Hacking SX Brickcode is Worse Than Expected, Can Trigger From Use

[CarefulCrysis]

I never made a nand backup and I've used sx os, if I make a nand backup will it still have stuff from sx os?

 

[GBADWB]

I'm surprised by how people act.

Although I do wish there was a better writeup with a few evidence of said ways to trigger possible to be shown for legitimacy sakes, some people need to realize that some people out there literally study code and exploits to warn people.

This in particular are for those who rather fix the problem later than acknowledge it now, and is waiting for a subset of people to get bricked before freaking out. If people acted like this, the researchers who find major exploits like to bring recency sake, Spectre and Meltdown in virtually all preemptive cpus within the last decade. None of these exploits were released to the public or used maliciously yet (at least not that I know of). You would be pretty dumb to wait till someone gets infected instead of at the very minimum, get the warning so that it may or may not be possible to help prevent such exploit from happening.

 

[Deleted-401606]

As Hexkyz dives deeper into a codebase stolen from other devs (including himself), we come to find out that the brickcode isn't just a NAND lock. It turns out the brick situation is far worse and far more nefarious as well as able to be triggered without even a need to tamper with the system:

https://twitter.com/hexkyz/status/1012363017957380096

SX OS is malware.

This is unacceptable in my honest opinion.You are purchasing something and by that purchase you are giving Team Xecuter a BIG red button to permanently destroy your switch. It seems too many people here don't spend too much time in abstract thought,it's all herd mentality aka group think at gbatemp.

 

[Deleted User]

I never made a nand backup and I've used sx os, if I make a nand backup will it still have stuff from sx os?

Probably, especially if you opened the backup loader menu. But the brick code is not in the backup it's in the payload on the SD.

 

[Trappie]

This is unacceptable in my honest opinion.You are purchasing something and by that purchase you are giving Team Xecuter a BIG red button to permanently destroy your switch. It seems too many people here don't spend too much time in abstract thought,it's all herd mentality aka group think at gbatemp.

If my console is bricked and I can show TX my purchase receipt I’m sure they’ll help me somehow. I’m not the type of guy who goes soldering his switch or try to hack shit.

 

[nikeymikey]

Blah credit card blah overpriced blah I’m too tight to buy one myself.

Why are you so bothered about people spending the money they earned on whatever they like???

I certainly don’t think £35 is overpriced, if it was £65 then maybe but it’s less than the price of a “AAA” games and lets you play shitloads of games!! That’s definitely a bargain for now while the scene argues amongst itself about morals and try’s to copy TX’s backup loader! I’ll be playing games while this shit goes down!!!

Btw free isn’t always better, I still use my Gateway over Luma at lot of the time, 3ds files are just more convenient that installing and uninstalling CIA’s all the time!!

 

[leerpsp]

Why are any of you OK with code that intentionally bricks your Switch being in a product you use, even if you aren't likely to trigger it?
I would not feel safe running a program that even contains bricking code because it could be triggered by a bug.
Yes, it's SUPPOSED to only be triggered if you crack it but we all know what happened with Gateway.

Also I would never use a product that contained bricking code on principle - blocking the use of your own product if it's pirated is fine, but bricking the device it's on is just immoral. Imagine if Windows erased the BIOS chip if it detected it was pirated...

I don't think most anyone is ok with it i'm not and don't fell safe with running it now that i know this.
Wish I knew most of this before I payed for the key and if i was able to get a refund i would.
I am using it now my switch has been docked in sleep mode for days running the 1.2ver and it seems ok but I will hold off on updating tell others have tested out any new updates.
If i have to reboot the switch for any reason I may not boot back into this cfw for a wile in hopes they remove the brick code.

 

[urherenow]

You can't NAND backup your boot partition, the brickcode also corrupts that very basic facet of your system's functionality.

wut? Who says you can't back up the boot partition? You can back up the whole thing.

