Announcing RocketLauncher! The first exploit with unlocked Arm7!

UPDATE:
Looks like NoCash found an exploit that is even better then RocketLauncher:

https://problemkaputt.de/gba.htm

He titled it Unlaunch. The exploit works by exploiting a flaw in Stage2 and apparently works on all firmware versions. It requires you run the installer from a DSiWare based hax environment as access to SD/NAND is required. (thus you can't run this from Slot-1 based TWL exploit)

The flaw in stage2 is a buffer overflow involving Launcher's TMD file. If you provide a larger then normal TMD file, it will attempt to load the TMD into ram anyways (this occurs before it does the RSA check) This causes it to overwrite some code in arm9 ram causing arm9 to execute the custom payload. The full details are found in the info menus in the installer.

Note however the installer does not appear to work correctly at the moment. I'd advise you not attempt to install it from the installer. Use the manual install method instead. BUT I'd highly recommend you have a hard mod before attempting manual install. If you have had experience modifying your nand you may be ok doing this. But for safety sake I would just advise against that until the installer works properly.

(this is one reason why RL hasn't been released yet. No proper installer tools are available yet and we don't want people bricking consoles trying to install it)

The release of this exploit may impact our plans regarding RocketLauncher. I'll post more about this once StuckPixel has decided to comment on this.


Important Notice:

Do NOT visit Data Management in DSi System Settings or use the 3DS Transfer tool after installing unlaunch. You WILL brick the console. Wait until HiyaCFW is refined/released properly so that SD redirected version of Launcher can be used or when NoCash decides to implement his own version of the SD redirect patch.








Today I can finally announce a new exploit for the Nintendo DSi. I found this flaw back on May 29th. Almost a year after NoCash initially discovered a oversight by Nintendo involving the DS Cart White list which this exploit takes advantage of (Nintendo forgot to reimplement the RSA checks on it lolz). I was fudging with various things in the white list to try and get a crash. I got system menu to crash by using large values in section 3! So I contacted NoCash and a few other devs about this to investigate it and to see if it's exploitable. Well long story short it was!


Summery of the above video:

1. The exploit requires 1.4.0 firmware! Older or newer fw revisions do not work!
2. The exploit requires a flashcart that you are able to modify the internal rom it presents to the system.
3. Details on which cards will be compatible will be revealed at a later time.
4. The exploit involves a buffer overflow flaw involving section 3 of the white list.
5. This overflow occurs on arm7 thus allowing overwriting memory exclusive to arm7.
6. As a result a large enough overflow will hit the IRQ interrupt handler. This is how we gain code execution.
7. Arm9 was relatively easy to take over. Though data caching presented a minor roadblock while testing on hardware. :P
8. I currently use a modified build of nds-bootloader from WinterMute's github. You know, that portion of hbmenu responsible for booting SRLs. :P
9. Because we already gained arm7 we only had to put arm9 in the correct wait state so that nds-bootloader can do it's thing. :D
10. The exploit in theory can work from the menu once it's running. But we currently make use of the auto boot feature to ensure a stable consistant environment. Tests with a second console suggest that is the case. Note that the exception vector for arm7 seems to either be somewhere else once the menu GUI is running or the overflow hits something else causing arm7 to crash early. Currently we plan to only target exploiting the system with an autoboot rom as it's more predictable.
11. The exact machanics of the arm9 take over and how nds-bootloader is loaded may change. Currently the entire payload fits on the cart. But we may allow reading a payload off SD instead.

Credits to NoCash, Gericom, and Normmatt for help testing/figuring this out. Big credit to StuckPixel who put in most of the coding needed to make this happen. My contribution was finding the flaw and help with testing on hardware.


I will release further details as we finalize this exploit and prepare stuff that will make installing it easier.

Note you will either need a nand mod or a DSiWare based exploit to downgrade your console/install the modified white list needed for this to work. Hopefully we'll have a better solution then simply using fwtool to do this so that may be the factor that determines release date so please be patient!

When things are ready I will update this thread!
 
