related Stories
Nintendo Switch Kernel exploit 34c3 presentation: "Nvidia Backdoored themselves"
Yesterday, hackers Plutoo, Derrek, and Naehrwert were at the 34C3 hacking conference in Germany to give a presentation on their kernel hacks on the Nintendo Switch (video below). Hacker Yellows8 wasn't there but was also credited for some of the work that led to this presentation.
[...] They detail in particular the sm:hax exploit (which consists in skipping an initialization step for a service, which results in the service manager thinking the service has pid 0,
making it rootgiving it additional privileges*), as well as the hardware glitching process that was used to get the Kernel decryption keys. Naehrwert also presents how he bypassed ARM's Trustzone on the Switch, a stunt he insists "is not useful for homebrew, but fun".One of the highlights of the presentation is how the hackers leveraged the fact that the Nintendo Switch uses an "off the shelf" Nivdia Tegra X1. A GPU that is well documented, and for which debugging hardware can also be officially be acquired at reasonable prices. The X1 documentation in particular gave the hackers detailed information on how to bypass some security of the SMMU (system Memory Management Unit). "Just search for 'bypass the SMMU' in the documentation", Plutoo says. He concludes: "Nvidia Backdoored themselves".
Nintendo Switch Homebrew Launcher Could Allow Custom Software Via NVIDIA Backdoor
The one caveat to this new homebrew experience is that it is only currently validated for Nintendo Switch 3.0.0 firmware. So, if you want to take part in the festivities, you will need to stay on that firmware and resist the urge to update to a newer build.
Related: The Ghost in Nintendo's Switch - Game Unlocks on the Date of Satoru Iwata's Death
Nintendo to More Than Double Production of Switch; Success Rooted in Wii U's Failure
Nintendo Sells at Least 10 Million Switch Consoles in 2017, 64 GB Game Cards Delayed to 2019
34th Chaos Communication Congress (34C3) Presentations Online
The Nintendo Switch has been named America's fastest-selling home games console.
A total of 4.8 million units were sold in the US during the 10 months following the Switch's launch there on 3 March last year.
The Switch breaks tradition with the firm's previous home consoles in allowing owners to use it as a portable console for game-playing on the move.
One analyst said Nintendo had completely turned its business around.
The previous record for the fastest-selling console in the US was Nintendo's Wii, launched in 2006, which went on to be one of the top-selling consoles in history worldwide.
However, the company's next offering - the Wii U - fared much more poorly.
As a consequence, Nintendo had been under considerable pressure to deliver a popular device this time around.
What if you don't like Mario or Zelda?
Nintendo hopes that "every single person" will own a Nintendo Switch, and that it can prolong the life cycle of the console to beyond 5-6 years.
Maybe Linux on Switch could help?
[Hacker] group Fail0verflow has claimed to have found a Nintendo Switch hack.
The group has posted the picture of Switch booting a Debian GNU/Linux installation. The picture also shows a serial adapter connected to one Joy-Con docks. Notably, Fail0verflow is the same group that hacked Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3.
What makes this Nintendo Switch hack special is that it can't be patched in the currently released consoles. This is because the exploit was found in the boot ROM process of Nvidia Tegra X1 chips that can't be patched with software or firmware updates.
That's not all. This hack to run Linux doesn't even need a mod chip to run.
Also at TechCrunch.
Previously: Nintendo Switch Homebrew Mode Coming Soon Due to NVIDIA Tegra X1 Exploit
Related: Nintendo to More Than Double Production of Switch; Success Rooted in Wii U's Failure
Nintendo Switch is Fastest-Selling US Home Console
A newly published "exploit chain" for Nvidia Tegra X1-based systems seems to describe an apparently unpatchable method for running arbitrary code on all currently available Nintendo Switch consoles. Hardware hacker Katherine Temkin and the hacking team at ReSwitched released an extensive outline of what they're calling the Fusée Gelée coldboot vulnerability earlier today, alongside a proof-of-concept payload that can be used on the Switch.
"Fusée Gelée isn't a perfect, 'holy grail' exploit—though in some cases it can be pretty damned close," Temkin writes in an accompanying FAQ.
The exploit, as outlined, makes use of a vulnerability inherent in the Tegra X1's USB recovery mode, circumventing the lock-out operations that would usually protect the chip's crucial bootROM. By sending a bad "length" argument to an improperly coded USB control procedure at the right point, the user can force the system to "request up to 65,535 bytes per control request." That data easily overflows a crucial direct memory access (DMA) buffer in the bootROM, in turn allowing data to be copied into the protected application stack and giving the attacker the ability to run arbitrary code.
