It's been a while without any major exploits in the Wii U scene, so I present to you:

USB Descriptor Parsing Is Hard (UDPIH)​

An exploit for the Wii U's USB Host Stack. Pronounced like "mud pie" without the M.

The write-up can be found here!

What does this mean?​

Since the USB Stack is running before anything on the PPC side of the Wii U is booted, this allows unbricking things like CBHC bricks without any soldering!

Requirements​

• A Wii U
• One of the devices listed below
  Note: Any other linux device capable of USB device emulation should work as well.
  Prebuilt releases are only available for the Pico and Zero.
  I will add more devices below which are confirmed to work.

Supported devices:​

• A Raspberry Pi Pico or Zero
• A Nintendo Switch capable of running udpih_nxpayload

Instructions​

Pico​

• Download the latest udpih.uf2 from the releases page.
• Hold down the BOOTSEL button on the board and connect the Pico to your PC.
  Your PC will detect the Pi as a storage device.
• Copy the .uf2 file to the Pico. It will disconnect after a few seconds.

The Pico is now flashed and can be used for udpih. Continue with "Booting the recovery_menu" below.

Raspberry Pi Zero (Linux)​

• Install the required dependencies:
  

  sudo apt install build-essential raspberrypi-kernel-headers

• Clone the repo:

• git clone https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/udpih.git
  cd udpih

• Download the latest arm_kernel.bin.h from the releases page and copy it to the arm_kernel directory.
• Now build the kernel module:

• cd linux
  make

• You can now run sudo insmod udpih.ko to insert the kernel module into the kernel.

The Zero is now ready to be used for udpih.
Note that you'll need to insert the module again after rebooting the Zero. You will need 2 USB cables, one for powering the Zero and one which can be connected to the Wii U.

Continue with "Booting the recovery_menu" below.

Booting the recovery_menu​

Important notes for this to work:

• Make sure no other USB Devices are attached to the console.
• Only use USB ports on the front of the console, the back ports will not work.
• If your console has standby mode enabled, pull the power plug and turn it on from a full coldboot state.

• Copy the latest release of the recovery_menu to the root of your FAT32 formatted SD Card.
• Insert the SD Card into the console and power it on.
• As soon as you see the "Wii U" logo on the TV or Gamepad plug in your Zero/Pico.
  This timing is important. If you're already in the menu, the exploit won't work..
• After a few seconds you should be in the recovery menu.

So what's this recovery menu? The recovery menu allows you to fix several bricks:

Wii U Recovery Menu​

A simple recovery menu running on the IOSU for unbricking.

Options​

Set Coldboot Title
Allows changing the current title the console boots to.
Useful for unbricking CBHC bricks.
Possible options are:

• Wii U Menu (JPN) - 00050010-10040000
• Wii U Menu (USA) - 00050010-10040100
• Wii U Menu (EUR) - 00050010-10040200

On non-retail systems the following additional options are available:

• System Config Tool - 00050010-1F700500
• DEVMENU (pre-2.09) - 00050010-1F7001FF
• Kiosk Menu - 00050010-1FA81000

Dump Syslogs
Copies all system logs to a logs folder on the root of the SD Card.

Dump OTP + SEEPROM
Dumps the OTP and SEEPROM to otp.bin and seeprom.bin on the root of the SD Card.

Start wupserver
Starts wupserver which allows connecting to the console from a PC using wupclient.

Load Network Configuration
Loads a network configuration from the SD, and temporarily applies it to use wupserver.
The configurations will be loaded from a network.cfg file on the root of your SD.
For using the ethernet adapter, the file should look like this:

type=eth

For using wifi:

type=wifi
ssid=ssidhere
key=wifikeyhere
key_type=WPA2_PSK_AES

Pair Gamepad
Displays the Gamepad Pin and allows pairing a Gamepad to the system. Also bypasses any region checks while pairing.
The numeric values represent the following symbols: ♠ = 0, ♥ = 1, ♦ = 2, ♣ = 3.
Note that rebooting the system might be required to use the newly paired gamepad.

Install WUP
Installs a valid signed WUP from the install folder on the root of your SD Card.
Don't place the WUP into any subfolders.

Edit Parental Controls
Displays the current Parental Controls pin configuration.
Allows disabling Parental Controls.

Debug System Region
Fixes bricks caused by setting productArea and/or gameRegion to an invalid value. Symptoms include being unable to launch System Settings or other in-region titles.

System Information
Displays info about several parts of the system.
Including serial number, manufacturing date, console type, regions, memory devices...

Credits​

• @Maschell for the network configuration types
• @dimok789 for mocha
• @hexkyz for hexFW
• @rw-r-r-0644 for the lolserial code

Special thanks to Maschell, rw-r-r-0644, QuarkTheAwesome, vgmoose, exjam, dimok789, and everyone else who contributed to the Wii U scene!

 

[GaryOderNichts]

Unknow key type!

Can you post a picture of the output here?

 

[modernvisionpt]

Confg file with wifi password:

Config file without password:

 

[GaryOderNichts]

Confg file with wifi password:

View attachment 313612
Config file without password:

View attachment 313614

It's case sensitive, change none to NONE.

 

[mau9128]

hi gary, my wii u freezes. In the wii u logo. Can this pi zero method help me?

 

[GaryOderNichts]

hi gary, my wii u freezes. In the wii u logo. Can this pi zero method help me?

What did you do before it started freezing?

 

[modernvisionpt]

It's case sensitive, change none to NONE.

Yes, it is. But still don't have acess to wifi network.

 

[mau9128]

What did you do before it started freezing?

Buy a second-hand console at a good price. When I use it, it just freezes and doesn't go to the start menu. I'm new to this I think it's already brick

 

[GaryOderNichts]

Buy a second-hand console at a good price. When I use it, it just freezes and doesn't go to the start menu. I'm new to this I think it's already brick

You can use udpih to dump syslogs, then see what's going on.

 

[GaryOderNichts]

Yes, it is. But still don't have acess to wifi network.

Try the wupserver option a few times. If it times out, start it agian.

 

[godreborn]

Try the wupserver option a few times. If it times out, start it agian.

is wupserver still slow as hell? I remember install haxchi with it, and it took minutes for the rom.zip.

 

[modernvisionpt]

Try the wupserver option a few times. If it times out, start it agian.

If it runs okay, it will show ip right?

 

[mau9128]

Puede usar udpih para volcar syslogs y luego ver qué está pasando.

You can use udpih to dump syslogs, then see what's going on.

Thanks Gary, I'll give it a try.

 

[GaryOderNichts]

If it runs okay, it will show ip right?

Yeah, it does.

 

[modernvisionpt]

My bad, network.cfg was created in UTF8 it must be in ANSI. Solved.

After that, i download parent.xml file ("/vol/system/proc/prefs/parent.xml"), search for pin_code, and finally i have my console again!

Forget mkey site, if you don't have internet on in your Wii U, this is the easy way.

Thanks for @GaryOderNichts

 

[GaryOderNichts]

UDPIH Release 2​

Changelog:

• The console now powers off if the recovery_menu cannot be loaded from the SD Card.
• The gadget now supports both full speed and high speed mode, to support more linux systems.

UDPIH NXPayload Release 2​

Changelog:

• The payload now properly supports and uses xusb on all consoles.
  • This means mariko units should be supported now.
  • The payload no longer needs minerva, which was requiring the minerva hekate module on the SD Card.
• The "Reboot (RCM)" options is now disabled on patched consoles and "Reboot to hekate" is disabled if hekate cannot be found.
• Udpih was updated to Release 2.

 

[BaamAlex]

@GaryOderNichts can this exploit be fixed via firmware update? I mean, tiramisu blocks them, but still an interesting question for me.

 

[Maschell]

@GaryOderNichts can this exploit be fixed via firmware update? I mean, tiramisu blocks them, but still an interesting question for me.

Yes, all public Wii U exploits can be easily fixed with a software update

 

[BaamAlex]

Yes, all public Wii U exploits can be easily fixed with a software update

Then let's hope they don't go into rampage mode and fix it

 

[Ondrashek06]

It's not a HW-based exploit like the Switch one. Once Nintendo releases a new firmware update and you flash it, the exploit is gone.

 

[GaryOderNichts]

It's not a HW-based exploit like the Switch one. Once Nintendo releases a new firmware update and you flash it, the exploit is gone.

If they bother fixing it. The last few updates didn't fix any vulnerabilities.