Hacking Question How stupid is Nintendo?

[Bonny]

If i take a look at the current Switch hacking-progress, there's really one big question that bothers me: Why isn't Nintendo able to protect their hardware?

Hacking a PS3 is often a hassle with limitations, some models/FW's are unhackabe (as much as i kow). PS4 and XboxOne have been on the market for much longer and are still unhacked.

How f****** incompetent is Nintendo? And why?

 

[Deleted User]

I feel like Nintendo maybe focuses more on hiring people who are able to provide a nice experience for the end user than they do people who are able to keep their consoles secure. I don't know why they'd do that, though.
It could also be that there's not very many people willing to work for Nintendo who have the skills to create something secure?

 

[Kourin]

It's hard to tell if their security is particularly bad or Nintendo consoles are just bigger targets for homebrew because they're usually a million times better hacked and when it comes to piracy, their games are much smaller and are thus quicker and easier to download and Nintendo consoles are often the cheapest.

 

[Bladexdsl]

they made a phone app to do voice chat so does that answer your question?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

It's hard to tell if their security is particularly bad or Nintendo consoles are just bigger targets for homebrew because they're usually a million times better hacked and when it comes to piracy, their games are much smaller and are thus quicker and easier to download and Nintendo consoles are often the cheapest.

I think that's the one

 

[Bonny]

It's hard to tell if their security is particularly bad or Nintendo consoles are just bigger targets for homebrew because they're usually a million times better hacked and when it comes to piracy, their games are much smaller and are thus quicker and easier to download and Nintendo consoles are often the cheapest.

The switch is surely not cheap in my country: 329 Euros just for the console. PS4 and Xbox One are available for 199 Euro

 

[TotalInsanity4]

The switch is surely not cheap in my country: 329 Euros just for the console. PS4 and Xbox One are available for 199 Euro

What were they at launch??

 

[Urbanshadow]

How f****** incompetent is Nintendo? And why?

If somehow you were instantly placed with four of your dearest friends as heads of hardware security at Nintendo, obviously you'll do so much better than them. In half the budget. And getting constant payments from nvidia for upgrading their products.

On a more serious comment I'll tell you this: every big company mistake is usually tied to hard decisions, budget planning and trade-offs. You want the most powerful portable console ever, capable of 720p gaming on the go, with great batteries, better yet feeling and an oustanding NSA-like security starting at 2 bucks in store at release day.

Please, a little bit of reality around here. Cheap systems = cheap construction (in some sense). The switch looks quite sturdy to me, physically. The cost reduction has to be the hw architectural/software.

 

[Bonny]

PS4 and XboxOne? Well, sure. At launch they were much more expensive. Especially the XboxOne with it's stupid Kinect-Bundle.

 

[FAST6191]

I feel like Nintendo maybe focuses more on hiring people who are able to provide a nice experience for the end user than they do people who are able to keep their consoles secure. I don't know why they'd do that, though.
It could also be that there's not very many people willing to work for Nintendo who have the skills to create something secure?

Well that explains their network service and their UIs in games.

 

[Bonny]

If somehow you were instantly placed with four of your dearest friends as heads of hardware security at Nintendo, obviously you'll do so much better than them. In half the budget. And getting constant payments from nvidia for upgrading their products.

I would create a brick-code, would insert it in any scene release that comes out, and upload these manipulated games/software to countless file hosters. I would spread terror and fear

 

[Urbanshadow]

I would create a brick-code, would insert it in any scene release that comes out, and upload these manipulated games/software to countless file hosters. I would spread terror and fear

And promptly get fired because you are wasting your time and company resources on useless code for production.

 

[darklordrs]

May as well ask the same question I ask whenever I see threads like these:

Could you do better?

...

No? Cool, figured. The grand majority of GBAtemp couldn't run more than one lemonade stand at once if they tried, much less properly proof the Switch against people who batter it as hard as they can for months to find exploits. Compared to the other primary major console developers, they have some catching up to do, but they're leagues ahead of everyone else. Chill.

 

[Dionicio3]

I would create a brick-code, would insert it in any scene release that comes out, and upload these manipulated games/software to countless file hosters. I would spread terror and fear

I belive that's illegal

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

XboxOne have been on the market for much longer and are still unhacked.

Sure is unhacked if you don't count people sideloading apps using dev privilege, then why bother hacking when people focusing on homebrew which it can already have access to.

And just cause nintendo security in their stuff isn't good enough to keep hackers out, doesn't make them dumb. We dunno what any of the console engineers plans are or what is capable of outside of the selling point. Some people are just good at hacking things and some are easier than others. Is a matter of time and effort one is willing to invest.

 

[whateverg1012]

How f****** incompetent is Nintendo? And why?

I think it's more due to desperation rather than incompetency, although stuff like this

they made a phone app to do voice chat so does that answer your question?

steer me towards the latter.

If the Switch was a flop it would have been disastrous for Nintendo, security was the least of their worries.

They could have hired a good security team to prevent piracy, hacks, etc. (especially seeing how easy and rampant piracy was on the 3DS and Wii U) but they decided to focus resources on just the essential stuff instead.

It also doesn't help that they rushed the switch out to launch and most of the people who hacked the 3DS are now actively hacking the Switch which afaik has a lot of similarities to the 3DS OS.

They know their console is gonna get hacked, they did the minimum they could which is offer a bug bounty program, but I'm guessing that they decided early on to just rely on the 'stability' update and banwave route.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Maybe Nintendo should have made some other os and then took it away later on.

 

[Deleted-355425]

They just spend most of their R&D/production money on the hardware and games, their software seems to take a hit every time (this includes online services).

 

[Deleted User]

There's no proof, yet people still do posts like these.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Look at the PS4 its been possible to boot Linux on 1.76 for years, later firmware have exploits, yet theirs no piracy or PS4 homebrew yet (although it looks like it might be close at this point on 1.76 at least).

People are getting excited over nothing at this point on the Switch, plus has the entry point been used not already patched by Nintendo on post launch firmware? Sure long term this progress might help, however i'd be surprised if theirs homebrew and piracy anytime soon on the Switch.