Hacking Collecting together the evidence.

[Andy A]

I was just wondering about what has been worked out about the failOverflow tease. It has been a while and since looking I can't seem to work it out.
For those uninformed (you can click the list items to go to the relevant blog post):

• 8 Days;
• 11 Days;
• 14 Days;
• 30 Days and
• Some supposed clarification

Finally we have the infamous photograph which they state is coming from the wii u, not the pc:

That is all I have, the real question is what does it all mean and why is there a square missing in the photo on the gamepad.

Thanks, Andy A

 

[Maxternal]

I can tell you what I know of that. Most of this comes from people posting copies of IRC chat logs with the members of Fail0verflow with little explanations. I don't really feel like hunting down links to all those posts right now, though, and I'm sure I'll miss some detail ...

- The long chains of letters and numbers printed out in all the posts are SHA-1 hashes of things they have gotten access to on the Wii U.
- The number of days in the title is how many days after the release of the Wii U it took them to get access to those things
- In the clarification A and B represent the two processor types, Power PC and ARM, that the Wii U (much like the Wii) has. The PowerPC has access to the graphics and is where the game runs. The ARM has access to most of the other hardware (USB, Bluetooth, network, game saves, etc) and is where the low level operating system runs. The game has to ask it's permission to access the hardware connected to it .. or rather it has to ask the ARM processor to do it for it since it can't do it itself.
- The item with the question mark in the box in the explanation is not to be confused for something they don't know about yet. They have said they know EXACTLY what it is and how it works.
- also, as a side note, a Fail0verflow member said that every pixel of the "clarification" counts and if you play around with the image you'll see a troll fact hidden in it.

Now the speculation.
- The arrows between A and B can be assumed to be the communication that there always is between the two processors
- The arrows from box to box within A and B could mean that one thing they found helped them get access to the other.
- The above image is a demonstration/proof that it's been hacked. The missing square is just because the gamepad get's it's image divided up into little squares and there must have been a little glitch in sending the image over.
- The mention in in one of the "days" posts about getting drunk people speculate refers to them having to use homebrew to accomplish it.

 

[Andy A]

It seems a little off to have a co-processor to access low level things however there is probably a good reason. It there a reason that section (on the gamepad) got corrupt because normally you never see any problems so I fail to see why that section would be any different to the others. Also if they managed to release that images of it being hacked 65 days ago now then how come they haven't given out anything public, looks pretty complete and putting it into a pretty package doesn't take more than about a day of work (despite how it isn't even needed). Maybe they needed to open it up for part of it causing the brick wall? I would just like to heard an update from them.
Thanks for the gathering of evidence.

 

[Ray Lewis]

It seems a little off to have a co-processor to access low level things however there is probably a good reason. It there a reason that section (on the gamepad) got corrupt because normally you never see any problems so I fail to see why that section would be any different to the others. Also if they managed to release that images of it being hacked 65 days ago now then how come they haven't given out anything public, looks pretty complete and putting it into a pretty package doesn't take more than about a day of work (despite how it isn't even needed). Maybe they needed to open it up for part of it causing the brick wall? I would just like to heard an update from them.
Thanks for the gathering of evidence.

I will share something that I SUPPOSE was a lie, but MAY be true. They don't want piracy, and ideally wanted (want?) linux with access to processor/RAM only. Meaning, no access to NAND, disc drive, or anything that would allow any form of piracy (or potential piracy). For those wanting USB backups to run off hard drive, not going to work as it did with the Wii. I saw a tweet about "Failing as usual, plan A did not work and we are being lazy about plan B." PARAPHRASING but the was the idea from marcan's twitter feed. Marcan posted a lot of information about the GPU and CPU also. Neogaf went off about the pic of the die for the GPU and Marcan basically corected some of their information.

