Hacking Best practice for preserving Switch 2 exploitability?

[FanNintendo]

I have 3 on way, Open one with bundle access online for Mario Kart World and keep other 2 sealed.

I haven't open my PS5 and still sealed, it was like 11 months after it released probably on 6.x.x and had the receipt inside the box should have tape it.

 

[SCOTT0852]

Some hackers got their hands on Switch2:

1 - MIG Switch tested and it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick, ends up bootlooping.

2 - Testers that prod the flash storage of the rom chip it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick. Switch 2 detects has some weird protection that it can detect voltage changes that tools cause when scaning the chips, even whn it is minor.

Unless an exploit is found and doesn't result into a brick when implemented it wont happen in a long time, I know 3 testers that were working on hardware and software modding and know what they were doing just find that any work immediately bricks it and Nintendo gave a trouble shooting step to reload the firmware from SD card but it stuck in boot looping.

In the end it had to return to Nintendo and they longer allowed to be testers and had to pay for the console otherwise it will go to small claims court as it has some form of internal reporting that unauthorised use was made.

Apparently a another tester had an early access to a game and it crashed and rebooted but no longer worked until a reihnstall of firmware so it may be a sign that an exploit that triggers a reboot to run unsigned code is out of question as the firmware will refuse to run and needs a clean firmware.

Also FYI reinstalling firmware from SD Card is not offline, it is a generic app that only connects to a Nintendo server to get the latest firmware meaning it doesn't allow to install specific firmware version and no longer can be used as a work around.

Best bet is hope for an emulator and a way to dump Switch 2 roms.

Keep the fiction to AO3...

 

[Newhouse-Estates]

Some hackers got their hands on Switch2:

1 - MIG Switch tested and it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick, ends up bootlooping.

2 - Testers that prod the flash storage of the rom chip it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick. Switch 2 detects has some weird protection that it can detect voltage changes that tools cause when scaning the chips, even whn it is minor.

Unless an exploit is found and doesn't result into a brick when implemented it wont happen in a long time, I know 3 testers that were working on hardware and software modding and know what they were doing just find that any work immediately bricks it and Nintendo gave a trouble shooting step to reload the firmware from SD card but it stuck in boot looping.

In the end it had to return to Nintendo and they longer allowed to be testers and had to pay for the console otherwise it will go to small claims court as it has some form of internal reporting that unauthorised use was made.

Apparently a another tester had an early access to a game and it crashed and rebooted but no longer worked until a reihnstall of firmware so it may be a sign that an exploit that triggers a reboot to run unsigned code is out of question as the firmware will refuse to run and needs a clean firmware.

Also FYI reinstalling firmware from SD Card is not offline, it is a generic app that only connects to a Nintendo server to get the latest firmware meaning it doesn't allow to install specific firmware version and no longer can be used as a work around.

Best bet is hope for an emulator and a way to dump Switch 2 roms.

Yeah, There is no source for this.
Could be a nintendo employee trying to keep people from trying the mig switch for all we know.

 

[vampitech]

That’s not how the law or consumer rights work, especially in the EU.

Blaming users for every brick is not only simplistic, it’s both technically and ethically flawed. The risk of accidental bricking during a repair, due to something as minor as a small voltage variation, is real. Users have the right to repair their devices without facing the risk of rendering them unusable.

We agree on that. However, Nintendo could have implemented some new type of consistency check and signatures on the console. This would allow them to determine if the failure is due to a deliberated modification attempt or something else. They're so meticulous about this, and I think they've learned from the bad experience with the Tegra BOOTROM/RCM/Fusee Gelee bug and so other many things that people did it on their past console. It won't be easy to repeat that scenario with Switch 2.

Post automatically merged: May 31, 2025

Some hackers got their hands on Switch2:

1 - MIG Switch tested and it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick, ends up bootlooping.

2 - Testers that prod the flash storage of the rom chip it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick. Switch 2 detects has some weird protection that it can detect voltage changes that tools cause when scaning the chips, even whn it is minor.

Unless an exploit is found and doesn't result into a brick when implemented it wont happen in a long time, I know 3 testers that were working on hardware and software modding and know what they were doing just find that any work immediately bricks it and Nintendo gave a trouble shooting step to reload the firmware from SD card but it stuck in boot looping.

