Current Events > The Verge: The Nintendo Switch hacking scene is chaos right now

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/28/17501530/nintendo-switch-hacking-piracy-porn-bans

As hackers push what the Switch is capable of, theyre running into some of the safety measures Nintendo has in place to stop further tampering. According to established Nintendo hacker SciresM, the Switchs online network can pinpoint specific hardware, thereby allowing it to make console bans permanent.

But the biggest change from Nintendos previous consoles is that Switch game cartridges are signed with certificates at the factory, and these are used to verify if a game is legit. Similarly, digital games also contain data that tie them to specific consoles and Nintendo accounts. This means that pirated copies of Switch games should be easily identified by Nintendo, as the network can pinpoint a discrepancy between the software and your hardware.

This is a huge departure from both the 3DS and Wii U, both of which had rampant piracy problems that allowed users to download games straight from Nintendos servers before the titles were even officially released. Already, some users who have modified their consoles or have developed software for the Switch hacking scene are reporting that their consoles are getting banned and restricted by Nintendo. A Nintendo representative confirmed to The Verge that it is banning Switch users for abusing the system.

While Nintendo has built a system that allows it to identify pirated software, players who are getting their consoles banned arent necessarily pirates: they are often just modders. On hacking hubs like GBA Temp, fans are rallying to identify common denominators between different banned Switch users. Theres no clear consensus, other than apparently Nintendo has gotten a bit better about identifying some forms of console modification.

Some people assumed that hacking their Switch would be as easy as previous consoles and now people are getting banned in droves lmao.

Some people are even buying a dongle that activates custom firmware that's just bricking the system.
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These are the necessary casualties to win the homebrew war, if they didn't want a brick they should've listened to literally everyone saying to wait six months to get things like xecutor
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This is why I'm holding off if not ever hacking mine, Nintendo finally wised up.
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Implying that they're not doing someone a favor by banning them from their soon to be paid online services
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Also, homebrew pirates are getting upset that their programs are getting pirated lmao
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After the hacking scene took a crap all over the 3DS, who didn't see this coming
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Good, these fuckboys need to find something better to do
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Fair, next.

You have the right to mod your own hardware if you want, but Nintendo have no obligation to continue to allow you access to their servers if you do so. If Nintendo were actually suing people for hacking (not piracy, just homebrew / mods, I mean), that wouldn't be "fair next"; but that isn't what's happening. Likewise, if they prevented you from accessing games you'd purchased on another, unhacked console just because you hacked one, that also wouldn't be "fair next".
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With how far the hackers have gotten already with the Switch hardware, I'm honestly expecting most of these security features to be worked around in the coming months.
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Doe posted...

These are the necessary casualties to win the homebrew war, if they didn't want a brick they should've listened to literally everyone saying to wait six months

voldothegr8 posted...

This is why I'm holding off if not ever hacking mine, Nintendo finally wised up.

This. Hacking this early into the life/development of the homebrew scene (and in the life of the system itself, it's only been out for a little over a year!) is always a mistake. Not enough information, not enough precautions, and now the impatient ones are paying dearly for it.

Now with the info we have, the only way I would ever hack my Switch is if I bought a second system to hack that and kept my original one untouched.
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Calwings posted...

Now with the info we have, the only way I would ever hack my Switch is if I bought a second system to hack that and kept my original one untouched.

This is pretty much a good idea with any console newer than PS2 / Xbox / NDS. Even PS3 and X360 still get bans regularly for hacking.
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Blue_Inigo posted...

Good, these fuckboys need to find something better to do

This
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What kind of idiot hacks a videogame system, then tries to connect online?
This isn't PSP anymore.

FL81 posted...

With how far the hackers have gotten already with the Switch hardware, I'm honestly expecting most of these security features to be worked around in the coming months.

That's not likely. A lot of the key figures involved have said that the security with this stuff is phenomenal and would need nothing short of a miracle to get past it.
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Caelthus posted...

FL81 posted...

With how far the hackers have gotten already with the Switch hardware, I'm honestly expecting most of these security features to be worked around in the coming months.

That's not likely. A lot of the key figures involved have said that the security with this stuff is phenomenal and would need nothing short of a miracle to get past it.

Pretty much. They really buckled down and added a lot of new checks. Piracy is 99.999% impossible without getting banned due to the identifiers they put in the cartridges at the factory and check server-side. Even if you never pirate a game and only do other homebrew stuff (like emulators and save file backups) while offline in airplane mode, there's still a high chance that something from that homebrew would end up in the activity/error logs sent to Nintendo, which they would see and then ban you.
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And some people were actually buying Switches because of it being hacked already....lmao.
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Banjo2553 posted...

And some people were actually buying Switches because of it being hacked already....lmao.

PSP sold 82 million units.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Banjo2553 posted...

And some people were actually buying Switches because of it being hacked already....lmao.

PSP sold 82 million units.

The thing with this is that there was no guarantee that the Switch being hacked this soon was safe...and yet people bought into it anyway.
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Good. Pirates deserve to be banned
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A lot of pirates don't care about online not being accessible. More often than, you're blocked from going online with other hacked consoles as well.

Darmik posted...

Some people are even buying a dongle that activates custom firmware that's just bricking the system.

There are no reports of using that and getting bricked so I'm not sure where that's coming from. A hacker says it could brick if you try to crack the dongle software, so it's not from regular use.
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The dongle hasn't bricked any system. People using the dongle to fuck around with the Switch is what bricks the system.
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The very nature of Tegra is that it's full of suicide fuses. Tread lightly.

CM_Ponch posted...

The dongle hasn't bricked any system. People using the dongle to fuck around with the Switch is what bricks the system.

There are no reports of that either. One of the main hackers in the scene is the only sole person who has achieved it and he went above and beyond in trying to crack the software.
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Will buying used cartridges potentially get you banned because of the identifier? Or is it only if they find that id number being played in multiple consoles at once?
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gunplagirl posted...

Will buying used cartridges potentially get you banned because of the identifier? Or is it only if they find that id number being played in multiple consoles at once?

I would guess not, unless cart-cloning flashcarts becomes a thing.

Lvaneede posted...

Good. Pirates deserve to be banned

Lol at thinking only pirates benefit from a hacked console.
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Rikiaz posted...

Lvaneede posted...

Good. Pirates deserve to be banned

Lol at thinking only pirates benefit from a hacked console.

In the end, though, what advantage is there in hacking your consoles, over just buying a Raspberry Pi?

They'll crack that wide open eventually

CM_Ponch posted...

The dongle hasn't bricked any system. People using the dongle to fuck around with the Switch is what bricks the system.

Yeah, you're only supposed to use those for the big E and the Big P, doing anything else with those is asking for trouble.
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Fair, you know the risks when modding a system in any way, i never got mad when my jtags got banned
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*yawn* send me a pm when pirates win yet again

lmfao at nintencuck who think they can ever beat piracy
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So what was that hoopla a few months ago from some homebrew devs about getting close to hacking the switch? Did they hit a wall?
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lol at people immediately connecting homebrew to piracy
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This doesn't sound like chaos.
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Doe posted...

lol at people immediately connecting homebrew to piracy

They have the same mother, so it's a fair association.

CM_Ponch posted...

The dongle hasn't bricked any system. People using the dongle to fuck around with the Switch is what bricks the system.

CM_Ponch posted...

The dongle hasn't bricked any system. People using the dongle to fuck around with the Switch is what bricks the system.

This is actually untrue - Team Xecuter included code into SX OS that intentionally bricks your OS if it is deemed a hacked/illegitimate copy of SX OS.
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