Last edited by Apache Thunder,

Apache Thunder

I have cameras in your head!
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
4,433
Trophies
3
Age
36
Location
Levelland, Texas
Website
www.mariopc.co.nr
XP
6,807
Country
United States
To those talking about those old photos of custom homebrew channels. Stop. They don't exist. Case in point:



Any smuck with some basic knowhow on how to alter nand and the format of SRL headers can do this. The SHA1-HMAC key needed to rehash the new icon can be found in Launcher and gbatek documents enough about it that anyone could find it. It takes very little work to fake an icon now a days. So don't believe anyone unless you see them LAUNCHING it on hardware! You don't even need photoshop either so they could use this to do a fake video easily.

I did not show that test video on hardware. It was unnecessary because I had No$GBA set to not disable RSA checks. It is enough to prove that you can modify icons and Launcher will display them from titles no longer signed by RSA. The consequence being that you can't launch them after doing that. If I ever get patched Launcher running from RocketLauncher I will show the video unedited of a unsigned title booting on hardware. Just the icon showing will not be enough! :D
 
Last edited by Apache Thunder,

Valery0p

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
560
Trophies
0
XP
1,646
Country
Italy
To those talking about those old photos of custom homebrew channels. Stop. They don't exist. Case in point:

-snip-

Any smuck with some basic knowhow on how to alter nand and the format of SRL headers can do this. The SHA1-HMAC key needed to rehash the new icon can be found in Launcher and gbatek documents enough about it that anyone could find it. It takes very little work to fake an icon now a days. So don't believe anyone unless you see them LAUNCHING it on hardware! You don't even need photoshop either so they could use this to do a fake video easily.

I did not show that test video on hardware. It was unnecessary because I had No$GBA set to not disable RSA checks. It is enough to prove that you can modify icons and Launcher will display them from titles no longer signed by RSA. The consequence being that you can't launch them after doing that. If I ever get patched Launcher running from RocketLauncher I will show the video unedited of a unsigned title booting on hardware. Just the icon showing will not be enough! :D
Thanks for your debunking :D But if No$GBA has an RSA checks patch, why it's so hard to port it to Dsi, if we have the system in control with rocket launcher?
 

Apache Thunder

I have cameras in your head!
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
4,433
Trophies
3
Age
36
Location
Levelland, Texas
Website
www.mariopc.co.nr
XP
6,807
Country
United States
Thanks for your debunking :D But if No$GBA has an RSA checks patch, why it's so hard to port it to Dsi, if we have the system in control with rocket launcher?

No$GBA patches RSA by allowing decrypted RSA. It doesn't seem to fully disable it. It hooks BIOS functions and what not to do so and isn't something that can be done on hardware. RocketLauncher will allow rebooting a patched Launcher anyways so it's not a big deal. :D
 

Ranomez

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
65
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
177
Country
Romania
@Apache Thunder if I already have a literal huge pile of cartridges for a ton of DS and DSi games but neither SM64DS, Mario Kart DS or Cory in the house should I go ahead and buy Mario Kart DS to be on the safe side when this comes out since it's the only one available and not too expensive (~7.6 USD) or just wait and maybe another game which I already have will be compatible (on that note I'll actually have to look for the cartridges cause I have no idea whatever where they are but I have all the dumps in a folder on online storage so I still know which games I own and which I don't)?
 

Apache Thunder

I have cameras in your head!
OP
Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
4,433
Trophies
3
Age
36
Location
Levelland, Texas
Website
www.mariopc.co.nr
XP
6,807
Country
United States
@Apache Thunder if I already have a literal huge pile of cartridges for a ton of DS and DSi games but neither SM64DS, Mario Kart DS or Cory in the house should I go ahead and buy Mario Kart DS to be on the safe side when this comes out since it's the only one available and not too expensive (~7.6 USD) or just wait and maybe another game which I already have will be compatible (on that note I'll actually have to look for the cartridges cause I have no idea whatever where they are but I have all the dumps in a folder on online storage so I still know which games I own and which I don't)?

No. More then likely we will have a tool that will find an offset in a rom of a game you happen to have and set it up in the white list automatically. As long as you own at least one older NTR title you should be fine. :D

If there is "TWL" in the product code on th cart label it is a TWL cart with an extended header so Launcher will not use white list check for those. Hence it must be an older NTR title. There's still tons of those around so you probably have at least one of those.
 
