Hacking Why the 3DS can't be downgraded on 11.4 "For Dummies" (A simple explanation for the rest of us)

ADS3500

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
330
Trophies
0
XP
286
Country
Canada
Thanks for the reply. So are you saying that a system on 11.0.0 does NOT need to be downgraded to get Ninjhax working?
It works on every firmware, but it's just an arm11 userland exploit, so it does the same thing that every homebrew launcher entry point does.
 

testing123

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
284
Trophies
1
XP
576
Country
United States
It works on every firmware, but it's just an arm11 userland exploit, so it does the same thing that every homebrew launcher entry point does.

You say it's "just" the arm11 userland exploit...can you expand a bit please?

If I understand the problem with 11.0 firmware, most people have to do the complicated dsiware downgrade to 9.2 to get homebrew working again.

If I understand you right, Ninjhax can get homebrew working on 11.0, thus bypassing the need to do any downgrading at all?
 

Swiftloke

Hwaaaa!
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2015
Messages
1,770
Trophies
1
Location
Nowhere
XP
1,467
Country
United States
You say it's "just" the arm11 userland exploit...can you expand a bit please?

If I understand the problem with 11.0 firmware, most people have to do the complicated dsiware downgrade to 9.2 to get homebrew working again.

If I understand you right, Ninjhax can get homebrew working on 11.0, thus bypassing the need to do any downgrading at all?
No, ninjhax is an arm11 userland exploit. It does not have permissions to do anything the arm11 kernel or arm9 can- in fact, it just has the permissions a normal game would (games run in arm11 userland). Games will never install CIA files or disable signature checks, so it doesn't have access to them.
 

ADS3500

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
330
Trophies
0
XP
286
Country
Canada
You say it's "just" the arm11 userland exploit...can you expand a bit please?

If I understand the problem with 11.0 firmware, most people have to do the complicated dsiware downgrade to 9.2 to get homebrew working again.

If I understand you right, Ninjhax can get homebrew working on 11.0, thus bypassing the need to do any downgrading at all?
An arm11 userland exploit basically means that it only has access to the things that a normal game has access to. You can only use it to run unsigned code, but you can't install anything to your nand. Ninjhax is the same as every userland exploit such as smilehax, freakyhax, oothax, etc, so you'll still need to do the dsiware/hardmod downgrades to downgrade. You'll need an arm9 kernel exploit to bypass downgrading and they are extremely rare.

Edit: Ninja'd
 

Swiftloke

Hwaaaa!
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2015
Messages
1,770
Trophies
1
Location
Nowhere
XP
1,467
Country
United States
What are they, exactly?
arm9: this is what's really interesting in terms of security, as mentioned earlier. We need yet another exploit to break into this, since it won't just listen to what arm11 tells it to do*. Getting an exploit for this is the real meat of 3DS hacking, since it allows for things like CFW, playing backups of your games [oh who am I kidding it means piracy], direct reading/writing to the NAND [useful for very specific things] and decryption of content.
It's a completely separate processor. Although arm11 can talk to it, it can't just tell it what to do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ih8ih8sn0w

testing123

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
284
Trophies
1
XP
576
Country
United States
It's a completely separate processor. Although arm11 can talk to it, it can't just tell it what to do.

arm9 is the security part of the console. You don't exactly want that to have holes there...

Ok, thanks for the info.

So, as it stands, having Cubic Ninja is useless for the 11.0.0 console. I'd have to do the DSI downgrade to do anything.
 

ADS3500

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
330
Trophies
0
XP
286
Country
Canada
Ok, thanks for the info.

So, as it stands, having Cubic Ninja is useless for the 11.0.0 console. I'd have to do the DSI downgrade to do anything.
It's not useless. Ninjhax is the best entry point, and you'll still need a homebrew launcher entry point to do the Dsiware downgrade.
 

annson24

The Patient One
Member
Joined
May 5, 2016
Messages
1,191
Trophies
0
Age
32
XP
1,843
Country
Philippines
Ok, thanks for the info.

So, as it stands, having Cubic Ninja is useless for the 11.0.0 console. I'd have to do the DSI downgrade to do anything.
If you're referring to pirating, you have to do the dsiware downgrade to downgrade the firm first then will still be using an arm11 userland exploit (i.e ninjhax) to downgrade the console itself. So no, cubic ninja isn't useless for v11 and above.

