It appears that users are being banned from 3DS online services, en masse. There's no direct cause right now, and seemingly no linking factor. This post is meant as an announcement for users, to be wary, and that GBAtemp will keep you updated as soon as more info rolls in. If you have been banned, please post in the thread below, and we will try to keep tabs on the situation. To be extra sure, it can't hurt to turn off your 3DS's wireless capabilities, so you might as well do that for now.

Edit 1: it appears that e-Shop access isn't restricted if you are banned.

Edit 2: A caller to Nintendo reported that the company said this ban is due to "unauthorized software usage".

Edit 3: @LinkSoraZelda is collecting info. Contact him if you are banned.

Edit 4: Click and fill this out if you were BANNED.

Edit 5:

[11:28:19 PM] Clector: Curiously the page of that error in Nintendo Support website used to have this:Error Code: 002-0102 Situation: You receive the error code 002-0102 when attempting to connect online. What to Do: If you continue to experience this issue, please contact Nintendo by calling 1-800-255-3700. Representatives are available from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Pacific Time, 7 days a week.
[11:28:44 PM] Clector: Now it says this: What to Do: If you are experiencing this error code, your Nintendo 3DS family system has been banned due to unauthorized system modifications, play of unauthorized versions of one or more games, and/or connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service. This ban is effective immediately and requests to remove the ban will not be processed.

Thanks to @Joom

Edit 6: Aurora Wright is taking another poll here

Edit 7: Not a lot is known but

There are bans happening, they are happening in all regions.
All models in the 3ds family seem to be candidates for banning.
There is no indication they will be anything other than permanent.
A game or DLC may end up being a cause but there is no one game or DLC that ties banned users together.
The cause or causes are as yet unknown, though it does seem to be related to modifications. Reports of unmodified consoles being banned are as yet unproven.
The banning is tied to something you can modify, thus you can unban. Doing it while the causes are unknown is likely only going to burn a working token though.
There are semi public tokens out there, Nintendo knows how to browse a forum as well as you so don't be surprised if they also get banned.
It does not seem to be limited to a given base firmware version, it does not seem to be limited to any one custom firmware type. There is some speculation that older hacking methods are not being hit as hard but nothing to confirm this yet.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
A simple check to see is checking your friends list, by itself it will not ban you.
Some are turning their wifi off. It is doubtful this will be of much use and being banned does not seem to come with any downsides that wifi being off will not also mimic.
You may have escaped a ban thus far but it could happen at any point. It could be that they stop in the future, it has happened on other consoles, but you would be living in hope rather than any particularly well founded logic.
The bans are done on the side of Nintendo's servers rather than your 3ds so there is also that.

If you hack your devices/games then their online functionality may be troubled. This has been known for decades, Nintendo seems to have finally caught up with that.

Please continue to share information with the thread or the links in previous edits.

Update 5/30

HOW TO HELP AVOID BANS (we think)​

If I was to guess from the information we have gathered since the ban wave, it seems likely that they are looking for TitleIDs that don't exist. Homebrew shows up in the activity log as the Download Play app, and fake CIA's show up as just ??????. That last one is what I'm guessing they are looking for.

If you are not banned yet or before you unban yourself, go into your friends list, choose settings, and turn off the option to "show friends what game you are playing." This will prevent you from playing games online with friends, so turn it back on when you wanna game with someone, but ALWAYS keep it off when running custom CIAs. Next, go into system settings -> internet settings -> spotpass, and turn off BOTH options. One is auto download software, the other sends system information to Nintendo. Also, make sure you don't have your favorite title set to something stupid like FBI or any other non-Nintendo CIA.

Its VERY likely that these options are what tipped off Nintendo, but we aren't 100% certain yet. The amount of banned people that had one of these options turned on was over 80% for each. If I was to assume that some of those people overlap, its very possible (but not confirmed) that 100% of banned people in the survey had at least one of those options turned on. I personally had all of them off and I have TONS of reasons for Nintendo to ban me.... yet I am not banned (yet).

Another bit of advice: Only run custom CIAs when offline, and after you close them, run a "legit" game like Smash Bros. or something before shutting down or going back online. This way your most recent title won't show up as a fake CIA

Current Theories as to what causes a ban
​

* SpotPass Settings: 8 users out of 46 users that were banned have SpotPass completely shut off, or SpotPass only (no friends list visibility)
* Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): Literally all reports ranged from 10.2+, I can get exact numbers for this if you'd like, but all firmwares were affected.
* Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): 44 of the 126 B9S users that answered were banned, pattern was mirrored for A9LH users as well.
* Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and freeShop: Literally about 98% of users both banned and unbanned had some combination of these applications installed. However the common ones were: FBI, HBL, LumaUpdater and NTR.
* Save Modification: Equal amounts of users on both sides have reported save modification in some form, either with PKSM or another save editor
* System Transfers: 188 users said that they had not previously system transfered, 61 of those users were banned; 16 users said they transferred from a hacked console, only three of them received a ban; 13 said they transferred from a stock system and likewise were banned. The rest of our sample did not answer this question.
* Activity Log Information: A majority of those who have not been banned have said they had NOT cleaned their activity logs. I can get exact numbers for this too on request.

This information is just what I've found. Like I said, there could be variables or things we haven't even checked for yet. But these are things that I feel should be disproven, at least with the current dataset we have.

• From the information that we've gathered from some people that have used a packet sniffer such as WireShark, the following data is sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers as soon as the 3DS connects to the internet:
  • Amount of time spent online (timer stops when either the system is disconnected from the internet, or connection drops out, then starts the timer again in a new session when it reconnects to the internet).
  • The game being played and amount of time spent on it during that session.
  • The console's unique hexadecimal ID used in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB, along with it's RSA-signed signature.
  • The console's serial number in which is broadcasted from the SoC and is hard coded in the SoC.
  • Friend Code generated on the Nintendo 3DS system, if one has been generated.
  • Internet connection status (either online or offline).
  • The Nintendo Network ID, if there is one linked to it.
  • Even if the sending of SpotPass Information is switched off, or even hiding your currently playing games. It does not prevent the system from sending currently playing information to Nintendo's online gaming servers, it only hides it from your friends in your friend list (like being invisible on the forum, while mods and admins can still see you). Why? Because even people without a Friend Code on their system have been getting banned too!

• The following data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers:
  • The data from the Nintendo 3DS's Activity Log. Oddly enough, while Nintendo does explicitly state that they collect Activity Log data, they're actually referring to their own server's Activity Log, which always tracks every console's online activity, and keeps a record of them that is stored forever. And is only collected in increments of data through a timer and a currently playing list.
    
  • Games or apps that have not been played, regardless if they're legitimate or not. You only get tracked when you're online and using that game or app.
  • Using games or apps while offline. Even though it is stored on the 3DS console's Activity Log, that data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers.
  • Custom Firmware. Though we can't rule out the possibility of them releasing a 3DS update in the future that adds such function to collect MD5 hashes of files and FIRM data and send them to Nintendo online gaming servers (which would also be updated in a maintenance).

• Things that people think what happens with consoles, but really doesn't:
  • "LocalFriendCodeSeedB is transferred to the system upon doing a system transfer". This is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB remains on the system and does not move to another system.
  • "The console generates a LocalFriendCodeSeedB upon first startup". Again, this is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is made during the manufacturing process at Foxconn. It is generated at the factory, flashed to the NAND flash memory storage, then created as an account on Nintendo's online gaming server and Nintendo eShop server immediately when being manufactured. It is absolutely impossible to generate a LocalFriendCodeSeedB and be able to connect to Nintendo's online gaming server and/or Nintendo eShop server, even if you knew the RSA generation key for it. You'd end up with Error Code 002-0102 "This console's online services have been restricted by Nintendo" if you even tried (the error can either mean two things: The hexadecimal ID doesn't exist on the server, or the request to access the hexadecimal ID has been denied which in other words... banned). So a LocalFriendCodeSeedB generator will NEVER happen! Because it's not worth doing, if it can't connect.
  • Switching off "Currently Playing" information. Once again, this does not hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only hides it from your friends.
  • Switching off SpotPass. Nope, this too doesn't hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only opts-out of receiving SpotPass data, sorry.

So pretty much the bottom line is, if anyone has been using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop while online in the past, guess what? You're screwed! And it is only a matter of time before your console's unique hexadecimal ID in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is banned from Nintendo's online gaming server. This will mean, your console can't access the Friend List or play any online functions in games.

If you have been online while using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop and haven't been banned yet, that's because Nintendo hasn't caught up to you yet. They're still going through each unique hexadecimal ID's Activity Log on their server, and by Activity Log, I mean the Activity Log on their server, not the 3DS console's activity log. And it will be only a matter of time before you're banned too.

Thanks to @Platinum Lucario @MadMageKefka and @ShadowEO !

 

[Gorom87]

I made a account just to try to help.

Console: old 3DS, 11.4 with luma 7.0 and a9 (too lazy to update).
Status: not banned, but I don't know how.
Legit games: Pokemon Y (cartridge), Kid Icarus (cartridge), Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon (cartridge), MH4U, MHGens, Smash, Mario Kart 7, Shovel Knight, Cave Story and some other virtual console games and some legit themes (actually 15 of then).
Apps: basic pack (luma updater, fbi and hbl), that shop (yes, that one), CTRX, homebrew browser, cia angel, JKSMK, CTGP7, NTR, 3ds controller (to play games on pc using 3ds via wifi), snes9x, ftp gmx, CHMM (too lazy to use custom themes, never used it), Virtue's Last Reward safe launcher. Hbl and ntr don't work, again, because I'm too lazy to update.
Not that legit games: A lot, like, a lot... with a lot of VC injections too (50+ only on gba).
How I use my console: I play online a bunch, but never cheated. One time I entered on MK7 online with custom tracks. Anyone coul'd pass me and I got 1st place. It was a experiment and never did it again. One time I tried to play Puyo Puyo Tetris translated (japanese game on a US console) online, but didn't found anyone. Most of the games I play online are legit, but not all of then. A notable one is Bravely Second and Default, wich I upload my data everyday, last time being thursday. Got the new Fire Emblem on launch, played 5 minutes and forgot about it. My little sister plays Pokemon Sun online. Used to get these unlegit games with that shop, but now I just generate a ticket and download from the normal eshop (on Nintendo's face). I have 94 friends, used to have MHGens on favorite game and online status on, but changed because of the banwave. Spotpass was on and every night I turned the wifi on while it was charging, so I could transmit all of that delicious spotpass data.
HOW THE FUCK I'M NOT BANNED?!?

 

[Zekamon]

True. Though I get kind of cautious when people say they were just banned at X time. If you didn't check the right app you won't really know. The Friend List shows you, but Pokemon Shuffle, Nintendo Badge Arcade, Miiverse and the eShop and maybe other stuff too all work fine as well as any online homebrew. Not to mention if you don't usually use these things you won't notice right away.

He checked the Friend List. He is banned no doubt about that. Sucks to be him. He plays Smash Online Tournaments regularily and he can't do that anymore. I just hope not to get banned until it enda so I can share my localfriendcodeseed_b with him. But I won't give it away until it stops.

 

[Zaphod77]

If nintendo could have done this not by hand they would have a while ago.

The Su/Mo ban was prepared for in advance. they just decided anyone who logged in before x date got a ban. simple and foolproof. the warning to reviewers to NOT GO ONLINE was so they didn't get banned. this one is more complicated, because they have to cross reference and do more parsing of the data.

 

[Derpdragon]

Nintendo issues these bans, to the best of my knowledge, by blacklisting the localfriendcodeseed_b from a system. The encryption used on the seeds doesn't change, they just block them. That is my reasoning behind thinking you don't need to analyze unbanned seeds.

Also, there has been a lot of talk regarding cracking the crypto behind the keys, but the problem is that, apparently, SigHax didn't shine any light to the things we need to get the exponents. There have been attempts to crack the RSA, but I doubt bruteforcing it blindly would help at all.

Than with that knowledge, you are correct, it wouldn't help at all. Thanks for shining some light on the situation. I'll run some test on my own system and see if I can invoke a ban on my own system since I don't play online enough to care if I get banned. Like I said, I don't know much about their systems, but I'd like to help anyway I can. If it weren't for the gbatemp community I wouldn't have a hacked 2ds in the first place.

 

[Veranek]

Than with that knowledge, you are correct, it wouldn't help at all. Thanks for shining some light on the situation. I'll run some test on my own system and see if I can invoke a ban on my own system since I don't play online enough to care if I get banned. Like I said, I don't know much about their systems, but I'd like to help anyway I can. If it weren't for the gbatemp community I wouldn't have a hacked 2ds in the first place.

If you need a banned seed, I can provide one and there is also a unbanned seed floating around, if you can't find it, PM me. You seem to know about encryption, I don't, at all, so if you do want to help out you could also join some dev spheres were this is being talked about.

This thread is basically people asking for unbans and speculating, there is not much talk about theoretically cracking the encryption going on here. Sadly there is not much talk about that going on anywhere that I can find.

 

[Deleted User]

So, forgive my ignorance, but is it possible Nintendo leaked a certain popular .cia on that ISO site that somehow is able to identify you if you install it? Or at least potentially could identify anyone with, say, sharing info turned on for said game?

Well if that was possible, we might of saw a trend in what everybody has played, like everyone who got banned would have had to install that exact CIA

 

[Zekamon]

Well if that was possible, we might of saw a trend in what everybody has played, like everyone who got banned would have had to install that exact CIA

That sounds pretty impossible to me. Many banned people didn't pirate before and most of the pirates use thatShop[emoji769] or CIAngel instead of that ISO site.

 

[RoachLok]

As I said:

My guess is that Nintendo has been tracking the 3ds's this past months via Spotpass or whatever (all bans I've seen have used internet at least once this days) and they have been banning those systems which they have detected to be using a CFW. Maybe thats why some systems havent been banned doing exactly the same as other banned consoles and theres no clear patern. I believe they were just masively checking for CFW 3DS randomly because it is impossible to check every single user in their servers and they proceeded to ban all the ones that where detected as cfw.

I quoted myself bcs my initial post was tooooo big..

 

[ShadowEO]

If nintendo could have done this not by hand they would have a while ago.

The Su/Mo ban was prepared for in advance. they just decided anyone who logged in before x date got a ban. simple and foolproof. the warning to reviewers to NOT GO ONLINE was so they didn't get banned. this one is more complicated, because they have to cross reference and do more parsing of the data.

Going in circles won't help the thread. We CANNOT make assumptions about the internals of Nintendo's infrastructure, full stop. Guessing or Assuming anything about how these bans were executed will solve nothing. We need to know WHY it's happening, HOW they're detecting it (not the same as executing), and WHAT we can do to avoid it again.

@RoachLok This actually is very, very possible and is definitely something that hasn't been ruled out even now. As I said, we can't make assumptions to how Nintendo's internal infrastructure runs, only what it sends back to devices and what devices send to it, so it's entirely possible that this was a planned wave and not done at the bizarre whim of some network administrator. Unfortunately, we can't entirely be sure (since we're not NoJ)

 

[Zekamon]

@ReachLok If they would just randomly check for CFW the banwave would've stopped already but it seems like their plan is to kill off every modified console that used online features.

 

[Gorom87]

Just played 2 matches of smash online, still not banned. Amazing.

 

[Zekamon]

Just played 2 matches of smash online, still not banned. Amazing.

You're one lucky bastard. I'm still hoping that this banwave will stop any second now.
.
.
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Aaaaaany second...
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.
.

 

[KytuzuEX]

I played Monster Hunter 4 online and still, I haven't got re-banned.

 

[Zekamon]

I played Monster Hunter 4 online and still, I haven't got banned.

Read my last post for my reaction to your post.

 

[Sonikato]

Long time CFW user. Wrong

Those were more likely banned (like me) than recent CFW less that 1 month.

Downloading nothing from Freeshop and/or not using NTR Offline, it protects you.

I buy mh3u and mh4u, and this is the only play online, im banned since the first banwave


Enviado desde mi XT1097 mediante Tapatalk

 

[Zekamon]

I played Monster Hunter 4 online and still, I haven't got re-banned.

What did you change before unbanning yourself? And when did you unban yourself? Maybe that can help us finding the cause of these bans if you are not getting rebanned.

 

[RoachLok]

WHY it's happening

I guess its because they want to prevent CFW users to cheat in their online servers and them playing online with unofficial copies of the games

HOW they're detecting it

As far as I know only people who had CFW installed and had used SpotPass somehow these days (this last month for example) have been banned. Connecting to Nintendo Servers by any means gives them info about your systems, they might have discovered a common carastistic of all CFW 3DS (such as FBI) and then just randomly checked from all their users who had that caracteristic. Afterwards proceed to ban. As I said this would explain why some have done the same and yet havent been banned, theres just no way to check everyone.

WHAT we can do to avoid it again.

I guess they'll always have the control over their servers. I think we can only wait for the community to come out with a patch so they cant detect who is using a cfw.

 

[ShadowEO]

Just played 2 matches of smash online, still not banned. Amazing.

Some of us have been watching since the ban's beginning and have yet to see a ban regardless of the content. It's part of why we're trying to narrow things down as best as possible!

I want to thank those who have kept with us so far, I think we're actually starting to get somewhere (at least, we could if the same disproven theories aren't continuously brought back up without any real valid arguments as to why we can't fully rule them out)

Once again, the below list is the current debunked theories, however they are open to argument if you have a valid argument as to why they shouldn't be ruled out in correlation with the data we've seen in this thread, each item has been seen not to have influenced the banwave as of yet (this could change, obviously, and I am fully open to debating these points, if you have an actual argument as to why):
My reasoning for the items is included as well, much of it was decided based on data found in this thread. NOTE: This is only my list of currently disproven theories, I'm sure others may exclude some of these, or even include. I'd like to hear from all of you, but please, give a good rational argument to support your case. This is how theories are made and debunked after-all, via constant speculation and debate.

• SpotPass Settings: Some who have been banned have this off, some who have not have it turned on.
• Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): People on all versions have been hit
• Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): People using A9LH and B9S have been hit as well.
• StreetPass Settings (I doubt this was a thing to begin with since StreetPass uses local Wireless for communications)
• Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and *thatShop* (We now have more users who are saying they have these titles installed who aren't banned, myself included)

@RoachLok I agree with your last statement there, but we as a community know absolutely nothing besides that bans are happening and can't really assume anything since this came out of the blue. There's a lot of speculation going on everywhere, and people claiming they know the answer. But they don't.

 

[Slartibartfast42]

1) It could indeed, but what you're describing here is online multiplayer, not SpotPass
2) I'm not attempting to say that at all, if you look at my statement, nowhere does it claim to be a factual list, it is what has appeared based on information.
3) You assume that Nintendo MUST do this all by hand, I assure you after the SuMo ban that they likely do not.

It doesn't matter if the logs are huge. You think they got a monkey checking them? A competent data scientist can spin up a cloud and grind through those logs easy. Have you never heard of Hadoop / MapReduce? If Nintendo doesn't already have this data in a cloud and have staff to analyze it, then they are stupid. But they could hire a contractor to do it for them. I don't really know what's going on in Japan because I can't read Japanese, but in the US and India Data Science is hot hot hot! right now. They are sitting on a goldmine of data and definitely should invest in its analysis.

 

[Gorom87]

Did you saw my 3ds's specifications tho? The fact that I'm not banned is insane.