It appears that users are being banned from 3DS online services, en masse. There's no direct cause right now, and seemingly no linking factor. This post is meant as an announcement for users, to be wary, and that GBAtemp will keep you updated as soon as more info rolls in. If you have been banned, please post in the thread below, and we will try to keep tabs on the situation. To be extra sure, it can't hurt to turn off your 3DS's wireless capabilities, so you might as well do that for now.

Edit 1: it appears that e-Shop access isn't restricted if you are banned.

Edit 2: A caller to Nintendo reported that the company said this ban is due to "unauthorized software usage".

Edit 3: @LinkSoraZelda is collecting info. Contact him if you are banned.

Edit 4: Click and fill this out if you were BANNED.

Edit 5:

[11:28:19 PM] Clector: Curiously the page of that error in Nintendo Support website used to have this:Error Code: 002-0102 Situation: You receive the error code 002-0102 when attempting to connect online. What to Do: If you continue to experience this issue, please contact Nintendo by calling 1-800-255-3700. Representatives are available from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Pacific Time, 7 days a week.
[11:28:44 PM] Clector: Now it says this: What to Do: If you are experiencing this error code, your Nintendo 3DS family system has been banned due to unauthorized system modifications, play of unauthorized versions of one or more games, and/or connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service. This ban is effective immediately and requests to remove the ban will not be processed.

Thanks to @Joom

Edit 6: Aurora Wright is taking another poll here

Edit 7: Not a lot is known but

There are bans happening, they are happening in all regions.
All models in the 3ds family seem to be candidates for banning.
There is no indication they will be anything other than permanent.
A game or DLC may end up being a cause but there is no one game or DLC that ties banned users together.
The cause or causes are as yet unknown, though it does seem to be related to modifications. Reports of unmodified consoles being banned are as yet unproven.
The banning is tied to something you can modify, thus you can unban. Doing it while the causes are unknown is likely only going to burn a working token though.
There are semi public tokens out there, Nintendo knows how to browse a forum as well as you so don't be surprised if they also get banned.
It does not seem to be limited to a given base firmware version, it does not seem to be limited to any one custom firmware type. There is some speculation that older hacking methods are not being hit as hard but nothing to confirm this yet.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
A simple check to see is checking your friends list, by itself it will not ban you.
Some are turning their wifi off. It is doubtful this will be of much use and being banned does not seem to come with any downsides that wifi being off will not also mimic.
You may have escaped a ban thus far but it could happen at any point. It could be that they stop in the future, it has happened on other consoles, but you would be living in hope rather than any particularly well founded logic.
The bans are done on the side of Nintendo's servers rather than your 3ds so there is also that.

If you hack your devices/games then their online functionality may be troubled. This has been known for decades, Nintendo seems to have finally caught up with that.

Please continue to share information with the thread or the links in previous edits.

Update 5/30

HOW TO HELP AVOID BANS (we think)​

If I was to guess from the information we have gathered since the ban wave, it seems likely that they are looking for TitleIDs that don't exist. Homebrew shows up in the activity log as the Download Play app, and fake CIA's show up as just ??????. That last one is what I'm guessing they are looking for.

If you are not banned yet or before you unban yourself, go into your friends list, choose settings, and turn off the option to "show friends what game you are playing." This will prevent you from playing games online with friends, so turn it back on when you wanna game with someone, but ALWAYS keep it off when running custom CIAs. Next, go into system settings -> internet settings -> spotpass, and turn off BOTH options. One is auto download software, the other sends system information to Nintendo. Also, make sure you don't have your favorite title set to something stupid like FBI or any other non-Nintendo CIA.

Its VERY likely that these options are what tipped off Nintendo, but we aren't 100% certain yet. The amount of banned people that had one of these options turned on was over 80% for each. If I was to assume that some of those people overlap, its very possible (but not confirmed) that 100% of banned people in the survey had at least one of those options turned on. I personally had all of them off and I have TONS of reasons for Nintendo to ban me.... yet I am not banned (yet).

