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Wii Update 3.3 Defeats Twilight Hack, Freeloader

Posted by timothy on Wed Jun 18, 2008 02:51 PM
from the wii-wii-wii-all-the-way-home dept.
Hardware Hacking Wii (Games) Entertainment Games
Richter X writes "The newest update to the Nintendo Wii's Menu, version 3.3, contains code specifically designed to find and kill the popular Twilight Hack used by homebrewers to play unauthorized code on the Wii. The update also prevents the Freeloader software used to play imported games on the Wii. However, it does not seem to affect the Homebrew Channel in Wiis that already have it installed. The updated code is currently being researched in order to find what code has been changed. So far it has been confirmed that Nintendo included specific instructions to target the Twilight Hack. Work is also being done to update the Twilight Hack in order to bypass this new code."
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Submission: Wii Update 3.3 Defeats Twilight Hack, Freeloader by Richter X (740096)
[+] Games: Twilight Hack Defeats Wii Menu Update 3.3 199 comments
Croakyvoice writes "Only days after Nintendo shipped Wii Menu 3.3, which stopped the Twilight Hack from working, the team lead by Bushing brought out a new version of the Homebrew enabling hack for the Nintendo Wii using the Zelda Game and a hacked save game."
[+] World's First Custom Firmware For Wii Released 165 comments
Croakyvoice writes "Waninkoko has released the world's first custom firmware for the Nintendo Wii, which is installed using the twilight hack; among its features is the ability to allow writeable DVDs to be read in emulators. From the readme: 'The Custom Firmware installs as IOS249 and it does not modify any other IOS so it is secure to install and has been made to be used ONLY with homebrew software. This is a custom IOS, an IOS modified to add some new features not available in the official IOS.'"
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Wii Update 3.3 Defeats Twilight Hack, Freeloader 50 Comments More /

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  • Countdown (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LameAssTheMity (998266) <william.brien@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 18 2008, @02:55PM (#23844165)
    I wonder how long it will take to get around the newest most securest(tm) DRM EVER?!

    • Re:Countdown (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chyeld (713439) <chyeld&newsguy,com> on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:17PM (#23844545)
      They've already found the bugs in the new code (which actually specificly looks for the TP hack save, rather than doing something nifty like verfiying saves in general) which will allow them to defeat it. The details aren't public but have been announced in general steps to many of the homebrew sites.

      If I weren't at work behind a filter that thinks homebrew is 'illegal software', I'd post a link to an article or two.

      But you should be able to check www.wiibrew.org... if I remember the URL. Sorry, I have bookmarkitis.

    • Re:Countdown (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 0100010001010011 (652467) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:19PM (#23844587)
      Is it a crack or a fixing of a bug/exploit? Home brew channel still works, mod chips still work, etc.

      Wouldn't complaining about Nintendo fixing a known exploit be like complaining about Microsoft fixing a known hole in XP?

      A known overflow/exploit is found.
      Company fixes known overflow/exploit.
      People outraged that you can't "crack" a box like you used to.

      You know that this might have fixed someone from remotely rooting your Wii?
      • and why won't you share you stingy bastard?

        A flaw in an internet-aware OS: one thing.

        A flaw that requires someone to load a hacked savegame, and do something specific in a specific game?

        Further, the only difference between the two being that in the second case, the "flaw" is actually the FIX for the broken and stupid nature of the OS?

        Really now. I have right of first sale on my side. I bought *hardware*. If I want to load linux on it, that's my fucking business and Nintendo can go fuck themselves. The worst

        • Re:WTF are you smoking (Score:5, Insightful)

          by digitrev (989335) <digitrev@hotmail.com> on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:56PM (#23845191) Homepage
          Look. These updates are not mandatory. My Wii currently is not connected to the internet and doing just fine. Even when it is, you have to set it up to install updates automatically. You should have known that by hacking a proprietary system that further updates would probably screw over your hack. Just be glad you didn't get bricked. Caveat emptor, my friend.

          • Re:WTF are you smoking (Score:4, Insightful)

            by KillerBob (217953) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @04:22PM (#23845653)
            some of the updates are manditory, and they do have the ability to force one through a game... I had to install an update to my console the first time I played Mario Kart.

            • Re:WTF are you smoking (Score:5, Insightful)

              by vux984 (928602) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @04:29PM (#23845739)
              I had to install an update to my console the first time I played Mario Kart.

              You didn't have to play Mario Kart.

              • Re:WTF are you smoking (Score:5, Insightful)

                by Von Helmet (727753) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @04:56PM (#23846129)

                Parent is correct. I agree that a person buying hardware has the right to do whatever they like with it. However, I'm not sure where people get the idea that a supplier is then obliged to support their non-standard hardware/firmware with regard to games or online services.

