Hacking How does Nintendo patch their systems to block flashcarts?

[RemixDeluxe]

This is a question I've been meaning to ask for some time. Unless they own the copies of the flashcart themselves how do they know how it functions to block it on their systems. If they don't own them thats pretty impressive of them to figure out how without the hardware.

I also ask this in regards to the Gateway.

 

[TackyPie]

Im pretty sure they might own flashcarts

 

[Ryupower]

how do you know Nintendo doesn't buy the card
they may have to see how they work and what in them(chips type other tech stuff)

they have may have tools to see how game card boots on the system (every step of the boot process )
and they can, set check and flags in the game boot process to see if the game's boot loader in the system is legit or not

as for getway, they could have see the video
and did something to block it

 

[Xarsah16]

It's relatively simple - in order to get a flash cart to work, it's taking advantage of an exploitable 'loophole' in the firmware's coding - doing some fooling of the system and exploiting a weakness within the coding. Nothing's perfect, and when Nintendo figures out what coding was breached, they will patch it up with their technical abilities in their next update and we need to find another way around. I think that's the sort of non-technical way of explaining it

 

[MasterMan194]

Says Nintendo to flashcards.

 

[Snailface]

There's no special trick to it really. Nintendo knew the exact nature of the upcoming hack attempt was a 1:1 cartridge clone exploit. So they simply bolstered the number of security checks dealing with cart authentication on update 6.x.x-x. One of those added checks was one that the Gateway team either didn't/couldn't account for and the card wound up blocked. Nintendo essentially carpet bombed the attack vector and, lo and behold, one of their bombs struck the target.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

It's relatively simple - in order to get a flash cart to work, it's taking advantage of an exploitable 'loophole' in the firmware's coding - doing some fooling of the system and exploiting a weakness within the coding. Nothing's perfect, and when Nintendo figures out what coding was breached, they will patch it up with their technical abilities in their next update and we need to find another way around. I think that's the sort of non-technical way of explaining it

Sorry, but you're wrong. Flashcards boot just like they were legit game cards, they don't take advantage of flaws in the firmware anymore. You see, flashcards nowadays use something called No Pass, which uses the common key for licensed DS games that was discovered a long time ago. So flashcards don't use a flaw in the firmware, but instead boot as if they were licensed software.

Nintendo blocks flashcards by doing a blacklist, they try to check if the flash card is trying to pass for a licensed game. For example if a flashcard try to identify itself as a Mario Kart game Nintendo will double-check every "Mario Kart" game to see if they are indeed the legit game or a impostor flashcard. Other way to identify it is to detect hardware that is unique to a flashcard or hardware that is missing from the flashcard. If you go to the NDS flashcard section this subject is more well discussed there

 

[mysticwaterfall]

+1 to what Snailface said. Plus, is it really that surprising that Nintendo would own flashcarts? Wouldn't you if somebody was ripping off your lifeblood?

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

 

[Xarsah16]

Sorry, but you're wrong. Flashcards boot just like they were legit game cards, they don't take advantage of flaws in the firmware anymore.

Guess I was a bit behind the times without realizing it, good to know.

I'm not the village idiot for nothing. XD

 

[DeMoN]

They have very smart people working on anti-piracy, that's pretty much it.

And they know this, so they taunt us by releasing a save file manager, which could lead to an exploit but I think they are confident that it won't.

 

[Ergo]

+1 to what Snailface said. Plus, is it really that surprising that Nintendo would own flashcarts? Wouldn't you if somebody was ripping off your lifeblood?

Bravo on the Sun Tzu!

 

[Deleted_171835]

Magic.

 

[RemixDeluxe]

One more thing.

I didn't really get involved into the homebrew community until just a few years ago. I have no knowledge how things were for the GBA or even the DS. How long did it take for both systems to get their 1st flashcart? Is the wait time normal in comparison to the 3DS?

 

[Xarsah16]

One more thing.

I didn't really get involved into the homebrew community until just a few years ago. I have no knowledge how things were for the GBA or even the DS. How long did it take for both systems to get their 1st flashcart? Is the wait time normal in comparison to the 3DS?

For those waiting for the 3DS scene, the wait has felt excruciatingly long at over two years. The PS3 took 4 years to crack, to my knowledge, and I don't think people are going to give up just yet. My ex-boyfriend preordered the Acekard 2i a couple weeks before the DSi was released, and those were available to my knowledge at launch or not too late after. The DS scene was relatively quick in the later iterations because we've dealt with the phat and the lite. As far as before then, no idea.

 

[BlackWizzard17]

I understand Nintendo wants to bock these flashcards but i get really pissed when theres a random update and nothing else changesl

 

[mysticwaterfall]

One more thing.

I didn't really get involved into the homebrew community until just a few years ago. I have no knowledge how things were for the GBA or even the DS. How long did it take for both systems to get their 1st flashcart? Is the wait time normal in comparison to the 3DS?

The DS came out in 2004, and the first things that could play DS roms came out in 2005, even though they were very annoying to use (you needed a slot 2 card, a pass me in slot 1, a legit game cart, there were size limitations, etc, etc). The first flashcarts as we think of them today as being easy plug and play devices came out in 2006.

 

[Xarsah16]

I understand Nintendo wants to bock these flashcards but i get really pissed when theres a random update and nothing else changesl

I hate to say it, but it's just put up or shut up - we've got the Supercard team and whoever's handling R4s now making fixes, (well none yet for v6 from what I've heard but I'm sure it'll be out soon enough) so at least there's something. No use complaining about it - either embrace the fact that the scene is working at countering these updates or give up entirely. Nothing's going to stop Nintendo - they'll keep updating until they give up on the 3DS and create a new handheld.

 

[DeMoN]

Nintendo is taking this very personally, it's like they want revenge for how easily we hacked the DS and Wii.

 

[Rydian]

http://gbatemp.net/threads/why-was-my-cart-blocked-how-do-i-unblock-it-firmware-update.315784/

Nintendo blocks flashcards by doing a blacklist

No, they use a whitelist, and just request additional data with each update.
http://hackmii.com/2010/02/lawsuit-coming-in-3-2-1/

 

[Sychophantom]

They sacrificed a goat and read the entrails. You'd be surprised at what a spleen can tell you.