Another bit of advice: Only run custom CIAs when offline, and after you close them, run a "legit" game like Smash Bros. or something before shutting down or going back online. This way your most recent title won't show up as a fake CIA

Current Theories as to what causes a ban
​

* SpotPass Settings: 8 users out of 46 users that were banned have SpotPass completely shut off, or SpotPass only (no friends list visibility)
* Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): Literally all reports ranged from 10.2+, I can get exact numbers for this if you'd like, but all firmwares were affected.
* Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): 44 of the 126 B9S users that answered were banned, pattern was mirrored for A9LH users as well.
* Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and freeShop: Literally about 98% of users both banned and unbanned had some combination of these applications installed. However the common ones were: FBI, HBL, LumaUpdater and NTR.
* Save Modification: Equal amounts of users on both sides have reported save modification in some form, either with PKSM or another save editor
* System Transfers: 188 users said that they had not previously system transfered, 61 of those users were banned; 16 users said they transferred from a hacked console, only three of them received a ban; 13 said they transferred from a stock system and likewise were banned. The rest of our sample did not answer this question.
* Activity Log Information: A majority of those who have not been banned have said they had NOT cleaned their activity logs. I can get exact numbers for this too on request.

This information is just what I've found. Like I said, there could be variables or things we haven't even checked for yet. But these are things that I feel should be disproven, at least with the current dataset we have.

• From the information that we've gathered from some people that have used a packet sniffer such as WireShark, the following data is sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers as soon as the 3DS connects to the internet:
  • Amount of time spent online (timer stops when either the system is disconnected from the internet, or connection drops out, then starts the timer again in a new session when it reconnects to the internet).
  • The game being played and amount of time spent on it during that session.
  • The console's unique hexadecimal ID used in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB, along with it's RSA-signed signature.
  • The console's serial number in which is broadcasted from the SoC and is hard coded in the SoC.
  • Friend Code generated on the Nintendo 3DS system, if one has been generated.
  • Internet connection status (either online or offline).
  • The Nintendo Network ID, if there is one linked to it.
  • Even if the sending of SpotPass Information is switched off, or even hiding your currently playing games. It does not prevent the system from sending currently playing information to Nintendo's online gaming servers, it only hides it from your friends in your friend list (like being invisible on the forum, while mods and admins can still see you). Why? Because even people without a Friend Code on their system have been getting banned too!

• The following data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers:
  • The data from the Nintendo 3DS's Activity Log. Oddly enough, while Nintendo does explicitly state that they collect Activity Log data, they're actually referring to their own server's Activity Log, which always tracks every console's online activity, and keeps a record of them that is stored forever. And is only collected in increments of data through a timer and a currently playing list.
    
  • Games or apps that have not been played, regardless if they're legitimate or not. You only get tracked when you're online and using that game or app.
  • Using games or apps while offline. Even though it is stored on the 3DS console's Activity Log, that data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers.
  • Custom Firmware. Though we can't rule out the possibility of them releasing a 3DS update in the future that adds such function to collect MD5 hashes of files and FIRM data and send them to Nintendo online gaming servers (which would also be updated in a maintenance).

• Things that people think what happens with consoles, but really doesn't:
  • "LocalFriendCodeSeedB is transferred to the system upon doing a system transfer". This is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB remains on the system and does not move to another system.
  • "The console generates a LocalFriendCodeSeedB upon first startup". Again, this is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is made during the manufacturing process at Foxconn. It is generated at the factory, flashed to the NAND flash memory storage, then created as an account on Nintendo's online gaming server and Nintendo eShop server immediately when being manufactured. It is absolutely impossible to generate a LocalFriendCodeSeedB and be able to connect to Nintendo's online gaming server and/or Nintendo eShop server, even if you knew the RSA generation key for it. You'd end up with Error Code 002-0102 "This console's online services have been restricted by Nintendo" if you even tried (the error can either mean two things: The hexadecimal ID doesn't exist on the server, or the request to access the hexadecimal ID has been denied which in other words... banned). So a LocalFriendCodeSeedB generator will NEVER happen! Because it's not worth doing, if it can't connect.
  • Switching off "Currently Playing" information. Once again, this does not hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only hides it from your friends.
  • Switching off SpotPass. Nope, this too doesn't hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only opts-out of receiving SpotPass data, sorry.

So pretty much the bottom line is, if anyone has been using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop while online in the past, guess what? You're screwed! And it is only a matter of time before your console's unique hexadecimal ID in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is banned from Nintendo's online gaming server. This will mean, your console can't access the Friend List or play any online functions in games.

If you have been online while using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop and haven't been banned yet, that's because Nintendo hasn't caught up to you yet. They're still going through each unique hexadecimal ID's Activity Log on their server, and by Activity Log, I mean the Activity Log on their server, not the 3DS console's activity log. And it will be only a matter of time before you're banned too.

