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 !

 

[DerpMC_Haxx]

Looks like I'm good so far

 

[TinchoX]

I've been left unbanned.

Same here.

Are you confirming you got unbanned? Or that you haven't been banned? [Yet]
Be more clear about it, do not add to the confusion.

 

[toberkel]

^^ This. It's literally impossible to prove without a mass of people confirming it.

Also pics mean literally nothing. unbanning can easily be faked, like said above. Turning off spotpass sharing won't do shit if Nintendo already has the data and you've been banned. And thats presuming spotpass sharing is the cause anyway, it's not been confirmed at all.

That's absolutely true and I agree! But I just wanted anyway to share the info I got. Because I trust this guy 100%

 

[ShadowEO]

I support Nitro's writeup and recommend that everyone actually read it instead of TL;DRing it. Do keep in mind that it is a write-up to support findings in this thread, no way does it purport to provide all the answers (or any, it's a speculative piece)

 

[suzsuzuki]

That's absolutely true and I agree! But I just wanted anyway to share the info I got. Because I trust this guy 100%

Maybe he was banned a days before for online cheating, and not this ban wave. Who knows...

 

[Suji_Pyo]

Having A9LH/ B9S or whatever method you use itself is not a ban reason, Nintendo can't detect these things. Having CFW is very unlikely the reason for these bans too, since we may didn't completely hide it, but there are factors, which are way easier to check for,

like having installed illegitimate titles (FBI, HBL, freeShop, 3DSident, etc). They can easily find them, by checking for unknown titleIDs. It's easy for them to do this, collect data, log us and inspect the logs.

Depending on whether people whose systems had [x,y,z] during periods [a,b,c], they probably got banned, this is not confirmed, but the basic idea of how people got banned. Either we search for the exact titleID which everyone would have needed in their system, which is almost impossible and unrealistic, or Nintendo, like I said, just searched for unknown titleIDs itself instead of for specific targets, both is possible. There are many ways of how they could check for them.
We now know which domains to block in order to stay safe, based on what people said who sniffed the packages which are sent everyday. Blocking these still lets us play online, which itself probably isn't safe, since we don't know which servers the game connects to and which data they will send, we would have to reverse engineer every game for that and this wouldn't let us play online anymore.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
Another explanation might be that Nintendo didn't ban a few people on purpose so we can't find a pattern, but this sounds unlikely, doesn't it?

We may be giving Nintendo too much credit for the banwave, when they could just have done it as an immature reaction to B9S, which some users already suspected. Why didn't they do that when A9LH was released? B9S is "worse" for them. We literally can have full control now, any system so far can be hacked with it and if NTRboothax ever becomes a thing, it might even be a bigger threat for them. This, again, is just speculation, we simply don't know why they did it, their only response was "that people have been using unauthorized software".

Rafa, a very nice guy on our discord, not sure what his Temp name is, began to analyse the results from Aurora's poll (with the nice table I made ;p) and found out that they were not targeting a specific CFW. There is no SOLID proof for that, but it's statistically provable. Even if analysing everything from that poll ends up with everything being random, we could either not have enough/ not exact enough information, the "People whose systems had [x,y,z] during periods [a,b,c]" theory could be true or that Nintendo actually didn't ban everyone.

Regarding the "unbans", we are sure that it is similar to the SuMo banwave, some people got a temporary ban, but most people probably got a permanent ban. But banning someone for 1 day, 2 days or 4 days makes no sense, right? It's not that I don't want to trust the people who've been claiming that, but there is just little to no proof for Nintendo unbanning them and not them unbanning themself. One explanation for getting unban might be, that these people injected another seed, doesn't matter for what reason, that seed got banned, they restored a NAND backup (which contained their old (unbanned) seed) and they weren't banned anymore, there is no proof for this either though, but a few people said they were unbanned after restoring a backup.
If you make a NAND backup, system transfer to this console, can you still use the NAND backup or will it brick? If it worked, that might be another explanation.
Temporary bans are the most realistic and most likely explanation though.

