Gaming Patching all Exploits via a System Update

[DreamTeamdidnothingwrong]

Just out of curiosity, would it be possible for Nintendo to patch out Letterbomb and all of the other exploits used to hack the Wii? Obviously they wouldn't due to the age of the console, I was just wondering if it was theoretically possible.

 

[Naendow]

In theory yes. Nearly all exploits could be patched. But even then: They have no interest due to the Wii being practically dead. Also, they tried it before, and as soon as they patched anything, new exploits have been released.

 

[ChibiMofo]

Yes, they could. But it would be pointless as the usual method for "forcing" updates on us - putting the upgrade partition on a new game - is no longer an option (unless Ubisoft does go ahead and make Just Dance 2021 after the runaway success of the Wii version of 2020).

 

[JuanMena]

The Wii?

Is deader than Memchunkhax

The possibilities of Nintendo updating the Wii is really low in my opinion.
Lower than my humor. And that's a lot to say

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Just out of curiosity, would it be possible for Nintendo to patch out Letterbomb and all of the other exploits used to hack the Wii? Obviously they wouldn't due to the age of the console, I was just wondering if it was theoretically possible.

Good and interesting question! Never really thought about this.

My guess what could be patched:

• IOS – so current HackMiiInstaller can't work
• System Menu to prevent Letterbomb/Wilbrand/str2hax

My guess what could not be patched:

• Game disc based exploits. Since the discs are obviously read only the exploits will always be there. Mitigations might be possible.
• Same for FlashHax. Wii Shop is nor more – no updates will come out. And if you already have the browser it is vulnerable… Unless a forced disc update would also update the browser (which is not part of a normal update).
  
• Vulnerable boot1 on older consoles. Flashing bootMii@boot2 with hardware NAND flasher will always work for them.
• Drive firmware to stop for older drives from reading backups. I guess this is impossible…

Bluebomb: No idea?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Good and interesting question! Never really thought about this.

My guess what could be patched:

• IOS – so current HackMiiInstaller can't work
• System Menu to prevent Letterbomb/Wilbrand/str2hax

My guess what could not be patched:

• Game disc based exploits. Since the discs are obviously read only the exploits will always be there. Mitigations might be possible.
• Same for FlashHax. Wii Shop is nor more – no updates will come out. And if you already have the browser it is vulnerable… Unless a forced disc update would also update the browser (which is not part of a normal update).
  
• Vulnerable boot1 on older consoles. Flashing bootMii@boot2 with hardware NAND flasher will always work for them.
• Drive firmware to stop for older drives from reading backups. I guess this is impossible…

Bluebomb: No idea?

They did in fact patch IOS on the Wii U vWii which fixed the exploit used by Hackmii Installer, and the method used by some WAD managers/title installers to patch AHBPROT and install IOSes. For some reason they never released those changes for the original Wii. Anyway, it didn't take long for the homebrew/hacking community to find a way around it. The Wii was not made with security in mind, there are holes everywhere, and because there's little in the way of security in the form of sandboxing, no execute flags and such, gaining code execution from an exploit is easy and once you have it, you have full access. Even if they were to try patching the last public exploits, it's highly likely others would be discovered.

Anyway to flash BootMii with a hardware flasher, I think you need the console unique keys, right? Which you can't get without having code execution to begin with. So it's kind of pointless.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

[…]
Anyway to flash BootMii with a hardware flasher, I think you need the console unique keys, right? Which you can't get without having code execution to begin with. So it's kind of pointless.

Yeah, the thing with the hardware flashed is/was a long shot. I think I've read that DeadlyFoez is able to unbrick old Wiis this way. For example here and here. The second one is f…ed up. I mean this part:

5. Use an Infectus - If nothing works then your wii is a "Full Brick". The very last thing you can do is use an Infectus modchip. If you were smart enough to make a nand backup before fucking with your wii then you can manually reprogram is back into the wii, or if your wii was purchased on or around October 2008 because you might have a vulnerable boot1 so you may be able to use an Infectus to manually install bootmii into boot2 and then be able to fix your wii.

No idea how this would work without the keys.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yeah, the thing with the hardware flashed is/was a long shot. I think I've read that DeadlyFoez is able to unbrick old Wiis this way. For example here and here. The second one is f…ed up. I mean this part:


No idea how this would work without the keys.

I looked into it at one point when someone needed help unbricking their Wii. Remembering mentions that you could flash bootmii with a hardware flasher, I thought that might be the solution, but I found nothing suggesting that you could do so without having a dump of the keys beforehand and no way to get the keys from a bricked console, so I concluded that it's just not possible. The keys are included in a BootMii NAND backup, but that person didn't have one, otherwise it would be possible to fix without BootMii.

 

[ryguy2010]

I don't foresee them creating system updates for the Wii. All the services were shutdown by Nintendo ages ago. Plus the last Wii's they made didn't have SD cards readers or network capability (Wii Mini).

 

[Vorde]

The cost of doing it just to patch an old game console makes no sense from a business perspective. What benefit would they get back from it? Those games make no money anymore, and they even shut online services down, so idk why any company would do it.
I mean... Sony is trying hard to keep the PS Vita secure for some reason but once those initial hacks began on 3.55 there was no going back

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I looked into it at one point when someone needed help unbricking their Wii. Remembering mentions that you could flash bootmii with a hardware flasher, I thought that might be the solution, but I found nothing suggesting that you could do so without having a dump of the keys beforehand and no way to get the keys from a bricked console, so I concluded that it's just not possible. The keys are included in a BootMii NAND backup, but that person didn't have one, otherwise it would be possible to fix without BootMii.

I did find some guide suggesting it was possible without the keys. Maybe a known plaintext attack? This is not completely impossible – e.g. works for the 3DS (installing B9S with hardmod) without having the keys.

 

[Codemastershock]

System Menu to prevent Letterbomb/Wilbrand/str2hax

Nintendo patched on Wii U's RC. These hacks dont work.
Letterbomb and Wilbrand simply dont work at all, but even if they werent patched, its setup would be convoluted how the vwii does not have access to the network settings of the console for the user to see the mac address and clock to properly create the card with the exploit
str2hax is impossible because the vwii locks any access to a webpage (like the eula) inside the system menu. Accepting the EULA on the Wii U setup already "checks as accepted" on the EULA inside the wii mode.
What could work is installing the Internet channel and using a browser based exploit like FlashHax. Problem is that you cant install the Internet channel, not only because the wii shop channel is dead, but the app itself was never available to download if you entered wii shop using a Wii U console, so it could only work by installing the wad file which requires the console to be already modded so it is useless.

For quite a while, the only way to hack the vWii was using a exploitable game (mostly Super Smash Bros. Brawl) , which they cant fully control unless they revised and reprinted the whole game, ans it would still not work because of old, exploitable copies floating around the world.
The Twilight hack was patched for example even on Wii because it relied on a savegame and was a first party title, Smash is trying to reach the SD Card itself.
After a while, you could hack the vwii not just using Smash Bros, but by using a method to temporarily replace the contents of the mii channel for the homebrew channel. I dont know if it is still needed.

 

[godreborn]

the percentage of people who hack their systems has gotta be a percentage of 1 percent, so it's not really practical especially when it's not going to stop future exploits. it makes me wonder if a system had no security how many more people would hack the system?

 

[DreamTeamdidnothingwrong]

It's theoretically possible though. Thanks for answering the question