Much to the dismay of pirates everywhere, It appears that Nintendo is finally rolling out the infrastructure changes to their Content Delivery Network to put an end to apps like freeShop, Villain3DS, TikDevil, and FunKeyCIA, among others.

For those of you that missed out, in the recent 11.8.0-41 update for the Nintendo 3DS, several changes to how the NIM service handles downloading Nintendo 3DS software from the eShop were made. The main change involves sending an encrypted copy of the user's game ticket to their server for authentication. If the server finds the ticket is invalid, or no ticket is provided, the server could deny you access to the content files you are trying to retrieve.

Looks like 11.8.0 backports the Switch's aauth ideas to 3ds -- network comms now send an encrypted(?) copy of app ticket to the server.

They may not act on it immediately, but like on Switch this lets N perfectly detect pirate accesses vs normal ones, and ban however they like.

— Michael (@SciresM) July 31, 2018

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This level of granular per-title validation will effectively put an end to any software that relies on the open availability of content files on the Nintendo CDN to function, including freeShop, CIAngel, TikDevil, and even PC based clients such as Villain3DS, PlaiCDN, and FunKeyCIA to name a few.

However, up until earlier today, the server wasn't denying anyone downloads at all. However, multiple reputable sources have stated that the changes have begun to roll out and that it is unlikely that any workarounds will be found.

Because this followup round of changes is server side, this effects all firmware and all devices trying to download from the Nintendo CDN. Staying on 11.7 or below will not make freeShop continue to work, and before you ask, yes, software you already pirated is safe. (for now, anyway.)

Nintendo has finally put in place the server-side change to finish what 11.8.0 started. FreeShop and other 3DS piracy apps are now dead (probably forever).

— Devon Maloney (@plailect) August 9, 2018

At this time, it seems only various first-party Nintendo titles are affected, but it's probable that these changes will begin rolling out to all 3DS titles on the Nintendo CDN over time.

As of approximately 1 AM EST, August 22, 2018, the Nintendo CDN has applied this ticket validation method to over 2800 titles on their network.

Source and Ongoing Discussion
Related 3DBrew Page

Spoiler: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Will Staying on 11.7 help in any substantial way?
A: Not really. The bulk of the changes made are server side, meaning that they apply to all firmware, all platforms, everything trying to download 3DS content from the Nintendo CDN. I don't recommend updating on principle but that choice is yours to make.

Q: Do I have to delete the games I downloaded from freeShop to avoid being banned?
A: No. This ticket check is done only when downloading titles through the NIM Service on the 3DS. Not when launching games. Not when going online in games. Not when downloading or installing games through other means.

Q: What uses the NIM service to download from the Nintendo CDN?
A: The Official 3DS eShop, Official 3DS eShop Sleep Mode Downloads, and freeShop Sleep Mode Downloads. That last one is the only wild card here. We don't know what Nintendo might do if you upload an invalid game ticket to them through NIM. They could possibly use this ban you, but as of now, it doesn't seem like they are.

Q: Will there be a workaround for this in the future?
A: Almost certainly not. Don't count on it.

Q: Can you still download non-first-party 3DS games?
A: No, as of August 22, 2018, nearly all titles are requiring valid tickets to download. A complete list of titles that are blocked is available courtesy of @DMSalesman, here.

Q: Does any of this apply to Wii U content on the Nintendo CDN?
A: No. Nintendo hasn't updated the Wii U with any of this security, which they would have to do to implement this.

 

[Ryccardo]

kinda makes me wonder why they did this now though. like, why not 3 years ago when this would have actually mattered?

1- as you can see from the recent posts, a sufficiently large number of people still hasn't learned that, if a common euphemism for piracy is "backups", they should have backed up games they were interested in ASAP and in multiple accessible copies

2- it was the only way they could really stop Freeshop and friends (unlike with their previous attempt of a bogus copyright infringement claim on a logo [which has not been proven in court to be sufficiently creative to be copyrightable], added by makerom which by absolute coincidence wasn't even remotely complained at)

3- my conspiracy theory of the hour is that an overzealous dmca bot resulted in a notification being sent to Nintendo for distributing copyrighted games

 

[foxtochop]

revolutionary in making piracy too easy. It brought some of the worst people out, the lazy** pirates. I am happy Nintendo is shutting this down, because it means everyone who wants to pirate has to put in the effort to do so.

This is the effort that people have to put now: Install CFW, install FBI, getting a cia from the web, installing it through FBI.

With Xenoblade Chronicles as an example, a huge game, what I said could take 2-3 hours.



Nintendo just blocked the easy comfy and savage way of getting them: through FreeShop. And with savage I'm referring of exposing such a **lazy server and system in which it only takes to get the title keys to do so. And Nintendo (we're talking about Nintendo, serious business) took almost a decade IIRC in blocking those accesses with the most of all them basic fixes for a server: just f*cking verifying the download with tokens. Translated: doing a fix server-side. Which obviously cannot be broken by anyone in any way. It took them decades.


