Hacking Extended explanation of what keys.bin is?

[Rummy]

Ok, so I kinda fudged my Wii up a bit I think(but that isn't what this is about), which prompted me to restore to an old NAND backup I made in BootMii, now that I've finally got my HBC and stuff back, and I'm on 4.2 with a new internet channel, I decided to do another NAND backup, only this time I notice a file called keys.bin, and either I del'd it from the last backup, or it was never there, but I'm just here out of curiousity more than anything else, so basically, can anybody give me a bit of an explanation of what keys.bin is? If it WAS in the original backup and I didn't have it for some reason or what? I tried searching for similar posts, but there wasn't much actual explanation of what keys.bin is? Where does it come from, is it Wii unique? As I said, I'm just curious, really, but thanks for any info you guys can provide

 

[nash79]

The last versions of Bootmii, saves the WII keys on the SD card everytime u use it. These are the WII's private keys that ull need to jealously keep safely

Nothing to worry about

 

[Rummy]

Private keys? But what are these keys and what do they do? Key for some sort of encryption? I'm curious about its nature, where it comes from, if it's wii specific, and that. Surely there must be info on it? Everywhere I look, it's just mentioned as being deftly important but nobody seems to actually say anything about it and it makes me all the more motivated to learn about it!

 

[grubbymitts]

I think:
There's a common key and a private key. The Wii uses them both to decrypt the programs running. The common key was discovered and is the same for everyone so is easily decrypted. The private key is created by each individual Wii and therefore next to impossible.

I may be wrong, I've not been following the hacking so much recently.

 

[Rummy]

Ahhh, so it's encryption related(something I know rather little about). Interesting, I'm guessing this is how they identify specific Wiis, and more importantly, copy protect their VC stuff?

 

[DarkMatterCore]

Ahhh, so it's encryption related(something I know rather little about). Interesting, I'm guessing this is how they identify specific Wiis, and more importantly, copy protect their VC stuff?

Exactly. Read this bushing's post from HackMii: http://hackmii.com/2008/04/keys-keys-keys/. Maybe that helps you know some things about those keys,

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[Rummy]

Hmm, alot went over my head, but looks interesting, shedded some light on things for me, thanks for the link!