Last edited by Apache Thunder,

Ranomez

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
65
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
177
Country
Romania
No. More then likely we will have a tool that will find an offset in a rom of a game you happen to have and set it up in the white list automatically. As long as you own at least one older NTR title you should be fine. :D

If there is "TWL" in the product code on th cart label it is a TWL cart with an extended header so Launcher will not use white list check for those. Hence it must be an older NTR title. There's still tons of those around so you probably have at least one of those.

I have a lot of games so I'm quite sure most aren't even TWL titles (I think I have 50 or 100 or something like that cause I got my DSi late and bought the games really cheap, sometimes in packs of multiple games)
 

pandavova

56
Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2015
Messages
902
Trophies
0
XP
2,110
Country
Germany
inb4 Is Game XXX compatible? or Is Game XXX a older NTR title?

(Would be really funny if my single DS Game "Beyblade Metal Fusion Cyber Pegasus" would be compatible xD)
 

firke_the_one

*insert custom title*
Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2016
Messages
234
Trophies
0
XP
745
Country
Croatia
inb4 Is Game XXX compatible? or Is Game XXX a older NTR title?

(Would be really funny if my single DS Game "Beyblade Metal Fusion Cyber Pegasus" would be compatible xD)
apache says they could make a tool that finds an offset in roms, so "Beyblade Metal Fusion Cyber Pegasus" could probbably work, if it's an ntr title
 

mariogamer

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
1,256
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
790
Country
Canada
Now here's what happened:

1. You buyed an ak2i BUT you have a NTR cartridge: "Shit why did I spent 30$ on a shitty ak2i?"
2. You thought they will find something: "Who say'd they will find something :yay::yay::yay:"
3. You wanted to buy an ak2i but didn't cause of *money* or some other reason: "Oh shit I have a NTR cartridge.... welp lucky me :D"
 
  • Like
Reactions: pandavova

sieroi

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
147
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
851
Country
Is this likely to turn into an entrypoint that can be used to just install a more permanent booting method, or will it require the use of that particular cartridge for the foreseeable future?
 

pandavova

56
Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2015
Messages
902
Trophies
0
XP
2,110
Country
Germany
Now here's what happened:

1. You buyed an ak2i BUT you have a NTR cartridge: "Shit why did I spent 30$ on a shitty ak2i?"
2. You thought they will find something: "Who say'd they will find something :yay::yay::yay:"
3. You wanted to buy an ak2i but didn't cause of *money* or some other reason: "Oh shit I have a NTR cartridge.... welp lucky me :D"
4. You have a "NTR" Card that isn't supported. ;)
 

froggestspirit

Aspiring Game Dev
Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
1,281
Trophies
1
XP
1,561
Country
United States
Now here's what happened:

1. You buyed an ak2i BUT you have a NTR cartridge: "Shit why did I spent 30$ on a shitty ak2i?"
2. You thought they will find something: "Who say'd they will find something :yay::yay::yay:"
3. You wanted to buy an ak2i but didn't cause of *money* or some other reason: "Oh shit I have a NTR cartridge.... welp lucky me :D"
4. You have a "NTR" Card that isn't supported. ;)
5. You had $30 that could have been spent on a supported NTR card.
 

mariogamer

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
1,256
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
790
Country
Canada
@Apache Thunder Would it be possible to import a custom binary file from sys settings? Does it would require patching settings? (Also would it be possible to make a bin file since no such tool has been released for dsi)

BTW I wanted to check some dsi info but dsibrew doesn't contain so much (they say 5000 pages, but I don't find so much).What should I read for learning about the system?
 
Last edited by mariogamer,

Darthsternie

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
65
Trophies
0
Location
Somewhere
Website
www.darthsternie.net
XP
321
Country
Germany
Now here's what happened:

1. You buyed an ak2i BUT you have a NTR cartridge: "Shit why did I spent 30$ on a shitty ak2i?"
2. You thought they will find something: "Who say'd they will find something :yay::yay::yay:"
3. You wanted to buy an ak2i but didn't cause of *money* or some other reason: "Oh shit I have a NTR cartridge.... welp lucky me :D"

4. You have a "NTR" Card that isn't supported. ;)

5. You had $30 that could have been spent on a supported NTR card.
You forgot 6th.
6. You bought an Acekard2i anyway since you own a 3DS and plan on using it for ntrcardhax later. ;)
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    Sonic Angel Knight @ Sonic Angel Knight: :ninja: