Hacking Nintendo Switch Secure Boot

[Ranomez]

I only referenced it as a argument. Most people flash their firmwares on phones. [Uncommonly firmwares are made for tablets although that's not really common in Android scene especially if your tablet is chinese one]

Custom firmware for tablets is just as common for big brand ones as it is for big brand phones, custom firmware for Chinese phones is also as uncommon as it is for tablets (except in both cases big name Chinese manufacturers where custom firmware is just as common).
That being said I have 2 tablets that are in no way big brand ones and one is Chinese (Onda) and one French (Archos) and both got custom firmware (the Archos one pushing it to the limit: android 4.0.3 running on 1Ghz single core with 256MB RAM).
Switch is indeed somewhat of a tablet and I would not be surprised if in a few years there will even be android running on the thing, that being said it's a long way till that, a bootloader exploit will first be needed which might or might not ever happen.
That being said getting access to APX mode is a good first step but I honestly wouldn't play with that since as I already mentioned it can be quite dangerous.

EDIT: That being said since you did mention SD redirection it would be completely possible to get android booting in such a way even with just a kernel exploit, Haret style. Would even be possible to do it although the switch has TZ and Secure Boot with a bit of tinkering, basically would need to not completely kick the switch kernel off once the Android one is booting.

 

[xile6]

The switch is no more of a tablet then a ps4.
Just because it run Unix, doesnt it its and android tablet.

 

[Ranomez]

The switch is no more of a tablet then a ps4.
Just because it run Unix, doesnt it its and android tablet.

Should I remind you that the first real tablets were not running any popular mobile OS but proprietary ones that were amazingly restrictive (mainly just playing music and writing txt files on them, nothing more, not even java games) and that probably only a handful of people even know about the existence of said tablets (yes that was way back before the iPad and way before the WebOS and Windows CE/Mobile ones) ?
The switch is a portable device, lacking media capabilities for now but I can totally see Nintendo adding those later (music, video player, etc) and then what would make it so different from a tablet?
Also it is definitely running on modern tablet hardware.

EDIT: Indeed you are right with one point: it is not an android tablet but it still is sort of a tablet, that's what I was trying to point out.
And even so it doesn't mean that one day we won't see it running android and then it'll also be an android tablet.

 

[GerbilSoft]

Going back some years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_for_Pen_Computing

A variant of Windows 3.1 designed for x86 tablet PCs... in 1992. Obviously it didn't take off, since barely anyone knows about it.

 

[Deletedmember331810]

You were new and unknown once as well, we all were. So why do you feel a need to treat the dude like garbage and saying what you did instead of welcoming him and asking for more clarification?
Instead of belittling and discrediting folks who know more than you maybe you could shut your mouth and listen instead?

Unknown person, 3 posts only, lot's of what sounds like speculations and not actual proof of anything. The person itself can do it and show it.

 

[Joom]

The switch is no more of a tablet then a ps4.
Just because it run Unix, doesnt it its and android tablet.

It doesn't run UNIX. I wish people would stop thinking this.

 

[linuxares]

It doesn't run UNIX. I wish people would stop thinking this.

Ehm... sort of. It's using components from this and that.

 

[Joom]

Ehm... sort of. It's using components from this and that.

It's using the network stack from FreeBSD, hence the FreeBSD license.

 

[linuxares]

It's using the network stack from FreeBSD, hence the FreeBSD license.

That's just a theory as far as I know. It's also using android components on some things as well.

 

[GerbilSoft]

It doesn't run UNIX. I wish people would stop thinking this.

It's a UNIX system; I know this!

But on a serious note: Basically every major OS vendor has taken parts from the BSD network stacks. The original Windows NT network stack was taken from the various BSDs that were around at the time, but has since been rewritten. (Most of the BSD code is gone as of Vista, though some small utilities remain.)

 

[Joom]

It's a UNIX system; I know this!

But on a serious note: Basically every major OS vendor has taken parts from the BSD network stacks. The original Windows NT network stack was taken from the various BSDs that were around at the time, but has since been rewritten. (Most of the BSD code is gone as of Vista, though some small utilities remain.)

I was gonna mention that just about every single OS uses the FreeBSD network stack, but didn't want to because I wasn't entirely true.

 

[dubbz82]

Ehm... sort of. It's using components from this and that.

Not sort of. Not at all actually. Its no closer to Unix than a windows pc.

 

[RyleWeststar]

Not sort of. Not at all actually. Its no closer to Unix than a windows pc.

Uh oh...

See the "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" feature.

And even before then, older versions of Windows had Unix certification thanks to the Microsoft POSIX subsystem.

I remember old system administrators having a hard time arguing back in the NT days that Windows wasn't UNIX when it had certifications saying otherwise, which lead to a fair bit of enterprise software being ported over to Windows.

 

[GerbilSoft]

And even before then, older versions of Windows had Unix certification thanks to the Microsoft POSIX subsystem.

The POSIX subsystem was the bare minimum to tick off a checkbox on some government certification. It wasn't actually useful for anything.

 

[RyleWeststar]

The POSIX subsystem was the bare minimum to tick off a checkbox on some government certification. It wasn't actually useful for anything.

I've seen "Windows Services for UNIX" which made use of the Microsoft POSIX subsystem actively for both access to filedrops on older UNIX mainframes NFS shares to ports of software that I ended up having to maintain for some time. It was used enough for it to appear a few times in my consultancy work in both private and public sector.

Edit: If you want to discuss this further, we should start another thread so we don't go too off topic here. My original post was meant to be a bit of humour.

 

[jt_1258]

I've seen "Windows Services for UNIX" which made use of the Microsoft POSIX subsystem actively for both access to filedrops on older UNIX mainframes NFS shares to ports of software that I ended up having to maintain for some time. It was used enough for it to appear a few times in my consultancy work in both private and public sector.

Edit: If you want to discuss this further, we should start another thread so we don't go too off topic here. My original post was meant to be a bit of humour.

once you hit 10 posts you can also do private messages with multiple people too if I recall correctly

 

[xaliax]

This post had RCM since beggining of 2017 and no-one paid attention to it....

 

[smf]

This post had RCM since beggining of 2017 and no-one paid attention to it....

They must have, or someone wouldn't have then developed an exploit for RCM.

 

[Miqote]

Holy crap, that bump. I was really confused until I looked at the dates.

 

[Draxzelex]

This post had RCM since beggining of 2017 and no-one paid attention to it....

People did but some of them didn't give OP benefit of the doubt. No need to name names as they're all listed there on the previous page