Thanks to @Platinum Lucario @MadMageKefka and @ShadowEO !

 

[drsalvador555]

On a side note: if I followed OperationiDroid's guide for BS9 yesterday, is there anything else I should've remembered? I didn't expect the change from A9LH to B9S to be so simple.

 

[Joshwraith]

Actually, we're using a current, more comprehensive survey (found in my previous post last page), and the preliminary results show interesting things, but no probable cause whatsoever yet. That's not to say that as our sample changes the circumstances won't change either, but currently, no. No cause has been identified, and it currently looks as if we're missing some obvious variable. But that's just my preliminary review of data at 90 submissions, nowhere near an ideal sample size yet.

Could you please share the preliminary results.? by the way I think is good idea to add to the poll "if the user have installed legit cias in the past"

 

[Eirikr]

Looking at the responses from the recent survey, We had equal amounts of users with it installed that were banned as those that weren't. Now, that's just going over our first 90 samples, but that's a pretty interesting detail. Firmware versions were pretty far spread out too, everything from 10.0 both above and below appeared in equal amounts on both sides as well.

This is just a preliminary review from me, we still have loads of collections to go.

@NDTube04 is currently running a poll asking that exact question (and more, if any of you haven't yet, please do ), if you'd like to go post on it, please do so here: https://goo.gl/forms/8t5WiRE45dBTgLG73

Equal amount banned with what installed?

 

[Powerful]

If you were banned, did you play any cartridge-only games installed as a .cia on your 3DS online? These are games that are unavailable on the e-shop and since Nintendo can differentiate between a cartridge and an installed title they could have banned people based on that. Examples are Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition or Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. (a full list of games is here: https://en.

Do you mean by that to ban other innocent random 3DSes for our cause? I’m not sure how we’d go about this to be honest and I’m personally morally against it without full consent of the people who would be affected.


One thing needs serious consideration though: Nintendo hasn’t blocked eshop access. This may mean that they still somehow value/want us as potential customers. Cupidity, is a weakness, and like all weaknesses, it can be exploited. The Eshop right now is open to us and thus, nothing stops us from making pressure on that side of things.

However, this brings me to the following question: Why the hell is Freeshop still going strong, and this amid the massive online bans??? Are they just collecting the IPs in the hopes of making eventually some kind of huge cash grab by handing out DMCA’s through ISPs? I seriously doubt it, but then again why else would they leave it open? They clearly know about Freeshop. So what gives? Eshop/Freeshop are both still accessible.
Either they’ve got their heads in their arses or something else is going on. If its the former, and they are just incompetent/unaware of everything then I would assume that the current ban waves have little to do with preventing piracy and a lot more to do with preventing online cheating through exploits. If instead it has to do with the latter, then something fishy is going on. I MEAN WHY WOULD THEY BLOCK HB & CFW USERS TO PREVENT PIRATING AND YET LEAVE THE No.1 MEANS TO DO SO, FREESHOP, FULLY ACCESSIBLE TO ALL? It simply doesn’t make any sense. Is Nintendo really that incompetent and unaware? It could be, but it could also not be.

Now, has anyone looked at the code of the latest 11.3-4 firmware. In fact, which firmwares are affected by the bans?? I see no poll dedicated specifically to that question and yet, crucially if it has to do with specific packets being sent to Nintendo servers then it may be that the required coding was implemented in one of the latest firmwares. We need to look there and see what is going on sever-side, that is how consoles are being flagged.

That makes sense, except they can't really ban freeshop...it's impossible to get rid of it, even the title key is down and it still works. There is nothing they can do. The only way would be to make it so you couldn't even connect to the internet, and even then you can install CIA files anyways...on the second part of your question, you can't really check to see if you are banned since you can't access online without ctr-which was patched on that firmware.

 

[BARNWEY]

Indeed why leave it up and by doing so letting those with CFW use Freeshop? Do they not want to target pirating directly or is there something else going on.

The reason why they can't do anything is because they can't tell who is using it. Nintendo uses multiple servers; one for payment, and one for downloading (to maximize downloading speed). FreeShop simply bypasses the first server, and allows direct access to the games. The reason why Nintendo leaves it open is because a big rearrangement to their servers would also break the eShop for a while... They simply didn't think that their system would be hacked to the extent that it is, no conspiracy. They could DMCA many, but there's too much room for error. Not to mention, FreeShop has other uses than piracy. The answer is much simpler than you think...