Let's see how much they take to fix this one: telling the diference between a purchased cartridge and a .cia installed game through FBI.



Thank you FreeShop, without you Nintendo would have never fixed its goofy-ass server from such a basic and easily laughable glory-hole.

 

[SkittleDash]

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Never know, a workaround may come. Anything is possible if you set your mind to it!

 

[Ryccardo]

Let's see how much they take to fix this one: telling the diference between a purchased cartridge and a .cia installed game through FBI.

They already can - physical games (and accurate backups thereof) have a serial number (part of the so-called private header) which is used in online multiplayer, installed titles (from any source) don't

 

[foxtochop]

They already can - physical games (and accurate backups thereof) have a serial number (part of the so-called private header) which is used in online multiplayer, installed titles (from any source) don't

Then explain to me the recommendation I read here the most: "Going online is safe while you do not cheat".

If they can do this server-side fix, why don't just automatically checking if a game has this private header and, if it doesn't then deny online access?

What about the people who buy cartridges and backup them through godmode9? A cia backup of a cartridge is seen as a pirated game by Nintendo?

 

[Ryccardo]

If they can do this server-side fix, why don't just automatically checking if a game has this private header and, if it doesn't then deny online access?

They do, for physical games (ie flashcards running .3ds files with no header)

A cia backup of a cartridge is seen as a pirated game by Nintendo?

It's seen as a digital game, for the purposes of multiplayer - they can't know anything else
Of course it doesn't have a valid titlekey (which automatically disqualifies it from being an original ticket, even before ticket signature is considered) - but that's a problem for trying to (re)download it, not for trying to play it online

 

[shanefromoz]

Give it a few weeks and there will be something new out that can download games.

 

[The Catboy]

Well I did kind of call this

Nintendo would have to completely rework the entire eShop system for the 3DS and setup a method (such as a required membership) in order to make it work. Nintendo has to be the one to break and it will have to cost them money to do so. Nintendo may have invested some money into the rest update, but a major overhaul of the 3DS eShop might not be something they are looking to invest into.

Nintendo did have to rework the eShop in order break freeShop, which is what they just did. I am actually shocked considering how much money this must have cost them to do for a system that should be EOL.

 

[ihaveahax]

Nintendo did have to rework the eShop in order break freeShop, which is what they just did. I am actually shocked considering how much money this must have cost them to do for a system that should be EOL.

Probably not a whole lot, it's a system that still has a large user base and still makes them tons of money (part of the reason they haven't completely dropped it yet)

 

[Deleted User]

Installing an old version of NIM doesn't even fix freeShop.

It's (likely) a server-side fix.

Rest in pieces, freeShop

 

[The Catboy]

Probably not a whole lot, it's a system that still has a large user base and still makes them tons of money (part of the reason they haven't completely dropped it yet)

True, true.
Honestly I am more shocked by how much has happened in the past couple of weeks. Considering how little attention the system was getting, it seemed safe to call it dead. We we're bamboozled.

 

[Deleted User]

shoutouts to the person who uploaded the entire fucking cia for captain toad on titledb

 

[Deleted User]

half a year ago i download all 3ds games i wanted to my pc as cia format from eshop (over 200 titles) cuz it was pianfully long to download them directly from eshop using the 3ds (500 kb\sec on the new 3ds). so except warioware gold i have pretty much all the games i wanted. don't remember the name of the software i used but it's usless now anyway.

 

[Ryccardo]

Installing an old version of NIM doesn't even fix freeShop.

It's (likely) a server-side fix.

Rest in pieces, freeShop

2 - It is

1 - Freeshop never depended on the NIM service, unless you're talking about the (relatively recently added) Spotpass background downloads feature, neither did every other unofficial title downloader

 

[Purple_Heart]

fck u ninty ....sorry i had to do this

 

[jimmyj]

shoutouts to the person who uploaded the entire fucking cia for captain toad on titledb

what ?

 

[VitaType]

Nooo, how am I i going to get my games i love that are so obscure its nearly impossible to get anywhere else??!

Obscure hard to get games like that kind of games normaly made by a very small teams with very tight budget? I think you can get most of them from Nintendos eShop. They want you to pay abit for the access on a per game basis, but they're actually very fair priced normaly.

 

[ROMANREIGNS599]

Please someone reply to my question. What would happen to those who didn’t update to 11.8?

 

[ihaveahax]

Please someone reply to my question. What would happen to those who didn’t update to 11.8?

This is a server-side change, so staying on <11.8 won't change anything

 

[Deleted User]

I truly hope that Nintendo's efforts were useless in the long run. While Nintendo does in fact develop amazing games and systems (for the most part), its constant middle-fingering attitude annoys many gamers worldwide, including me. I'm still salty about Emuparadise.