              • would have prevented Mario Kart from running except for a little "check for OS version X" flag.

                It was Nintendo's way of trying to force updates.

                I call foul.

              • I had to install an update to my console the first time I played Mario Kart. You didn't have to play Mario Kart.
                No, but he couldn't have returned it to the store either, since it had already been opened.

                • Re:WTF are you smoking (Score:4, Insightful)

                  by vux984 (928602) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @05:59PM (#23846975)
                  No, but he couldn't have returned it to the store either, since it had already been opened.

                  Caveat emptor.

                  As far as I'm concerned the moment you hack your console to do homebrew or whatever else, you forfeit the expectation that purchased software released in the future will work or be compatible.

                  Next time rent the game before buying it. Or check on the net if there are issues with you 'homebrew' stuff before buying a title.

                  Plus, at least with the case of MK:Wii he can sell it easily.... MK:Wii in particular probably sell quickly... its been sold out every time I've tried getting one in the last month.

                  • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                    by KillerBob (217953)

                    As far as I'm concerned the moment you hack your console to do homebrew or whatever else, you forfeit the expectation that purchased software released in the future will work or be compatible.

                    Oh, I agree with you fully. I haven't hacked my Wii, and I have no intention of doing so. I have an HTPC and a laptop computer for stuff like that, and have absolutely no reason to void the warranty on my console. I bought the console for specifically that reason: so I can buy games for years to come and have no worrie

                • Many stores will still accept the return if it's within 7-14 days. This isn't a PC game. Generally speaking, console games aren't going to be bought, ripped, copied, and played. It's far more difficult and time consuming (at least initially), and people can accomplish the same thing through rentals anyway.
            • Nobody forced you to play Mario Kart.

            • Re:WTF are you smoking (Score:5, Insightful)

              by ADRA (37398) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @07:33PM (#23848117)
              Yeah, well, maybe I'll rip out the DVD and replace it with some super l33t faster reading one and I'll just expect it to work with all future Wii games.

              Oh, that's right. The second I do something not specifically authorized by Nintendo, I'm off the support chain and left to rot. I may feel raw about it, but ultimately its my responsibility for introducing the unintended process.
        • You are free not to run Nintendo software on it since it breaks your hacks. I don't see them doing anything wrong here. It's your box and you can do anything you want with it. They can't do anything about that unless you let them. Oh, but you want to play their games too. I guess tough for you. They are going patch vulnerabilities in their OS. Or do you think the TP hack was intentional?

          Don't feel too bad, new hacks will come out quickly. I am just surprised that you are surprised that this happene
      • The sole addtion was to check for the specific save file used to stack smash past the code signing security in the Wii. In other words, for someone to have 'remotely rooted' you using this, they would have had to some how convinced you to install their save, load up the game, do the trick that activates the hack. Not notice the fact that the Wii crashed, not notice the scrolling black text as the exploit installs whatever...

        In other words, this only protected you from things you didn't need protection from.

    • Re:Countdown (Score:5, Informative)

      by Joe Snipe (224958) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @04:18PM (#23845593) Homepage Journal
      hackmii.com/2008/06/june-16-wii-update/

      I'm guessing 48 hours?

    • Re:Countdown (Score:5, Informative)

      by marcansoft (727665) <hector@maYEATSrcansoft.com minus poet> on Wednesday June 18 2008, @07:08PM (#23847831) Homepage
      It took less than 12 hours for a fully working workaround. We haven't released it yet because the code needs a bit of cleanup and half of the team wasn't around when this whole thing happened so we need to make sure we're all on the same page.

      Details in hackmii.com. Short version: the detection code is buggy and can be tricked by exploiting two small bugs. No need to find a new hack, we can just "hack the antihack" and then use the same old hack.

      We're cleaning up code and committing everything to our internal source repos as I write this.

  • Darn it (Score:5, Funny)

    by electricbern (1222632) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:09PM (#23844423)
    I knew I would regret installing this upgrade, but I can't help myself and not install an upgrade. I have an obsessive-compulsive upgrade installing disorder.
    • Compulsive patch upgrader? How many flavors of Linux are you running at home?
      • Just one, but he hits "apt-get dist-upgrade" twice a day... :)

        -l

          • I've got the sollution(sic) to that, he just have to move to Gentoo, that way he will only will have to emerge everything once every six months...
            Wouldn't that make it worse? One new package get's updated and he will compulsively compile it from source.

    • I knew I would regret installing this upgrade, but I can't help myself and not install an upgrade. I have an obsessive-compulsive upgrade installing disorder.
      What a minute, are you that guy that keeps buying those Star Wars dvds?

  • But the Miis! (Score:4, Funny)

    by fatnickc (1259582) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:10PM (#23844443)
    But.. but.. the update includes kick-ass-awesome-super-cool functionality too, to make up for the (now comparatively insignificant) loss! I mean, who wouldn't want to move Miis from the Plaza to the Parade? Exactly.

  • Increased Usability (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kellyb9 (954229) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:10PM (#23844445)
    Doesn't the allowance of "unauthorized code" increase the usability of a particular device? Regardless, I'm getting pretty sick of the trend of buying a physical product and being limited in what I'm allowed to do with it.
    • I'm no expert or insider in the game industry at all, but console manufacturers have to be aware that a portion of their current success relative to PC gaming has to do with their platform standardization, the fact that games "just work" on consoles. Upgradeable system software is already a worrisome step away from that golden standard, and homebrew and system hacks are getting back into PC-level of complexity. Which is fine, as long as people recognize any problems they might have are a result of their o

      • So it's not entirely unreasonable for console manufacturers to be taking this attitude. Should you be allowed to do whatever you want with your own hardware? Yes, but the hardware manufacturer has no obligation to make it easy for you.

        Agreed, but if the new software patch adds nothing to the system other than stopping attempts to run this "malicious" code, it adds no value for the end user. If this is the case, they are actually bloating systems with unnecessary code, in order to stop a "problem" that exists in less than 1% of machines. The hardware manufacturer has no obligation to make it easy for you, but they should have no reason to make it intentionally difficult. If you brick your machine, IMO, it's your fault.

    • Re:Increased Usability (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NewbieProgrammerMan (558327) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:26PM (#23844677) Homepage

      ...I'm getting pretty sick of the trend of buying a physical product and being limited in what I'm allowed to do with it.
      It would appear that anyone who feels that way is in a minority so small that companies making physical products don't care.
    • Yes no and maybe.
      If I was making an embedded system I would LOVE to have it DRMed/encrypted out the wazo. Most embedded devices should be hard to modify. It would add security to the system and make it more reliable.
      I want it to be next to impossible for any type of security breach including an unauthorized person reflashing the device. That is from a device owner/developer point of view.

      As an end user of more mainstream devices... Not on your life. I want to write code and add features.
      Would it be great if
    • I understand (and agree with) your frustration. The reason for this (WRT video game consoles, anyway) is that unlocked hardware is one of the things that contributed to the fall of Atari back in the early 80s. In particular, the Atari 2600 had no barriers preventing people from writing their own cartridges for it. At first, this was a good thing, as it increased the overall value of the 2600. Later in life, however, Atari had managed to piss off many of it's best developers, who then spun off to create

      • Re:Increased Usability (Score:5, Funny)

        by Stavr0 (35032) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @05:15PM (#23846427) Homepage Journal

        *This is, incidentally why you get the annoying gray screen when you try to play dirty NES carts - the contacts aren't making a good enough connection to transmit the unlock code.
        Ah yes, the dreaded NES flashing blue screen of death. Just lift pin 4 from the 10NES chip and ground it. That effectively neuters the hardware lock. Shh. Don't tell Nintendo. They might get mad. ;-)
    • I'm getting pretty sick of the trend of buying a physical product and being limited in what I'm allowed to do with it.

      I'm sorry, but you can do anything you want to with the Wii. It just might not work as advertised afterwards. Just like how you can modify your car any way you want, but you might not be able to take it on public roads afterwards. If the update was somehow forced, than I would understand, but as it is the upgrade is optional and even warns you that it will break certain savegames.
    • Don't upload the patch.

    • As I've said elsewhere, you can do whatever the hell you want with the hardware, but you might not necessarily be able to expect Nintendo or other publishers to release games that will run on your non-standard hardware.

      CAR ANALOGY: If you buy a car and put square wheels on it, for whatever inane reason, then you don't get to bitch when it doesn't work too well on the roads.

  • Fuck NoE (Score:2, Interesting)

    by KDR_11k (778916)
    Yeah, disable the Freeloader. Can't have Europeans get games for 33% cheaper and months earlier, can you? Everyone, bend over!

    I recall something about the developer promising updated Freeloader versions for free if your version gets obsoleted by the Firmware, anyone know if that's true?
    • I don't like their stance against unauthorized code running on their machines needing to be blocked. But I do understand the economics behind the region locking. It's hard to get your product out there, if you can't promise a distributor that they'll have exclusive rights to distribute in a region.