Sent from my SM-N930F using Tapatalk
 

testing123

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
284
Trophies
1
XP
576
Country
United States
Ok, thanks for the replies.

I already know this is an answer without a specific question, but:

Given the speed of hax updating in the past, can anyone give a rough estimate of when the 11.0 COULD be potentially hacked without the dsi aspect? December 2016? March 2017? December 2017?
 

Quantumcat

Dead and alive
Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2014
Messages
15,144
Trophies
0
Location
Canberra, Australia
Website
boot9strap.com
XP
11,094
Country
Australia
Ok, thanks for the replies.

I already know this is an answer without a specific question, but:

Given the speed of hax updating in the past, can anyone give a rough estimate of when the 11.0 COULD be potentially hacked without the dsi aspect? December 2016? March 2017? December 2017?
If we knew then we'd know what was required to do it and then we'd have done it already. No way to know, maybe not ever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gnmmarechal

Swiftloke

Hwaaaa!
OP
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2015
Messages
1,770
Trophies
1
Location
Nowhere
XP
1,467
Country
United States
Ok, thanks for the replies.

I already know this is an answer without a specific question, but:

Given the speed of hax updating in the past, can anyone give a rough estimate of when the 11.0 COULD be potentially hacked without the dsi aspect? December 2016? March 2017? December 2017?
Well, there are rumors here and there about yellows8 developing a program to install DSiWarehax with only a Kernel11 exploit. I wouldn't hold my breath personally, but there are a lot of people who are excited. (This would remove the whole "hacked 3DS" part of the equation so long as we have an arm11 kernel exploit on 11.0/11.1)
When will either it or an arm9 exploit be released? Who knows?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Akira

testing123

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
284
Trophies
1
XP
576
Country
United States
Ok, thanks for all the replies.

So on a different note, I have a system on 9.8.0-25U.

Trying browserhax to get to downgrading, but it's failing at the AM:U part every time. I've heard it can take many times but it's reaching 20+ now...

I have ANOTHER system that is already hacked. Is there any way to use that to make it easier to hack the new one?
 

gnmmarechal

Well-Known Member
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Jul 13, 2014
Messages
6,036
Trophies
2
Age
25
Location
https://gs2012.xyz
Website
gs2012.xyz
XP
5,957
Country
Portugal
Ok, thanks for all the replies.

So on a different note, I have a system on 9.8.0-25U.

Trying browserhax to get to downgrading, but it's failing at the AM:U part every time. I've heard it can take many times but it's reaching 20+ now...

I have ANOTHER system that is already hacked. Is there any way to use that to make it easier to hack the new one?
Not really. But don't use browserhax for svchax/mch2. Install MenuHax.
 

Sharruken

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
23
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
93
Country
Canada
Thanks for posting all the information on why 11.0 downgrading isn't possible, I'm fairly new to 3DS hacking, I've been using a Gateway since the start, and just left my 3DS on 4.5, then recently I switched to a9lh + luma3ds but I never knew the technical reasons why newer firmware couldn't be downgraded, I took the time to find out what can/can't be done but not the WHY of it, so this is actually fairly informative, now I guess I'm going to read up a little bit more on the arm9/arm11 processors
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • Veho @ Veho:
    Mkay.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    I just ordered another package from China just to spite you.
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    Communism lol
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    OUR products
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @LeoTCK actually good quality products are dying out because they can't compete with dropshipped chinese crap
    +2
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    @LeoTCK is your partner the sascrotch or smth?
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Good morning
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Out of nowhere I got several scars on my forearm and part of my arm and it really itches.
  • AdRoz78 @ AdRoz78:
    Hey, I bought a modchip today and it says "New 2040plus" in the top left corner. Is this a legit chip or was I scammed?
  • Veho @ Veho:
    @AdRoz78 start a thread and post a photo of the chip.
    +2
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Yawn
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    and good morning everyone
    +1
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @BakerMan, his partner is Luke
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    Sup nerds
    +1
  • Flame @ Flame:
    oh hi, Sickly
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Oh hi flame
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @K3Nv2 what was your ps4 situation
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    did you always have a ps4 you never updated
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    or were you able to get new ps4 tracking it \
    as soon as the hack was announced
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    or did you have to find a used one with the lower firm ware that was not updated
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I got this ps4 at launch and never updated since 9.0
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    You got a good chance of buying a used one and asking the seller how often they used or even ask for a Pic of fw and telling them not to update
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: You got a good chance of buying a used one and asking the seller how often they used or even ask...