When 54-year-old Gary Bowser pleaded guilty to his role in helping Team Xecuter with their piracy-enabling line of console accessories, he realized he would likely never pay back the $14.5 million he owed Nintendo in civil and criminal penalties. In a new interview with The Guardian, though, Bowser says he began making $25 monthly payments toward those massive fines even while serving a related prison sentence.
Last year, Bowser was released after serving 14 months of that 40-month sentence (in addition to 16 months of pre-trial detention), which was spread across several different prisons. During part of that stay, Bowser tells The Guardian, he was paid $1 an hour for four-hour shifts counseling other prisoners on suicide watch.
[...] Nintendo lawyers were upfront that they pushed for jail time for Bowser to "send a message that there are consequences for participating in a sustained effort to undermine the video game industry."
[...] Bowser also maintains that he wasn't directly involved with the coding or manufacture of Team Xecuter's products and only worked on incidental details like product testing, promotion, and website coding. Speaking to Ars in 2020, Aurora, a writer for hacking news site Wololo, described Bowser as "kind of a PR guy" for Team Xecuter. Despite this, Bowser said taking a plea deal on just two charges saved him the time and money of fighting all 14 charges made against him in court.
[...] Now that he's free, Bowser says he has been relying on friends and a GoFundMe[https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life] page to pay for rent and necessities as he looks for a job. That search could be somewhat hampered by his criminal record and by terms of the plea deal that prevent him from working with any modern gaming hardware.
Despite this, Bowser told The Guardian that his current circumstances are still preferable to a period of homelessness he experienced during his 20s. And while console hacking might be out for Bowser, he is reportedly still "tinkering away with old-school Texas Instruments calculators" to pass the time.
Alternate source with GoFundMe link (added to the story above): Nintendo Sued a Man So Severely That He Can Only Survive on GoFundMe
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:07PM (5 children)
Nintendo creates a great gaming system, but just can't help but fuck things up online.
This is just a constant of gaming. Like EA shutting down popular studios, or Sony shitting on their customers or Ubisoft being... Ubisoft.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:11PM
yes, these game companies are slaveware pushers ran by dinosaurs in suits. they need to go extinct but stupid windows gamers are stupid.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:41PM (1 child)
Well, the gaming industry has been plagued with cheating hacks since the beginning. The PC gaming environment has a much harder time controlling this than the dedicated console market. But hackers going to hack because wining is more important than skill.
I see nothing wrong with trying to keep the playing field level.
Probably this is the wrong approach, and there should be some way to assure a standard software load when attached to the gaming network without preventing any other side use of the machine.
If Nintendo want's to lease the machines, Fine. Do that. But once you sell it you don't own it, and all you can/should insist upon is that it is returned to a factory status when gaming on their gaming network.
Android won't let you use Google Pay if your phone is in a jailbroken state. But you can use Google Pay it once you un-jailbreak the phone again. They don't want to have your credit cards in the phone if you are too stupid to lock up the phone.
Nintendo's problem is similar, but their approach is far more heavy handed. And "Contact Customer Support via the Nintendo Support Website" probably just signs you up for a DMCA violation lawsuit, or some other punitive action.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2018, @04:11AM
How is having root access to your own device "stupid"?
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday May 24 2018, @03:44AM (1 child)
Unfortunately, this is probably a necessary thing. Some players have already been using using jailbroken Switches in Splatoon 2 to do things like unlock the expansion early and then play online vs. other players with content from it. It's only a matter of time before it escalates to full-blown cheating of the kind I've heard really ruined the first game's experience. Locking out these players is done for the same reason online-heavy PC games use all these annoying anti-cheat tools to attempt to do the same thing: because if you cheat offline it doesn't hurt anyone else, but if you start cheating online it becomes a negative experience for everyone else.
The phrasing in the summary makes it sound like Nintendo's being a dick about this, but I'm not sure what would be a better solution. Letting these people continue to have an easy avenue to cheating isn't one, it would just discourage all the honest people from playing. Maybe someone will come up with a way to switch between "legit" and jailbroken so that people interested in homebrew don't have to give up online play to do so? One can hope.
Though, to be honest, I fail to see the point. It's cool that you can do it, but there are plenty of other options for doing the non-cheat things one might want to do with a jailbroken Switch, while a big benefit of the console is its library of exclusives, some of which are made to be played online.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2018, @07:43AM
So, you are saying that the problem is that console game developers still haven't learned the number one security lesson 30 years after the Morris Internet Worm brought security to the front of peoples minds:
Do not trust the client.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by infodragon on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:15PM (3 children)
Nintendo, and all game consoles for that matter, has a major conflict.
