Gateway 3DS Already Blocked

wchill

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Issues with only being able to save one game
No menu
No hacked games
No cheats
No region free
No homebrew
Works with existing ROM images.

That screams to me they are just cloning a commercial ROM and have a bit of logic to direct the reads from the 3ds and change them into SD card reads to allow it to work for any game, the ability to swap (save issues not withstanding) probably comes as the result of fiddling with the order of a game, some other homebrew on the DS or something like that (personally I would have gone switches on top of the cart, some switches you can connect to the cart or a detection for numbers of power ons without a SD card in the slot but that is a different matter entirely).

As Nintendo I know the 3ds read protocol inside and out, as gateway or indeed any public hacker I can infer a lot of things by watching it on my scope but I do not know everything and every tricky that can be done -- even on the DS it was non trivial, a good example of that would be below 8000 stuff that was actively and extensively used as an anti piracy method, it had a "secure area" and it goes on.
If they are using existing dumps they might not be a full dump (no DS ROM dumped yet has a full secure area for instance, several later dumps were also missing a part of the header, a useless part but missing none the less) and then you just read the area that is not complete and you have yourself a detection method.
If they are using basic logic it might not be fast enough or it might not behave in the same manner (or indeed you could change the setup in a manner that would trouble no commercial game but might frustrate the obvious route for a flash cart). Any potential differences (more current, higher latency, incorrect responses) can be used to detect things and any differences you can detect you can use to shut things down. There is an adage in security that reads the defender has to protect against every attack, the attacker only has to get it done once. Normally Nintendo is on the defence but not in this instance, similarly modern security reads something like "if you have a virus on your computer then you have failed regardless of whether your AV program stopped it or not".

When you do this sort of thing on an established network/IT setup it is usually called penetration testing and it is a big deal in the security world. The term probably still applies here though it is not ideal, suffice it to say though you can find people versed in hacking or just speak to some of your programmers if they are good (this is tricky as the one that takes things apart is not always the one that builds it) there are people out there you can get to pull things apart and attack it.


I always thought about possibly ripping apart a couple of retail 3DS carts, hooking up an oscilloscope and trying to reverse engineer the communication protocol between the 3DS and the cartridge, then using that data to create something like the WODE (though it wouldn't be as pretty). It would have been fun to create my own flashcart that way.

Think a Raspberry Pi connected to the 3DS basically faking a retail cartridge. Though you still have to address the potential issues as mentioned previously. Latency and response time would probably be the hardest, as logic level conversion and current limiting would both add a bit of lag to the communication.

It'd be a fun project for me to do, even if I failed (which would probably be the case).
 

Pedeadstrian

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I always thought about possibly ripping apart a couple of retail 3DS carts, hooking up an oscilloscope and trying to reverse engineer the communication protocol between the 3DS and the cartridge, then using that data to create something like the WODE (though it wouldn't be as pretty). It would have been fun to create my own flashcart that way.

Think a Raspberry Pi connected to the 3DS basically faking a retail cartridge. Though you still have to address the potential issues as mentioned previously. Latency and response time would probably be the hardest, as logic level conversion and current limiting would both add a bit of lag to the communication.

It'd be a fun project for me to do, even if I failed (which would probably be the case).
I know I'd be interested in keeping up with your progress if you were to do so, as would a bunch of other people. Just don't expect them to donate $2000 to the cause.
 

EzekielRage

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So... the Gateway was an inside job to expose a potential exploit?

/boggle


white hat hacking is used by companies to find out loopholes. nintendo probably has a few developers working together to find ways to hack their consoles and then patch those ways up. it is a common practice in the industry. This has NOTHING to do with the gateway, really, nintendo just managed to find the exploit the gateway uses and fixed it...
 
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wiewcw

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But SuperCard is long long time on Nintendo based flash card retail market and they have great team since years. Gateway is unnown brand for me - I was not get this as good to buy after one video showing it as working. I was worried about how many "exploit" they have - if it is exploit or sth - even now we do not know how it was working? OK first situation when they try to release sth and have only one exploit it is not good for future and trust for them as team that have fast support team.
 

Champo

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I just checked my version and I'm running 3.x :lol:

I'm still waiting for what comes after the Gateway, but good to know I'll be ready.
 

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