Hacking Cloning Update Partitions

[lonemoonHD]

Hello! I've had an interesting idea lying in the back of my brain for the longest time, and it's one I'll be sharing with you now!

What if we could copy an update partition, say from Splatoon, and analyzed them to see how they work?

Honestly, the idea doesn't seem far-fetched to me. Unless the update partition expires/erases itself upon execution, it should be possible, right?

I'm guessing they could be WUP (Wii U Packages) or some similar format that our existing programs could read. If not, we could always convert the partition to another format (like .elf or a simple payload we could easily compile/build) and run it like that. It could potentially be checked off by IOSU (since it checks if the code is signed) as signed, because it's an official Nintendo partition/image. We would only change its format, and even that if it would only be necessary. Wouldn't that work?

Thoughts welcome.

 

[DarkJediRey]

I know that the update packages from nus often replace rpl/rpx files and update the content folder. Not sure where they are held on the console memory to update discs

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

But i see where you are going with this. I also heard that .mp4 can be read by games with mvplayer files. Like Mario Kart8, not sure if that's any help at all. Probably not

 

[Uwabami]

For what exactly would you need this? To update to a certain version without buying the correct games?

I guess they are signed, but once you convert them, the signature obviously breaks and it won't run. Another problem might be, that the update could be signed to only run from a disc - I do not know if this is the case, but I have seen this on other consoles.

 

[fiveighteen]

You can extract the update partition out of a WUD file.

 

[lonemoonHD]

You can extract the update partition out of a WUD file.

Could I run just the partition?

 

[fiveighteen]

Could I run just the partition?

In theory, if you had a way to re-sign it, you could replace the update partition on one game with the update partition that you wanted to update to from another.

The system probably just checks your version.bin and compares it to the version of the update on disc. If the disc is higher, it updates. But idk anything about how you'd accomplish the aforementioned re-signing.