The banwave seems to be over as there haven't been any greater amounts of ban reports in the past few days, right now, they could just be banning individuals for whatever reason, or maybe the banwave is not over, we don't know, sorry.

Blocking the domains, disabling telemetry, not cheating online, never installing or playing unreleased/ out-of-region games, deleting the activity logs, backupping your seed and injecting another one until we can confirm it's over, factory resetting or removing everything that breaks their ToS are security measures you can take in order to not get banned (again), but doing all of this could make you seem suspicious.. or maybe not. Unbanning is still a thing, but stay safe regardless.



This was my little write-up about the banwave. I would like to stress, that many of these infos are NOT (and probably can't be) confirmed! This is 95% speculation. I repeat, this doesn't have to be the truth! This is not an absolute solution or a fix, we might never get any of those..

I would really like to thank rafa, Veranek, Zalexard, enMTW, funkymon and several others from the official inofficial GBATemp 3DS Banwave support server, the past week was very exciting and fun, it was really nice talking, theorising and discussing about the banwave with you guys (and girls) (Also they contributed most of the information from this, I'm not that smart).
(This was written by me, so if there is any wrong information, it was my fault for including it. Please blame me for it and correct me.)


-


You may have a few questions, which is probably why you are visiting this thread.
Anyway, I made a small Q&A in order to answer some questions I saw people asking.
(NOTE: These are speculation, since we can't 100% prove it, but the answers seem very likely and realistic imo):


Q: Is my NNID banned too?

A: No, this only bans your LocalFriendcodeSeed_B.


Q: Is my Switch/ WiiU in danger, because my 3DS got banned?

A: Rather not, these bans only apply to your 3DS and since the NNID isn't banned, your WiiU should be safe.


Q: Are you sure X isn't causing these bans?

A: Maybe, maybe not? I'm pretty sure that the info in my write-up is correct though, but it's only speculation. Feel free to check the "Other possible ban reasons" pastebin in the "Useful Links" list though.


Q: Is this ban permanent?

A: Probably. Multiple Nintendo reps have confirmed this now, but we should wait atleast 10 to 25 more days, so we can be sure. Some people seem to be unbanned though, so some bans may be temporary.


Q: Can I unban my console?

A: Check the "Useful Links" List, there is a link to an unbanning guide.


Q: How can I stay safe?

A: Check the "Useful Links" List, there is a link to a pastebin with instructions, a list of domains you can block and a link to Cthulhu, so you can clean your Activity Log.


Q: How can I contribute?

A: Even just posting information about your banned (or unbanned) console can help! Feel free to discuss or theorise in the thread, in PMs or on discords.


Q: You made a mistake!

A: Please correct me, so I can fix it!


Q: I love you..

A: I know.


If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them.


-


Useful Links:


Unbanning Methods: https://gbatemp.net/threads/all-3-methods-to-get-unbanned-from-recent-ban-wave.450679/

Nintendo's ToS: https://www.nintendo.com/terms-of-use

Nintendo's 3DS EULA & Privacy Policy: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/info/en_na/docs.jsp

List of Domains to block: https://gbatemp.net/threads/regarding-the-recent-3ds-banwave.471781/page-291#post-7346389 (Don't block the connection test domain!)

Nintendo & Collecting Data: https://gbatemp.net/threads/regarding-the-recent-3ds-banwave.471781/page-277#post-7345664

Poll Results: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...I38qp5IVKlk6lSCK0zeMZvijUqrPIuw/viewanalytics

Poll Results (table): https://mega.nz/#!Dkkj0bJI!GBW12aQFP-nFV_j80gWvwwd0XactCvnpIZeAQokCW2Q
|- with Rafa's Analysis: https://mega.nz/#!v49myRZD!7y09cP5_0zsc1YG0U3xRLphxevfpta7M-RqjbeDqgHw

Rafa's Results: http://i.imgur.com/7tU7dWX.png

How To Stay Incognito: https://pastebin.com/FPAES6eA

Cthulhu (Cleaning Activiy Logs): https://gbatemp.net/threads/release...ime-step-history-and-cached-icon-data.439485/

Other possible ban reasons: https://pastebin.com/B7Ts9v7d

Looking at the results installing CIAs might be the cause of ban as you stated before.