      No, it's not the ideal situation, but the reality is, even a 'giant' like Nintendo doesn't have the resources to do all their own distribution/publishing of their products. If you think the Wii/WiiFit shortages ar

    • Why not just wait the couple extra months? It's not like you need to play that newest game right now, you know. As for it being cheaper, that's just a by-product of different economies.

      But I'll agree that often they make us wait for months for little reason. Just add the PAL 60 mode already and ship it! That is, if you're going to put it in there in the first place! Otherwise, there's no excuse. Well, except for Nintendo titles, as Nintendo tends to translate their games into 4 more languages just to satis

  • Piracy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Gogo0 (877020) on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:43PM (#23844917)
    Mind that this *likely* has less to do with homebrew and more to do with the ability to pirate virtual console titles, which is trivial to do at this point.

    That said, there is some cool stuff being done with the virtual console files (wads). You can inject normal roms into the wad file and play games that nintendo hasnt yet released (or never will) on the virtual console. That said, its a lot easier to simply play the roms in an emulator on the homebrew channel...

    Personally, I dont condone the VC piracy, but nintendo wont allow me to purchase and play Dracula X: Rondo of Blood on the VC (because i have a USA wii and the game was only released on the JPN VC), so i 'had' (yes, i can live without it) to grab the wad, region-free it, and install it on my USA wii to play.

    Lastly, there are already workarounds that have been found, though not yet released. Apparently this fix against the twilight hack was so specific in its implementation it will only break this *exact* exploit. It still isnt a good idea to update you wii right now, but this is more interesting a development (that this was the primary reason for the patch) than a show-stopper.
    • That's not all. If you're a European, Nintendo really screwed you over in the first year by offering the games in the same slower 50 Hz mode as back in the days. Inexcusable. They've had other goof-ups as well, like giving us the German version of Super Metroid. What the hell?
    • This has nothing to do with Virtual Console piracy, because this doesn't stop Virtual Console piracy at all (it all still works), because said piracy didn't exist three months ago when this update was compiled. System updates get a *lot* of testing.

      No, they specifically targeted this at the Twilight Hack (i.e. homebrew), interestingly enough. Well, this and the fakesign exploit, but we expected them to fix the latter since that would shut down Datel's Freeloader (and because it was a huge bug). We certainly

  • Too busy playing to care (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:58PM (#23845233)
    Am I the only person here who doesn't really care about this? I mean, let's ignore pirated games and actually playing (gasp!) the games released for the console. In terms of homebrew games, the Wiimote has had fairly fully-featured modules on most major operating systems for quite some time, so one could, in theory, write games on said operating systems using the Wii's most notable feature (inventive accelerometer-based controls with IR tracking). With far more processing power and storage space, too, and a much wider distribution for...

    Oh, wait, I forgot, I'm doing it wrong again. I forgot that the sole use of any video game console is to endlessly play Chrono Trigger on an on-console emulator l33tly hacked on it until the next emulator-console is released. Silly me.
    • The point is that we can play games on the console which are often as good or better than the new games being released. It's much more convenient for me to load ROMs on an SD card and play on the Wii than to load the same onto my computer to play.

      The use of the game console shouldn't be limited by what the manufacturer wants, it should be limited by what *the user* wants to do with it. Anything less is an artificial handicap on what the machine is capable of.
  • Homebrewers need to start hacking the server side first. By setting up their own servers, they can filter out problems like this, and still maintain the networking capabilities of their devices.

  • At least it's not bricked... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 18 2008, @04:40PM (#23845877)
    Normally I'm against companies attempting to limit what I do with my hardware, but here I don't really see the problem. It's not like Nintendo completely bricked my Wii when I used the Twilight Hack after updating.

    And to the "they force the patches in the games" people, quit your bitching. You don't have to download the patch. You are welcome to use your hardware as you please, now your bitching that you can't use a piece of software on an unsupported platform.

    If it means that much to you get a second one to just play on. Unless you really think Nintendo is obligated to support our hacks. I don't think they are, in fact, I'm overjoyed that I don't now have a completely useless bricked piece of hardware since i updated.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You should write to Nintendo asking for more documentation...
    • The update fixes the signing bug which allowed fake-signed disks to work (the signing is RSA, but there was a bug in the signature checker that allowed them to be faked). So, with the update, for example, you will not be able to install the homebrew channel with an ISO disk.
    • I've seen patches forced by games, though... specifically, when I bought and played Mario Kart Wii, it pushed an update to my console, saying it couldn't play without the current version of the software.

      There's no reason they can't keep doing that in order to push newer updates on people.

      I'm not really worried about it... *shrugs* maybe I'm in the minority here, but I'd rather have something that just works, rather than try to hack at it. I have a laptop for playing things like MAME, and said laptop has an

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