 

[drsalvador555]

Right now, it's looking like SpotPass isn't directly the cause. We've had equal amounts of samples that have had SpotPass on in one form or another, and equally enough that had it off in both categories (banned and not).

I see, I haven't done the survey but here's a quick rundown of what I'm using:

B9S (previously A9LH until yesterday)
SpotPass Does NOT Share Data with Nintendo
No unreleased games/DLC
No foreign games installed
Homebrew Launcher CIA
Pokemon Sun and Blue version for offline play (data modified externally)
Pokemon Moon online play (no save edits/cheats)

Still not banned. Ask for more details.

 

[ShadowEO]

Could you please share the preliminary results.? by the way I think is good idea to add to the poll "if the user have installed legit cias in the past"

Because the current live copy contains GBATemp usernames, I'm working off a copy that has that column and the opinion "what would you like to see on this poll" column removed.

I opened it up for sharing here, but remember this is only within the first couple of hours or so, this isn't up to date. This is just what I am working with at the moment. We likely have much more, but I'll let NDTube04 share those results when he's available since the poll was originally his and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to release the responses URL before it's had some cleaning done to remove the usernames. (NOTE: like the form says, that's to follow up on any interesting cases that may stand out later on)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZfJahPfNVAf8a0f6hQ3YHRC3dHNKjBPPC4b0evNW80/edit?usp=sharing

Oh, there are a few obvious troll posts that I was ignoring but forgot to delete I think. You'll notice it in the Firmware column :/

 

[Joshwraith]

Oh ok but what I mean is: what are you findings! share what you think so far.!

What do you think about "the legit cia" I mean the ones that people think are good because they come from an pre-installed version.

 

[Drainz]

im not banned yet

 

[ShadowEO]

Oh ok but what I mean is: what are you findings! share what you think so far.!

What do you think about "the legit cia" I mean the ones that people think are good because they come from an pre-installed version.

Unfortunately, I can't say anything about legit CIAs (good point though!), and I don't have any exact numbers but my findings so far seem to support the following:

• Firmware Version was not a factor
• Firmware Type (B9S or A9LH) was not a factor
• Homebrew CIAs such as FBI, HBL, FreeShop, NTR, etc were not shown to be a factor with them installed. Looking more into this would require further investigation on a title-by-title basis
• SpotPass did not appear to be a factor, as you can see, about as many who said both Friends Visibility and SpotPass were enabled on both sides (banned and not banned) and the same inconclusive results were repeated for the rest of the poll options on both sides as well.
• Game CIAs, once again, would require further investigation on a title-by-title basis but with the information in this poll, do not appear to form a pattern at all (someone else may have better eyes for this than me though). As would Save Modification, but general save modification and even PKSM usage seems to be fine.
• It almost definitely looks like the Internet Browser wasn't a factor at all, a majority answered that they don't often use the on-console browser.
• Virtual Console CIAs appear safe as well, so far, just as many samples have been banned with VC games as those that haven't been banned.

That's just my first look at this though :/ It's also from a really small sample size. At this time, it looks like we're missing the crucial variable that may be the missing link here

 

[Drainz]

Not banned yet!

 

[Eirikr]

The reason why they can't do anything is because they can't tell who is using it. Nintendo uses multiple servers; one for payment, and one for downloading (to maximize downloading speed). FreeShop simply bypasses the first server, and allows direct access to the games. The reason why Nintendo leaves it open is because a big rearrangement to their servers would also break the eShop for a while... They simply didn't think that their system would be hacked to the extent that it is, no conspiracy. They could DMCA many, but there's too much room for error. Not to mention, FreeShop has other uses than piracy. The answer is much simpler than you think...

Well coudn’t they simply check which potntial offending IPs downloaded content on the 2nd sever and then verify whether these same IPs accessed the 1st server? For some reason people seem to think that this would be very difficult for Ninty to do but from my perhaps extremely ignorant perspective, I just don’t understand what is so incredibly difficult about comparing lists of IPs that accessed servers?

Under one angle, Nintendo has a lot more to loose by not blocking Freeshop than by shutting down the Eshop for a week or so for massive maintenance to fix the problem. Then again, it may be that it would require more than a few weeks to fix it, in which case they would loose more money by temporarily shutting down the eshop. Also, that would look really bad to their investors and potential new customers...