 

[DerpMC_Haxx]

A bit off topic but how do i update from a9lh to b9s? I checked out 3ds guide but I'm still confused

 

[nitroBW]

A bit off topic but how do i update from a9lh to b9s? I checked out 3ds guide but I'm still confused

https://3ds.guide/updating-to-boot9strap.html

 

[DerpMC_Haxx]

https://3ds.guide/updating-to-boot9strap.html

Would it be safe to proceed now?

 

[nitroBW]

Would it be safe to proceed now?

Disable wifi if you are too paranoid lol

 

[Bluespheal]

That's absolutely true and I agree! But I just wanted anyway to share the info I got. Because I trust this guy 100%

Anything special your friend did to get unbanned? there have been reports of unbannings, although they seem fake, it seems to be worth a shot, until we have more info, this is the best some can do.

 

[Osakasan]

Ok so i decided to do the following:

1.- Do a current NAND backup
2.- Restore my lastest NAND backup
3.- Extract the banned LocalFriendCodeSeed_B (didn't do that originally)
4.- Reinject the original LFCS_B

There seems to be some kind of chance to be oficially unbanned? If there is, i want to try my luck. I'll keep the public LFCS_B just in case i want to go back online for something (I may transfer my lv 100 pokémon army from OR to Sun, finally). Also, i read over here that there's the risk to get your NNID banned using a public seed, and i don't want that (too much money invested on the eShop)

 

[Slashkin]

It's me again, and this my report for this evening. All is fine, no one get ban.
Any good news?

 

[Retaliator]

didn't get a ban.
running a9lh, i've played a bunch of installed cias along titlekeys with the games downloaded from their repos.
it just ocurred to me i don't seem to have been playing anything online lately but i do go to eshop often
i also never used the friendlist before, in fact when i opened it regarding this to check my options i believe it had to create new files, the same way it creates a new title database when you wipe the system.
i've played the leaked pokemon moon back in the day, even checked for mystery gifts lol

 

[TinchoX]

It's me again, and this my report for this evening. All is fine, no one get ban.
Any good news?

Same old, same old... except maybe there's been some people claiming they got UNBANNED out of nowhere.
Hard to believe, even if presented with evidence, but as for me, if there's no massive amounts of people claiming the same, even one or two isolated cases will not convince me...

 

[Joshwraith]

Maybe Nintendo find a way to check if we have signature patches on = cfw, this will trigger the alarm, I don't know if this make sense.!

Someone was banned but only has cfw without any homebrew app installed ? That is the only way to know if they can detect the cfw itself.

 

[pillows2]

I've been left unbanned.

Same

 

[zeldaism]

Are you confirming you got unbanned? Or that you haven't been banned? [Yet]
Be more clear about it, do not add to the confusion.

I haven't been banned at all.

 

[daddu3]

Have u been going online since the banwave started? Or have u just been laying low?

Super-late answer but yes. Been testing with Alpha Sapphire's online, though I don't really go balls-deep with it (since well, I should be getting a ban just by accessing the online.)

Speaking which, still no ban. Huh.

 

[suzsuzuki]

Ok so i decided to do the following:

1.- Do a current NAND backup
2.- Restore my lastest NAND backup
3.- Extract the banned LocalFriendCodeSeed_B (didn't do that originally)
4.- Reinject the original LFCS_B

There seems to be some kind of chance to be oficially unbanned? If there is, i want to try my luck. I'll keep the public LFCS_B just in case i want to go back online for something (I may transfer my lv 100 pokémon army from OR to Sun, finally). Also, i read over here that there's the risk to get your NNID banned using a public seed, and i don't want that (too much money invested on the eShop)

I think the best thing you can do is wait some days to see if people will get unbanned. Keep using your banned seed. I have the same concern as you.