EDIT: not only do I have a full backup, but I have a backup in several parts, including boot0 and boot1.

 

[Deleted-401606]

I don't think most anyone is ok with it i'm not and don't fell safe with running it now that i know this.
Wish I knew most of this before I payed for the key and if i was able to get a refund i would.
I am using it now my switch has been docked in sleep mode for days running the 1.2ver and it seems ok but I will hold off on updating tell others have tested out any new updates.
If i have to reboot the switch for any reason I may not boot back into this cfw for a wile in hopes they remove the brick code.

I would say there is a better chance that North Korea gets rid of it's nukes before Team X removes the brick code.

 

[Halvorsen]

wut? Who says you can't back up the boot partition? You can back up the whole thing.

a NAND backup isn't everything and won't save you when you can't interface with the NAND (reporting its size as zero bytes, meaning the copy with something like a hardmod would still fail since you're copying to a device with a reported zero bytes.

 

[linuxares]

I never made a nand backup and I've used sx os, if I make a nand backup will it still have stuff from sx os?

Nope, SXOS is only in the RAM when you load the payload. It doesn't "install" anything. So do a NAND Backup for safety

 

[urherenow]

a NAND backup isn't everything and won't save you when you can't interface with the NAND / boot the console in the first place.

lol, there is NOTHING that can prevent you from interfacing with the nand. Worst case, is the need for a hard mod. Even Gateway's bricks (nand locked for writing) were undone with a hardmod and linux.

 

[CarefulCrysis]

Nope, SXOS is only in the RAM when you load the payload. It doesn't "install" anything. So do a NAND Backup for safety

thought that was the case thanks for clearing it for me

 

[Halvorsen]

Read the edit. It is impossible from the context of working straight from the Switch itself. A hardware mod is still technically possible, but even then not in the traditional sense as it takes more than just copy/pasting a nand.bin.

 

[leerpsp]

If my console is bricked and I can show TX my purchase receipt I’m sure they’ll help me somehow. I’m not the type of guy who goes soldering his switch or try to hack shit.

That's funny. I don't think they will help you at all.
if tx bricked your switch will.... let me put it this way... if tx was a sinking ship with a life boat then they would pop your life boat before you can get in it.

 

[Halvorsen]

If my console is bricked and I can show TX my purchase receipt I’m sure they’ll help me somehow. I’m not the type of guy who goes soldering his switch or try to hack shit.

That's funny. I don't think they will help you at all.
if tx bricked your switch will.... let me put it this way... if tx was a sinking ship with a life boat then they would pop your life boat before you can get in it.

and don't forget to mention that they already blatantly said they aren't responsible for bricked units in the first place

 

[s-arash]

there's not even a single brick report from legit users till now

 

[tyler004]

Yeah my switch shuts for me too when it arrives at a certain battery level, but the problem started when I downloaded fortnite so... don't play that game or it will brick your switch owo

So that happened to me with my switch but the battery fix fixed it used it last week now plays great used to shut off at 50% and system wouldn't go past 15% now works great

 

[datahoarder]

there's not even a single brick report from legit users till now

because every single user is on GBAtemp. /s and no one is saying it's happening en masse yet.
It's just being said that there is a probability (by design) that it could happen when there shouldn't be that extra chance.
What is it about this that people don't get? It's not piracy vs x. It's about a mine-trap waiting to be set off, accidental or otherwise.

Is it really going to take someone making a home-brew program that secretly activates the brick code in SXOS and bricks several consoles before people listen?

 

[cearp]

Is it really going to take someone making a home-brew program that secretly activates the brick code in SXOS and bricks several consoles before people listen?

what?
that's evil stuff.
tx doesn't normally brick your device. (apart from that one guy who reversed it and triggered the brick code)
but you sound like you want someone to make a homebrew that makes sx os brick your switch for certain.
very weird.

anyway - isn't the sx os (and thus brick code) only executed at boot?
how would homebrew interfere with that?