Hacking PSA: Unique Cartridge ID Sharing

[Arras]

has anoyone worked out what GW are doing to enable online , how they go about it , with regards to the file ex change etc ?

The filename change is just so that it knows it should launch that rom in online mode or something, by itself it doesn't do anything special.

 

[DJPlace]

i wonder if they will find a way to patch 3ds games to play online like they do for PS2 games (example PS2 DNSD something) that would fool nintendo good

 

[pwsincd]

The filename change is just so that it knows it should launch that rom in online mode or something, by itself it doesn't do anything special.

so your saying a renamed scene dump will suffice ?

 

[Arras]

so your saying a renamed scene dump will suffice ?

No, it needs some extra data (that is, the unique ID) that most scene dumps don't have. It's not like the rom itself suddenly changes when you rename it though, all that changes is how the gateway handles it.

 

[pwsincd]

The scene dumps dont have the Unique ID of the dumped rom in question , how so ?

 

[Arras]

The scene dumps dont have the Unique ID of the dumped rom in question , how so ?

Because they're normally not part of the ROM, they're stored in a separate chip IIRC. Just inserting them into the rom header data technically makes it a bad dump. Additionally, if all dumps would contain the unique ID, it would be impossible to use SHA/CRC/whatever to verify whether you dumped your ROM correctly.

 

[WhiteMaze]

A little clarification on my end:

We don't know what might happen in the future, the existence of this part of the ROM was just announced. We don't really know how the ID's are used by the servers and what are the ramifications of their misuse in the long run.

The purpose of this PSA is to make users aware of the issue - we assume that the ID's are unique for a reason. Again, you are free to use yours as you please, we merely underline that this is a brand-new field that we know little about.

So far there haven't been any bans at all resulting from the misuse of ID's, but there may be some in the future. The same applies to using flash carts online in general.

Again, your unique ID's are only as unique as you let them be. We care about our user's safety when using their mods and flash kits, so we inform you guys about important issues we consider to be risks. We're not trying to be doom and gloom prophets, we just want you guys safe.

The general rule is that what's put on the Internet stays on the Internet. If you share your cartridge ID's, you do it at your own volition, it's a gamble you take.

I think it would be best to let everyone know now, that using flashcarts online is, and has always been risky, despite this new discovery.

This new "unique ID" workaround, might be useful for a while, but it is only a matter of time before Nintendo figures it out and starts banning people taking advantage of it.

I wouldn't recommend sharing your Unique ID. Nintendo made it, and they can also block it.

So lets cut expectations down, before the hype starts.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

People are always abusing the system and get surprised something shocking happens to their account.

Sony should punish those who got the God of War games from that "glitch".

 

[Metoroid0]

so in other words..... ?

 

[gamesquest1]

... borrow a friend's cartridge? Still is a very ineffective measure to ban people if that's all it takes to get it lifted. Furthermore, poor little Jimmy probably has no form of ID, so for the process you outlined he'd have to use another person's, which I suppose could work (parent/guardians), but it isn't very ideal.

The carts also have a unique code on the back of the cart, it's not beyond the realms of probability that Nintendo would know which cartID belongs to which serial code, so just sending a picture of any old cart might not be enough

 

[joelv6]

while everything is trying to figure out a way about the unique id

Ill say "well done nintendo" you outsmarted the hack community for once

 

[gamesquest1]

while everything is trying to figure out a way about the unique id

Ill say "well done nintendo" you outsmarted the hack community for once

What are you talking about Nintendo hasn't done anything yet and there is no indication they are going to just yet.......or at all, if they had done a "good job" people sharing ID's wouldn't be able to connect in the first place.....emunand wouldn't work, gateway wouldn't work, NDS flashcards wouldn't work, downgrading wouldn't work, your too quick to praise people's paranoia as if Nintendo added to it, people are paranoid enough without nintendo's help

 

[joelv6]

What are you talking about Nintendo hasn't done anything yet and there is no indication they are going to just yet.......or at all, if they had done a "good job" people sharing ID's wouldn't be able to connect in the first place.....emunand wouldn't work, gateway wouldn't work, NDS flashcards wouldn't work, downgrading wouldn't work, your too quick to praise people's paranoia as if Nintendo added to it, people are paranoid enough without nintendo's help

well you do have point. i should of been more specific, i menat to say is that the hacking community is getting all worked up from the unique id in my opinion. i seen the community like this in a while like taking precations and other things

 

[FAST6191]

while everything is trying to figure out a way about the unique id

Ill say "well done nintendo" you outsmarted the hack community for once

well you do have point. i should of been more specific, i menat to say is that the hacking community is getting all worked up from the unique id in my opinion. i seen the community like this in a while like taking precations and other things

It is a first for Nintendo (save perhaps the daigasso/band brothers DLC on the DS or mac address bans on the Wii which were a complete farce really) to do something resembling a security check like this. However PC game copying types, phone hacking, hacking for other consoles, basically anybody that knows how network security or embedded device security works..... has had to deal with this sort of thing for something probably in the decades region at this point.