My feeling; hacked, and waiting a while to not harm Wii U, and PROBABLY trying to figure out a way to release something to allow linux over vWii with limited access. A guy told me this on IRC and then admitted to some of it in private messages. I shared and people errupted at me. he did not come into threads and "Correct" info. Instead he wanted to "Clarify" a few things. Some mods or something deleted what I copy/pasted and said something like, "It is NEVER okay to share private conversations." Some pointed out that with PS3, they were not going to release anything but then one person DID and it took off from there. They wanted LINUX only, and I did not follow PS3 but HEARD about those things on other sites. People pointed out that this fits their "MO" and likely the guy did tell me the truth. Oh, Comex tweeted about "Long wait for linux" when somebody asked about the Wii U hack. The tweets are out there, good luck digging in Comex's twitter for that. LOT of speculation but I've searched the hell out of this. They have it, and oh, some of Marcan's twitter makes it SEEM like some things are being figured out still. "Arm we are seeing as a BLACK BOX, different firmware" was in one of his tweets.

Marcan's tweets...fail0verflow account on twitter are "Official" to follow. You won't find anything outside of this. I asked Marcan via twitter if Plan A was linux and what plan B was or something like this; no reply. So clap hands, congratulate them, and know if anything is released, it will LIKELY be as I said above. Talk about shit storm, lmfao. I still have PM's, nothing says I cannot email to you or forward or whatever (anyone doubting it). Read my posts (MINUS emotions) and then read PM's, it becomes clear;-)

 

[Andy A]

The problem is that because of the architecture of the console it is almost impossible to run linux without access to other parts of the console. As soon as they release an exploit then someone will make a homebrew channel for the wii u allowing you to run anything you want. There is also the option of blocking other parts of the console however that is impossible without reprocessing the second chip (ARM one) as even if it is possible then linux and all applications wouldn't have access to basic IO. They have a final option which is to manually build a version of linux into the exploit (decreasing variability of linux) and make it so you have to go through linux to get ANY IO so that is can be controlled, this would be slow and frankly stupid. Even if they go to all that effort then it will still probably be running any software in a couple weeks after they release, remember nintendo had about a year to cover up exploits with a much bigger team so there exploits will probably be everywhere.
This all seems stupid and frankly they just need to accept that piracy is going to happen however it isn't their problem, it's the industries as piracy is honestly a service problem.

 

[Ratmonkey]

Honestly I would love to see One USB loading application, that loads only one game-Rayman Legends. I dont know the ins and outs to code a usb loader that someone couldnt open up to all games but, that would be a nice middle finger to ubisoft for pulling the rug on this release.

I would like a nice port of WiiMC on my wii-u but it only takes a few steps to bring it up on vWii and that works for me.

 

[Ray Lewis]

The problem is that because of the architecture of the console it is almost impossible to run linux without access to other parts of the console. As soon as they release an exploit then someone will make a homebrew channel for the wii u allowing you to run anything you want. There is also the option of blocking other parts of the console however that is impossible without reprocessing the second chip (ARM one) as even if it is possible then linux and all applications wouldn't have access to basic IO. They have a final option which is to manually build a version of linux into the exploit (decreasing variability of linux) and make it so you have to go through linux to get ANY IO so that is can be controlled, this would be slow and frankly stupid. Even if they go to all that effort then it will still probably be running any software in a couple weeks after they release, remember nintendo had about a year to cover up exploits with a much bigger team so there exploits will probably be everywhere.
This all seems stupid and frankly they just need to accept that piracy is going to happen however it isn't their problem, it's the industries as piracy is honestly a service problem.

Thanks for explaining that. Likely they may not release then. Possibly reason for troll image in a/b diagram? Thanks for explaining some of linux idea. We will all find out in time.

 

[Andy A]

Thanks for explaining that. Likely they may not release then. Possibly reason for troll image in a/b diagram? Thanks for explaining some of linux idea. We will all find out in time.