 

[noobita029]

Not yet banned.
O3ds
Luma 7.1
B9S since last may 23, 2017, a9lh before
Modified save data and went online:
Pokemon x,y,as,or,sun,moon
Mh4u,mhgen,mhxx
FE:awakening, fates
+Others i cant remember
Installed homebrew:
JKSE
FBI
Coinplay setter
Freeshop
+Others
Friend setting:
On for both

 

[Joshwraith]

Unfortunately, I can't say anything about legit CIAs (good point though!), and I don't have any exact numbers but my findings so far seem to support the following:

• Firmware Version was not a factor
• Firmware Type (B9S or A9LH) was not a factor
• Homebrew CIAs such as FBI, HBL, FreeShop, NTR, etc were not shown to be a factor with them installed. Looking more into this would require further investigation on a title-by-title basis
• SpotPass did not appear to be a factor, as you can see, about as many who said both Friends Visibility and SpotPass were enabled on both sides (banned and not banned) and the same inconclusive results were repeated for the rest of the poll options on both sides as well.
• Game CIAs, once again, would require further investigation on a title-by-title basis but with the information in this poll, do not appear to form a pattern at all (someone else may have better eyes for this than me though). As would Save Modification, but general save modification and even PKSM usage seems to be fine.
• It almost definitely looks like the Internet Browser wasn't a factor at all, a majority answered that they don't often use the on-console browser.
• Virtual Console CIAs appear safe as well, so far, just as many samples have been banned with VC games as those that haven't been banned.

That's just my first look at this though :/ It's also from a really small sample size. At this time, it looks like we're missing the crucial variable that may be the missing link here

Interesting, then must be a tittle that has a flag or some sort of check, maybe a recent "legit cia", you know the people said "oh is a legit cia" so people are confident in installing that cia, what a better trap would that be.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Not yet banned.
O3ds
Luma 7.1
B9S since last may 23, 2017, a9lh before
Modified save data and went online:
Pokemon x,y,as,or,sun,moon
Mh4u,mhgen,mhxx
FE:awakening, fates
+Others i cant remember
Installed homebrew:
JKSE
FBI
Coinplay setter
Freeshop
+Others
Friend setting:
On for both

Any legit cia installed on that system?

 

[ShadowEO]

Interesting, then must be a tittle that has a flag or some sort of check, maybe a recent "legit cia", you know the people said "oh is a legit cia" so people are confident in installing that cia, what a better trap would that be.

I'm not fully ruling out NTR either, most people don't realize that the streaming/patching functionality of it can be considered a cheat, so perhaps a plugin could have caused it too (not to mention that NTR itself is rather out of date, since cell9 no longer works on it and there's no public source, the only real updatable thing we have is BootNTR which is a launcher that loads NTR into newer firmware versions, no real updates under the hood iirc). As I said, with CIAs, it's best to view them provisionally as we'd have to go through them on a title-by-title basis to truly be able to rule either of them out.

 

[Joshwraith]

I'm not fully ruling out NTR either, most people don't realize that the streaming/patching functionality of it can be considered a cheat, so perhaps a plugin could have caused it too. As I said, with CIAs, it's best to view them provisionally as we'd have to go through them on a title-by-title basis to truly be able to rule either of them out.

But remember that are a few user with offical firmware that were banned, and legit cia can be installing on an non-cfw device and that could explain the reason of the ban on those users.

 

[noobita029]

I have digital version of X i got free when i bought AC:NL...
My FE:awakening is a legit cia i installed when rxtools was the thing..

Both are now uninstalled..

There are no legit cia on my system since freeshop existed

 

[ShadowEO]

But remember that are a few user with offical firmware that were banned, and legit cia can be installing on an non-cfw device and that could explain the reason of the ban on those users.

We still have no absolutely verified and confirmed OFW bans. Iirc, last night there was one, @Veranek attempted to get more info, but I'm not sure how much came out of that or if it was fully verified.

 

[Joshwraith]

But worth the effort of asking is the banned user installed legit cias just to make a patron or just check that, because a title by title check will take longer.

 

[ShadowEO]

But worth the effort of asking is the banned user installed legit cias just to make a patron or just check that, because a title by title check will take longer.

Unfortunately, NDTube04 has gone to bed for the night and I do not have edit permissions to the original form. He'd need to make any changes to the form, however it won't be able to affect previous samples and starting a new survey seems ill-advised, too many of them have gone around this past week and I'm not sure that anyone would bother if the survey were restarted from scratch.