 

[BvanBart]

Duplicated ID's should only be banned when they can not verify that they do not have the actual cartridge.
If I were Nintendo the check would indeed ban both players for a limited time. In the meanwhile they can "unban" themselves by running an app that looks if the cartridge is genuine.

 

[gamesquest1]

Duplicated ID's should only be banned when they can not verify that they do not have the actual cartridge.
If I were Nintendo the check would indeed ban both players for a limited time. In the meanwhile they can "unban" themselves by running an app that looks if the cartridge is genuine.

How would they get said app if they are banned
I think at this point once in gateway mode gateway can spoof whatever responses they need there is nothing to a game cart that hasn't been ripped now, not to say banning and whatnot is impossible just that it would be in Nintendo's interests to focus on breaking compatibility with gateway I.e via things such as 7.x encryption etc to prevent newer games working and releasing title updates for games now that people don't have eshop

 

[Zanoab]

How would they get said app if they are banned
I think at this point once in gateway mode gateway can spoof whatever responses they need there is nothing to a game cart that hasn't been ripped now, not to say banning and whatnot is impossible just that it would be in Nintendo's interests to focus on breaking compatibility with gateway I.e via things such as 7.x encryption etc to prevent newer games working and releasing title updates for games now that people don't have eshop

Being unable to play online doesn't mean you can't download from the eShop.

Nintendo can also have the app verify the integrity of the firmware, app binaries, and possibly SD card. Being downloadable only means we won't be able to modify the app (not on a redistributable scale anyhow). If we could hack the app, the app would most likely be checking it's binaries online requiring a lot more work than simply circumventing a simple check. The app could expose emunand and using the real nand wouldn't work because it is outdated so the app can't be downloaded in the first place (in this case, it can also test the integrity of the DS profile and expose the exploit).

 

[gamesquest1]

Being unable to play online doesn't mean you can't download from the eShop.

Nintendo can also have the app verify the integrity of the firmware, app binaries, and possibly SD card. Being downloadable only means we won't be able to modify the app (not on a redistributable scale anyhow). If we could hack the app, the app would most likely be checking it's binaries online requiring a lot more work than simply circumventing a simple check. The app could expose emunand and using the real nand wouldn't work because it is outdated so the app can't be downloaded in the first place (in this case, it can also test the integrity of the DS profile and expose the exploit).

Lovely..........but I don't see why everyone has to start trying to predict how the world will end,why not just enjoy it while you can

 

[jagerstaffel]

I've been reading these posts about whether or not Nintendo can tell what game an ID is attached to, I believe they can. Have any of you played Pokemon X/Y online? And I don't mean trading or battling, I mean linking your game to the Global Link website. They're able to tell what game I am playing through the game ID, and they log a ton of activities I do while playing the game.

I wouldn't be surprised if this cartridge ID is very ingrained in the 3DS console, considering that eshop games are imprinted with your console's unique info, it might not be a stretch to say eshop games with online capability are given a unique cartridge ID along with your consoles imprint. Of course now it's a matter of if they'll bother banning...

And to the person wondering if Nintendo cares about you buying a 2nd hand game with a banned cartridge ID, it's out of their hands in the same way they are not responsible for what the previous owner did, such as force flashing junk data into the save slot

 

[smf]

i wonder if they will find a way to patch 3ds games to play online like they do for PS2 games (example PS2 DNSD something) that would fool nintendo good

They have patched 3ds games to play online. If Nintendo did it right then they will be able to block people who didn't dump their own personal copy of the game.

What you should be wondering is if Nintendo did it right or not and if they didn't then how long it will take to figure that out. But it's not like the Wii where they are limited by limitations of dvd's, the security on new game can be improved.

Once the unique id on each cartridge is signed with a strong public key then you have zero chance of avoiding a ban.