Part A. they want to sell games for their new hardware.
Part B. they want as many 3rd parties to create/port games for their new hardware
Part B is scared off easily by teh nasty pirates and are burnt from Wii. The Wii was laughably hack-able and homebrew exploded and all Part B saw was teh pirates. Part A suffered a little but not much (pirating really wasn't a big problem, Part B perceives it as a big problem though)
Enter he Wii U... Many screw-ups on Nintendo's part but behind the curtain we can be certain 3rd parties were wary due to the Wii's laughably easy hacks! Nintendo becomes hell bent on correcting their mistakes including easy hacks.
Part A won't buy many games if there are not many games! To get many games Nintendo needs to woo 3rd parties... Now the conflict should be apparent.
Nintendo sells hardware to facilitate the sales of software (eShop or carts.) Nintendo must satisfy the issues of market penetration (number of consoles sold) and security. They screwed up security with the Tegra T1, soon to be fixed and only the first gen hardware will be subject to this hack. They scored BIG TIME on market penetration. The magic will now happen (from their perspective) with solid security. Wii was a big score on market penetration but flop on security.
Nintendo has 1/2 of the equation locked down and they will be rabid wolves in locking down security; this is the only way to avoid the fate of 3rd parties fearing the hackers and producing tons of content/profit for Nintendo.
It is a shame that hacking and piracy is so inexorably linked but it is human nature. Hacking is needed to pirate, but not all hackers are pirates (impossible to distinguish because non-pirating hackers will enable the pirates)
I'm conflicted because I love to hack! I also love the Nintendo Switch! I ride the train 80 minutes each way to work every day and it's been an amazing experience. As a customer of Nintendo I'm conflicted, Nintendo is conflicted... I don't want 3rd parties scared away from the Switch, I want to hack the Switch! In the end it's Nintendo's business and they will do what they can to maximize profit. This happens to align with MOST of their customers which is to provide as much content as possible that the customer will buy.
I ran my own business for 10 years, I would do the same as Nintendo in their position and be conflicted!
Don't settle for shampoo, demand real poo!
(Score: 1) by loonycyborg on Wednesday May 23 2018, @07:23PM
Third party won't be afraid of pirates. For most of them piracy is the only way for their game to be played by a significant number of people. Because most people have limited budgets and can't afford to buy anything other than absolute must-haves.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @11:39PM (1 child)
What's interesting is this concept doesn't seem to discourage developers from making games for PCs, which require no hacking to take command of and are often much more likely to be easier to enable piracy.
Arrrr, those nasty pirates, best not to release games on any platform at all. If you release nothing, then nobody will ever pirate from you!
(Score: 2) by infodragon on Thursday May 24 2018, @12:31PM
I totally agree! Perception is always different than reality and unfortunately the perception of teh pirates drives a lot of the decision. A third point of conflict is Nintendo is afeard of teh pirates burning, pillaging and raping their own content.
Don't settle for shampoo, demand real poo!
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:27PM (4 children)
This shouldn't be a problem since you can still play games on physical cartridges and games you have already downloaded, except that you won't be able to download patches, DLC, or digitally bought games.
I don't know if the big console companies have consciously realized it yet, but having a central online service is far more effective than trying to bake DRM into the console. DRM will eventually be cracked, but you can just keep updating your online service to ban newly hacked consoles as they are discovered.
It's a shame the AGPL isn't more popular.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:48PM (1 child)
Well, that's exactly what Nintendo is doing. So I guess you agree with that.
What would make sense is downloading the entire game code stack directly over the network, encrypted, check summed, and verified,
stored within the console.
If the console is hacked, you'd have to re-download that entire stack and that would be the extent of your punishment.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday May 24 2018, @05:51PM
>What would make sense is downloading the entire game code stack directly over the network, encrypted, check summed, and verified,
stored within the console.
>If the console is hacked, you'd have to re-download that entire stack and that would be the extent of your punishment.
How does that stop digital piracy? Sounds like it would be trivial for someone to upload that entire stack to FREEROMZ.NET.
The point is DRM is cracked once, forever.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1) by whatevs on Wednesday May 23 2018, @07:13PM
But you wont be able to buy new games that require a given update/patch level. Of course, you wont know that it requires newer firmware until you have already purchased the game and put it in to try.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Friday May 25 2018, @03:03PM
I suspect they do realise this - always-online DRM is a thing.