I don't see them just not releasing the code as all this was obvious before starting development, I guess we will have to wait. (on the off change someone from failoverflow is reading this I would love to test any code)

 

[Ray Lewis]

I don't see them just not releasing the code as all this was obvious before starting development, I guess we will have to wait. (on the off change someone from failoverflow is reading this I would love to test any code)

IRC, efnet, #wiiudev to find group. Comex is friendly, marcan probably won't respond, megazig will talk but who knows if he is lying?;-)

Edit, megazig is on this site also. He could at least pass along your thought or tell you anything else he imagines, lmfao.

 

[Andy A]

IRC, efnet, #wiiudev to find group. Comex is friendly, marcan probably won't respond, megazig will talk but who knows if he is lying?;-)

Edit, megazig is on this site also. He could at least pass along your thought or tell you anything else he imagines, lmfao.

After connecting it seems that the channel is kinda dead. A shame really. Hopefully it will pick up.

 

[Ray Lewis]

Ohh, click on names to send a pm. If around they may reply.

 

[Andy A]

Ohh, click on names to send a pm. If around they may reply.

To clarify are these the people that are behind failOverflow or at least the public section?

 

[Slimmmmmm]

Andy A, I see you are a newcomer. Welcome

You can get banned from many channels on irc if you send pm's without asking sometimes.
Most of the wii/wiiu devs are a friendly bunch, but their time is VERY important.

You can ask questions and talk in the main channel without needing to send a pm and if it is interesting you WILL get an answer, have patience. If you want to talk to someone by way of pm, you can ask them in the main channel, but this would usually be because you are going to talk a lot and don't want to "spam" the main channel.

 

[Andy A]

Andy A, I see you are a newcomer. Welcome

You can get banned from many channels on irc if you send pm's without asking sometimes.
Most of the wii/wiiu devs are a friendly bunch, but their time is VERY important.

You can ask questions and talk in the main channel without needing to send a pm and if it is interesting you WILL get an answer, have patience. If you want to talk to someone by way of pm, you can ask them in the main channel, but this would usually be because you are going to talk a lot and don't want to "spam" the main channel.

Heh, I am kinda a newcomer. I have been a developer/hacker for 5/6 years now and used the wii exploits a fair bit however never really got involved too deeply being occupied by other things which I shouldn't go into detail about. I never likes IRC as it has always seem far too sloppy and not very refined.
Yet you have still not clarified the question, who are the actual people on the team because I don't want some idiot to respond claiming he is part of the team and speaking out of his arse (though normally people like that just give information that doesn't add up).

 

[Ray Lewis]

Top right are or are close to members. Marcan 100% but good luck getting response. Comex, and I don't know exact members, seems connected. Megazig says he knows fail0verflow but said in pm he is not a member. Marcan seems to be face and/or central organizer of group. From tweets, members have different specialties. Example, in tweet; "Our resident ppc guy....". People in tweets ask comex questions. I would say Comex/Marcan are informed, megazig talks but is he liar? Remains to be seen. None of this is fact. Guessing based on my observations.

 

[TerryHomes]

Is there a chance to play someday psx/ps2 isos on wii u ? i dont mean the wiisx on vwii

 

[Andy A]

Is there a chance to play someday psx/ps2 isos on wii u ? i dont mean the wiisx on vwii

Once, eventually, a hack is released publicly then sure assuming someone develops the emulator. There is also the problem that the controls don't map to the wii u gamepad great however it's close enough that it should be fine. Still you could be waiting a while so it might be best to get the wiisx emu in vWii then head onto this thread which should get you hooked up with an actual PS1 controller. There is your final option which is, assuming you have space, to just get one off ebay or some place else and if you wanted to use iso's then just grab a PS2 with a mod chip.

 

[Ray Lewis]

Ps2 on pc=rough. ePSEx for ps1 is nearly perfect. Have not tried on systems. Anything involving ps2, xbox, etc; maybe with access to Wii U hardware. Then, needs a developer;-). I would be interested if Wii U could emulate those...well enough to be playable.

 

[pwsincd]

#fOf

 

[lampjese]

They told us nothing new , and yet you guys speculate on in a new thread all from non facts or confirms.