Hacking Gateway update regarding rumors

[condiczek]

Really?

According to you then, a manufacturer of a bullet designed to be safe in certain gun would not be responsible if they deliberately engineered that bullet to explode in the equivalent gun from a competing company?

If, as seems likely, Gateway designed this code to deliberately brick people's consoles (and their past warnings would seem to suggest this was a plan) then they have crossed the line from concerned owner of code to vandalising their competitor's customers. How can they EVER be trusted completely again to not repeat this for whatever reason, even triggering it against their genuine customers? If Nintendo discretely and anonymously offered them say $1 million how can anyone be sure they wouldn't do this to everyone?

Its gateway's firmware for gateway's flashcarts. As long as it works without any problem on gateway cards, they are free to include all the protections they want.
Once again - as long as it works 100% on gateway hw.
And it does.

Launcher.dat is not a "switchable product", is not a alternative software for other hardware.
You can't compare it to printer ink cartridge for example, which can be bought original, and replacement one,
and comparing to a bullet is also not irrelevant. Its not that kind of thing.

Launcher.dat is gateway software, which is developed to work only and only on gateway hardware.

Once again, R4&3DSLink released BAD, very BAD software. Their fault.

 

[WiiUBricker]

Look for my previous posts, I am the one who originally wrote this.

You mean this post? Yeah, it was in the closed thread, which I didn't read today. So basically, due to the sanity check in the launcher.dat it wasn't possible for the launcher.dat to brick any consoles? Does this mean that only normatts launcher.dat which had the sanity check patched out and clone launcher.dats could have bricked consoles?

Either way, putting code in the firmware that intentionally can brick consoles in the first place is a no-go. I can understand if the brick code would only brick clone cards but there is no justifying bricking other peoples consoles.

 

[mathieulh]

Its gateway's firmware for gateway's flashcarts. As long as it works without any problem on gateway cards, they are free to include all the protections they want.
Once again - as long as it works 100% on gateway hw.
And it does.

Launcher.dat is not a "switchable product", is not a alternative software for other hardware.
You can't compare it to printer ink cartridge for example, which can be bought original, and replacement one,
and comparing to a bullet is also not irrelevant. Its not that kind of thing.

Launcher.dat is gateway software, which is developed to work only and only on gateway hardware.

Once again, R4&3DSLink released BAD, very BAD software. Their fault.

Err... no, "Launcher.dat" is a filename.
This filename, for convenience purposes is used by all the current 3DS hacks, simply because all it takes is to change SYS:/launcher.dat to YS:/launcher.dat in memory (which can be a mountpoint to anything, in this specific case, the SD card's file system).

 

[Gerbilly]

Well, they have lost me as a potential customer for future products. I know losing the sale of a couple of carts won't matter to them but I can't support a company who would deliberately destroy the consoles of users just to get back at their competitors.

 

[Pablo007]

This is Gateway official support and sales email.

We do not answer rumors, speculations and other tactics from people who are not
even real competitors but simply companies stealing our hard work. It would be
just taking away our time from what we owe our customers: Bringing them a better
and better experience with Gateway new firmware, functions and compatibility.

We have an official statement on our homepage here:
http://www.gateway-3ds.com/
If you are not a Gateway customer, please simply contact your product
manufacturer. We only offer warranty and support for genuine Gateway card.

Simply put, we do not care about others. Our focus is to bring the best
experience to genuine Gateway users.
We can confirm that NO Gateway user had any issue with their console or their
Gateway card. And this will remain the same in the future, thanks to our team
hard work on proper testing and quality manufacturing. Another story created by
scammers about possible bricks due to faulty SD cards etc. is also false, and
just spread by clone producer claiming to be Gateway customers.

Exciting news are coming soon with our final firmware 2.0. And beyond that, much
more is still to come that will delight all our loyal customers.

mailto:[email protected]

found on http://www.maxconsole.com/maxcon_fo...Screen-Causing-Bricking?p=1668976#post1668976

 

[JoostinOnline]

So I'm confused. Is the rumor that it bricks the card, that bricks the 3DS, or that it bricks both?

 

[WiiUBricker]

found on http://www.maxconsole.com/maxcon_fo...Screen-Causing-Bricking?p=1668976#post1668976

It can also be found on gbatemps frontpage.

 

[bkifft]

So I'm confused. Is the rumor that it bricks the card, that bricks the 3DS, or that it bricks both?

Modified launcher.dat can brick with a certain probability the 3DS. Fact, not rumor.

 

[cavinrocks]

this sucks

 

[Arras]

found on http://www.maxconsole.com/maxcon_fo...Screen-Causing-Bricking?p=1668976#post1668976

Note how that only says "our cards are safe", NOT that they didn't add the bricking code. They'll probably just refuse to comment on that. And unmodified launchers being safe was confirmed anyway.

 

[ground]

At the very least they could have issued warnings such as "Modifying our code will cause irreparable damages to your 3DS", I know we did put such a warning back when we had our "anti-ps3news" message in M33 (a psp custom firmware), and even then it wasn't an active bricking code, we just used the message as a key for our modules. Not to mention we provided the users with a way to unbrick their units later on (the Pandora battery). You can't recover from a corrupt eMMC controller, at least not without very good soldering skills and the right hardware.

that's completely true. But that is also why am inclining to think that they just wanted to give the cloners a hard time copying (so their 3ds brick every time they tried, they need to flash again etc. etc.) but somehow they passed. Because now they are just bricking consoles which also could be used for gateway (it would be a smarter move to brick the flashcards). But i am not a pro at coding so i cant really see how it all is implented and I have te relay on what everybody is saying haha

 

[Keylogger]

Modified launcher.dat can brick with a certain probability the 3DS. Fact, not rumor.