In the end it had to return to Nintendo and they longer allowed to be testers and had to pay for the console otherwise it will go to small claims court as it has some form of internal reporting that unauthorised use was made.

Apparently a another tester had an early access to a game and it crashed and rebooted but no longer worked until a reihnstall of firmware so it may be a sign that an exploit that triggers a reboot to run unsigned code is out of question as the firmware will refuse to run and needs a clean firmware.

Also FYI reinstalling firmware from SD Card is not offline, it is a generic app that only connects to a Nintendo server to get the latest firmware meaning it doesn't allow to install specific firmware version and no longer can be used as a work around.

Best bet is hope for an emulator and a way to dump Switch 2 roms.

No source of this at all.
It's not unusual to want to harvest the unwary in early days of the launch date.

 

[Mrperson0]

* never touch it again till softmod is outputted

Seeing that the Switch still doesn't have softmod-only homebrew access to this day, I'm not expecting the Switch 2 to have one.

 

[Newhouse-Estates]

Seeing that the Switch still doesn't have softmod-only homebrew access to this day, I'm not expecting the Switch 2 to have one.

Just image there has been an exploit in private for years and they been holding onto it for the switch pro/Switch 2

 

[EatsCookies]

Just image there has been an exploit in private for years and they been holding onto it for the switch pro/Switch 2

apparently thats the rumor, with nvidia hack and mod chips, there was never a reason to release it, but there may be, oh god could you imagine, they use Horizon and it ends up being the very thing that busts it open?

 

[Metalik]

Some hackers got their hands on Switch2

Take that fanfic stuff to AO3, people take this post based on basically nothing without even basic knowledge of how Switch or even any other console hacking works and spread it around.

1. Mig-Switch would be pretty much impossible to detect, Nintendo doesn't even ban users if they are using their own dumps. The worst case on Switch 2 is that it wouldn't work. But since it emulates regular switch cart pretty much spot on, I bet that it will work.

2. That's just asking for piles and piles of accidentally bricked Switches since voltage spikes and drops are a constant thing that happens, they can't just ask for 5V, for example, and get exact 5.0V all the time.

3. Asking people to completely reinstall the game after crashing smells of bullcrap as well, no one has ever done that. There hasn't been a single game exploit for Nintendo to ever consider that attack vector.

4. The part about installing firmware from SD Card really confuses me, like it's not a thing at all on the Switch 1 which really shows that you're talking out of your ass. Like if you're talking about Atmosphere, it never was a behavior intended by Nintendo, Nintendo didn't write any code to do that. If you're talking about bootloader like Hekate, well, it was never supposed to be loading without a correct signature. That's what Fusee Gelee exploit is all about, it allows to load unsigned payload from the RCM mode. Modchips do essentially the same thing by glitching the chip until it skips sign check. If you're talking about Daybreak, well, yeah, it's literally a reversed engineered version of Nintendo's update code, Nintendo never intended you to download firmware updates on your SD Card.

Either way, you're uninformed and talking out of your ass.

 

[Error52]

2 - Testers that prod the flash storage of the rom chip it immediately locks out the Switch 2, turning it into a brick. Switch 2 detects has some weird protection that it can detect voltage changes that tools cause when scaning the chips, even whn it is minor.

Unless an exploit is found and doesn't result into a brick when implemented it wont happen in a long time, I know 3 testers that were working on hardware and software modding and know what they were doing just find that any work immediately bricks it and Nintendo gave a trouble shooting step to reload the firmware from SD card but it stuck in boot looping.

Me after doing a bunch of half-baked soldering attempts and breaking my console: "what the fuck, it broke! they must have some crazy advanced sci-fi security that breaks it if you even think about modding it!"

3. Asking people to completely reinstall the game after crashing smells of bullcrap as well, no one has ever done that. There hasn't been a single game exploit for Nintendo to ever consider that attack vector.

Not that I want to give this post any credit but the PS4 & 5 force you to reinstall the firmware (which is what they might've meant) if a game manages to hard crash the console. So it's actually not that far fetched. I mean it's still fucking stupid but it's a stupid idea that's been done.

