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Smea's take on it via Smealum.net
What it is, what it isn’t
If you’ve read my (now really old and outdated) article on 3DS hacking, you’ll recall that for a number of reasons, hacking the console happened by chaining multiple exploits with one another. The most widely used hack (used by flashcart teams, myself and a number of other people) reliies on not one but two completely distinct exploits : the mset DS user settings exploit, which gives us arm11 usermode ROP capabilities, through which a FIRM vuln is exploited to obtain arm9 code exec. This last part was fixed with firmware version 5.0, and it’s the real critical part : while there’s a pretty high number of games that could potentially be exploited through saves to do usermode ROP, it’s useless if you don’t have another exploit to chain that gives you code exec capabilities. This is where ssspwn comes in; it essentially replaces the FIRM exploit we had on 4.5 and lets us execute arbitrary code. That’s why the video looks similar to the one I’d done when I got 4.5 code exec : the first stage exploit used is the same, just fine tuned to work on 6.3.
What does that mean ? Simply that because the two exploits are completely separate, there’s no reason to believe that just because the mset bug was fixed in 7.0, so was ssspwn. That’s right; ssspwn has yet to be plugged by Nintendo, and could in theory give us code exex on latest firmware version. This isn’t the case yet because we haven’t really looked for a new entrypoint, but that’s the next step.
To release or not to release
Generally speaking, the thing that’s been stopping me (and others) from releasing working exploits has been the fact that they might be used for piracy. Fortunately, that should not be a factor in this case, as by its very nature, ssspwn can not by itself allow piracy. That’s right, it’s the sweet spot that gives us just enough to get awesome homebrew code running in arm11 user mode, but not enough to break the system bad enough to let anyone do whatever the hell they want. As such, I personally have no qualms with releasing the exploit into the wild.
You might be wondering why there isn’t a download link available yet. The reason for that is that, as I mentioned, ssspwn has yet to be fixed. In my opinion, it would be dumb to burn such a nice vuln on just 6.3 when we know full well that we should be able to use this on 7.x, and possibly even 8.x+ with some work.
Plan of action
Now, while I don’t think it’s a good idea to release this publicly just yet, I do think it would be a good idea to get it into the hands of devs with consoles still on 4.5-6.3 so we can make progress creating 3DS homebrew development tools. We’ve been making tremendous progress as it is, but we could do much more with some more talented and motivated developers. As such, I want to share this with as many reputable and available devs as possible so that they can work on making things ready for the (hopefully) upcoming 7.1+ release.
Do note that I don’t have a developer-friendly version ready just yet, but I will let everyone know as soon as I do.
Other thoughts
This is, in my opinion, the best shot we have at making a successful and accessible 3DS homebrew scene happen. I’m going to try not to fuck it up. That means that unfortunately the number of devs I’ll feel comfortable sharing the current iteration of ssspwn with will be rather limited, in an effort to avoid premature leaks. Even then, there’s a good chance this whole thing is a bad idea and that it’ll lead to the vuln being plugged before we ever get a chance to exploit it on latest system version. I’m choosing to trust people, and I sincerely hope it’s not something that will backfire.
On another, more personal note, this is my first own big boy exploit I unveil so I think that’s pretty cool.
What it is, what it isn’t
If you’ve read my (now really old and outdated) article on 3DS hacking, you’ll recall that for a number of reasons, hacking the console happened by chaining multiple exploits with one another. The most widely used hack (used by flashcart teams, myself and a number of other people) reliies on not one but two completely distinct exploits : the mset DS user settings exploit, which gives us arm11 usermode ROP capabilities, through which a FIRM vuln is exploited to obtain arm9 code exec. This last part was fixed with firmware version 5.0, and it’s the real critical part : while there’s a pretty high number of games that could potentially be exploited through saves to do usermode ROP, it’s useless if you don’t have another exploit to chain that gives you code exec capabilities. This is where ssspwn comes in; it essentially replaces the FIRM exploit we had on 4.5 and lets us execute arbitrary code. That’s why the video looks similar to the one I’d done when I got 4.5 code exec : the first stage exploit used is the same, just fine tuned to work on 6.3.
What does that mean ? Simply that because the two exploits are completely separate, there’s no reason to believe that just because the mset bug was fixed in 7.0, so was ssspwn. That’s right; ssspwn has yet to be plugged by Nintendo, and could in theory give us code exex on latest firmware version. This isn’t the case yet because we haven’t really looked for a new entrypoint, but that’s the next step.
To release or not to release
Generally speaking, the thing that’s been stopping me (and others) from releasing working exploits has been the fact that they might be used for piracy. Fortunately, that should not be a factor in this case, as by its very nature, ssspwn can not by itself allow piracy. That’s right, it’s the sweet spot that gives us just enough to get awesome homebrew code running in arm11 user mode, but not enough to break the system bad enough to let anyone do whatever the hell they want. As such, I personally have no qualms with releasing the exploit into the wild.
You might be wondering why there isn’t a download link available yet. The reason for that is that, as I mentioned, ssspwn has yet to be fixed. In my opinion, it would be dumb to burn such a nice vuln on just 6.3 when we know full well that we should be able to use this on 7.x, and possibly even 8.x+ with some work.
Plan of action
Now, while I don’t think it’s a good idea to release this publicly just yet, I do think it would be a good idea to get it into the hands of devs with consoles still on 4.5-6.3 so we can make progress creating 3DS homebrew development tools. We’ve been making tremendous progress as it is, but we could do much more with some more talented and motivated developers. As such, I want to share this with as many reputable and available devs as possible so that they can work on making things ready for the (hopefully) upcoming 7.1+ release.
Do note that I don’t have a developer-friendly version ready just yet, but I will let everyone know as soon as I do.
Other thoughts
This is, in my opinion, the best shot we have at making a successful and accessible 3DS homebrew scene happen. I’m going to try not to fuck it up. That means that unfortunately the number of devs I’ll feel comfortable sharing the current iteration of ssspwn with will be rather limited, in an effort to avoid premature leaks. Even then, there’s a good chance this whole thing is a bad idea and that it’ll lead to the vuln being plugged before we ever get a chance to exploit it on latest system version. I’m choosing to trust people, and I sincerely hope it’s not something that will backfire.
On another, more personal note, this is my first own big boy exploit I unveil so I think that’s pretty cool.