Are you sure it's only modified launcher.dat?
Because here: http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_ho-bricks-en-3ds-gateway-incluyo-codigo-malicioso-en-2-0b2_1972148, there are already 3 bricks due to the official gw launcher.dat

 

[anhminh]

This is terrible. I can't believe those pirate use this kind of low and dirty trick like this.
I say we should burn all their FC and upgrade to newest FW for our console sake.
Nintendo company will appreciate your cooperation so do it now.

 

[JoostinOnline]

This is terrible. I can't believe those pirate use this kind of low and dirty trick like this.
I say we should burn all their FC and upgrade to newest FW for our console sake.
Nintendo company will appreciate your cooperation so do it now.

Normally I wouldn't care if a device dedicated to piracy was bricking consoles (I'm anti-piracy), but the manner in which they went about it pisses me off.

 

[bkifft]

Are you sure it's only modified launcher.dat?
Because here: http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_ho-bricks-en-3ds-gateway-incluyo-codigo-malicioso-en-2-0b2_1972148, there are already 3 bricks due to the official gw launcher.dat

Disclaimer: this is my view of this giant mountain of shit (theres no other way to describe the fuckup GW pulled. bricking users devices is a big bad nono).

Am I 100% sure that bricks will not occur on unmodified GW? no.

Am I 100% positive that the chance of unmodified GW bricking a console lies in the same order of magnitude as the 3DS bricking on its own (that is without any modifications)? yes.

Am I 100% sure that the risk of bricking using a modified launcher is multiple orders of magnitude bigger than from running unmodified? yes.

 

[GHANMI]

It's funny that rumor when 3DS was first released that "Nintendo" was bricking consoles when it detected DS flashcarts proved prophetic, with the irony being that the flashcart manufacturers themselves were the ones intentionally bricking consoles... for monie$$$. It's idiotic from a business perspective since intentionally destroying consoles of potential customers out of spite won't encourage said customers (who already lost the whole console) to purchase their card, if they can at all.

I'd say all respect I had for them disappeard but that doesn't mean much since I don't have much respect for them in the first place.
(and that's not even considering what would happen if that file got corrupted somehow in one of their "legit" hardware, since, you know, memory cards DO corrupt often on non-save power-offs ie battery runs out)

Just asking something out of curiosity: when the kill-switch is triggered after the conditions are fulfilled (ie. "this is not a GW card"), when does it actually brick the console? After a given period of time? In a random way or following a pattern/probability?
Thanks a lot for any answers.

 

[Keylogger]

I was using the Region free patched launcher.dat since it's released, playing more than 5hours per day without any problem! and my 3ds was bricked yesterday when enterring settings app

 

[gamesquest1]

Just a theory.....but would it not be at all possible for the clones to just use the official gateway launcher if they ever have the desire to go and edit their system settings?

 

[Runehasa]

I know it sucks and I don't necesarilly agree with gateway doing this but what better way to keep people from buying clones. If it only bricked the card that might slightly deter people but if it bricks consoles no one is going to risk putting that bomb in their system. The other thing people are forgetting is that this is an illegal business gateway is running to begin with. Why would they have any morals towards people stealing from them. What happens when you try to steal from drug dealers. You will get hunted down and shot no questions asked

 

[VartioArtel]

I have yet to get a 3DS, or even a Gateway, but I have an urge to respond to this:

To those of you who blame Gateway: Nintendo does the same, Sony does the same, and Microsoft does the same. if you do try to modify their system's codes directly, odds are you will brick the system itself. You can't make an older model PS3 handle a PS2 game without potential bricking I mean, for example.

Hell, modifying a game could have a similar result and blow the console I would figure (it isn't likely, but it's possible).

While I understand Gateway has put code for INTENTIONAL BRICKING, they did not trigger it. It was a failsafe. The clone users chose to -steal- money from Gateway (Not that they're innocent themselves, they're 'stealing' games from the companies). By buying a clone, you're choosing NOT to support Gateway. YOU knew the risks of buying a clone. YOU knew they were cheap clones. Those who didn't? Well I feel sorry for you for being one of those people who don't study things in advance.

While I admit it is fairly immoral that bricking their competitor's DSes is extreme, it is a message not to trust clones.

As for Normatt, according to this topic he knew about this bricking code, and still released. I feel sorry for those who bricked as a result, because it wasn't Gateway that dicked them over, it was as good as Normatt himself INTENTIONALLY bricking them. HE chose to ignore it people, even if it was unintentionally. Don't blame gateway for having the code, blame him for releasing, whether for arrogance to recieve recognition, or laziness. Or maybe he wanted to ruin Gateway's image entirely for personal reasons? I dunno.




Regardless, I trust Gateway. As a business they went to extremes, but I doubt they'd intentionally screw over their users. THink about that. I can't blame them on a logical level. They screwed over competitors and players who tried to support them, the fact that Normatt goofed up was all his bad, he should have been more careful. While I feel sorry for both screwed over parties, the former at least will potentially need to support Nintendo and buy a new console altogether, so indirectly, nintendo benefits.