 

[Metalik]

Not that I want to give this post any credit but the PS4 & 5 force you to reinstall the firmware (which is what they might've meant) if a game manages to hard crash the console. So it's actually not that far fetched. I mean it's still fucking stupid but it's a stupid idea that's been done.

You mean those few cases with Anthem and some other game that crashed people's consoles? That wasn't Sony's intended behavior, it was the game screwing the file system way too much that it corrupted it, not something they intended. Don't quote me on this, it's just that the OS and game data are all on the same partition hence why PlayStations always beep at you and scan your memory in case of corruption when you turn them off in an unintended way.

 

[Error52]

You mean those few cases with Anthem and some other game that crashed people's consoles? That wasn't Sony's intended behavior, it was the game screwing the file system way too much that it corrupted it, not something they intended. Don't quote me on this, it's just that the OS and game data are all on the same partition hence why PlayStations always beep at you and scan your memory in case of corruption when you turn them off in an unintended way.

There were other games that had reported instances of it happening, I don't think Anthem was doing anything particularly weird outside of being especially shit. I remember God of War Ragnarok had a repeatable bug where if you used your abilities in a specific way on one section to cheese past a puzzle it would hard crash the system.

 

[AtelierRyza]

Just image there has been an exploit in private for years and they been holding onto it for the switch pro/Switch 2

You never know. It's a smart play to wait for EOL of a console, particularly with Nintendo, since their focus is on Switch 2 now and likely wouldn't be as aggressive about going after someone.

I realize the (very talented!) Atmosphere devs have stated multiple times that HOS has no exploits, but how many more devs would be trying to find bugs (and might find something that someone else overlooked) if the early hardware flaw on V1 switches and later modchips for V2 hadn't removed a LOT of motivation to find exploits in HOS. Kinda like how Xbone has dev mode available, removing the motivation to jailbreak it.

I'm hopeful and nothing is hackproof. The 360 badupdate hack proved that.

 

[a_username_that_is_cool]

Seeing that the Switch still doesn't have softmod-only homebrew access to this day, I'm not expecting the Switch 2 to have one.

fusee-gelee, but it is technically not softmod only since you need a jig and a pc. but you dont need to solder. and thats what i consider a softmod. i understand that that is not the definition but that's what i meant. better name would be "solderless hack"

 

[froggy55]

I wonder if they will have some proprietary format on the sd card, so people can't just plopp it in the PC and transfer files like they could before.

this is because they did not include neccasary drivers for the sd express card to function on so on launch day you will need the day 1 update which will also enable the switch 1 backwards compatibility

Post automatically merged: Jun 1, 2025

ive heard that mentioned multiple different times but have never seen it directly from nintendo. alot of legit places have stated it sadly. just to use a sd card you have to be online first time to setup the sd card for some stupid reason.

this is because they did not include neccasary drivers for the sd express card to function on so on launch day you will need the day 1 update which will also enable the switch 1 backwards compatibility

 

[Ettino]

Some hackers got their hands on Switch2

Your post is spreading misinformation like wildfire. Where is the source? Obviously, that Pirat_Nation is also a dumbass with 380k views.

 

[Deleted member 754542]

The Switch 2 might be hackable and it might not be. What we can say for certain is it will be Nintendo's most difficult console to hack.

 

[ShinLarc]

Your post is spreading misinformation like wildfire. Where is the source? Obviously, that Pirat_Nation is also a dumbass with 380k views.

View attachment 508523

Blocked this account a long time ago. Will say anything for clout

 

[Deleted member 754542]

In an information vacuum it's easy to spread false information. Things will get better when the Switch 2 is actually out and people who are both skilled and integral take a look at it.

 

[po1ybius]

The Switch 2 might be hackable and it might not be. What we can say for certain is it will be Nintendo's most difficult console to hack.

Nintendo also claimed the 3DS was bulletproof back when it came out, but it's been cracked wide open. No doubt it'll be the most difficult to hack, but someone will figure it out, and I'd bet money the first exploit will require a soldered modchip.

 

[fout21]

Honestly, it just sounds made up so YouTubers can pump out hundreds of videos about it, even though there's no real proof. If it were true, accessories like the Unitek Game Console Station would brick your Switch 2 and then you're not doing anything wrong. It just doesn't add up.