Scene developer Zecoxao might be known for their contributions to the PlayStation hacking world, but this time around, they've got something major for the Nintendo scene. The longtime scener teased the existence of what they claim to be a $3 modchip for the Nintendo Switch, and which is said to work with Mariko and OLED systems, though not patched Erista consoles. A teaser video was also uploaded, where the modchip itself was revealed to be a Raspberry Pi--specifically, a RP2040 Zero unit, soldered into the Switch board, demonstrating Hekate launching on an OLED unit.

Given the tease of "coming soon", we can expect to see more details about the exploit eventually.

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[Adran_Marit]

The clown wars have begun

there are 1,000,000 ready with 1,000,000 more on the way

 

[Chary]

I dont know either. Its not Chary fault either. This is legit, he knows how to code so it isnt magical. Chary just report the news.

Telegram is always open, lol, would have been appreciated to be informed of that ahead of time, especially if it'd been alongside the link of the .mov you posted lol.

Either way, the dev has a lot of history, so it'll be interesting to see where it all goes.

 

[Dionicio3]

so it's time to prepare for the next war of "modchip clones makers" and for firmware updates bricking "nonlegit modchips" again?

Since it's based on a commonly available chip (and not an FPGA/custom proprietary silicon), it would be very, very easy to make a "perfect" clone. Also, since it's using a commonly available chip, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the firmware be open sourced

 

[linuxares]

Telegram is always open, lol, would have been appreciated to be informed of that ahead of time, especially if it'd been alongside the link of the .mov you posted lol.

Either way, the dev has a lot of history, so it'll be interesting to see where it all goes.

The cat was out of the bag anyway

 

[some1ne]

And I just bought an hwfly chip a week ago

 

[r1vver]

Since it's based on a commonly available chip (and not an FPGA/custom proprietary silicon), it would be very, very easy to make a "perfect" clone. Also, since it's using a commonly available chip, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the firmware be open sourced

There can be many solutions to this problem. Starting from an additional cryptochip-subboard (tm) with some sort of keys or something, up to checking the uniqueness of other somethings online way.
Otherwise, why else breed such a quiet mysterious drama because of a leak.

 

[Dionicio3]

Otherwise, why else breed such a quiet mysterious drama because of a leak.

Easy, to avoid a ceist & desist before the dev gets the opportunity to release their work. Once it's released, there's not much Nintendo can do, it'll be cloned and redistributed to hell

 

[Adran_Marit]

seriously if ninty gets this before release big RIP

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Didn't you remember the Crown 3DS?

So yeah, a thing do not exists until it exists.

 

[T0biasCZe]

, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the firmware be open sourced

And even if it wasn't open source, it would still be easily cloned since it's really easy to dump firmware from RP Pico...
Also, Erista consoles are v1?

 

[linuxares]

Didn't you remember the Crown 3DS?

So yeah, a thing do not exists until it exists.

This is real but no files in the wild

And even if it wasn't open source, it would still be easily cloned since it's really easy to dump firmware from RP Pico...
Also, Erista consoles are v1?

Erista is v1 and need no chip really

 

[Dionicio3]

And even if it wasn't open source, it would still be easily cloned since it's really easy to dump firmware from RP Pico...

Yep, that is definitely true

Erista is v1 and need no chip really

This is not explicitly true, "Erista" and "Mariko" just refer to the names of major SoC revisions. The ipatched consoles, the first ones to not be exploitable via RCM, are still Erista consoles, yet require a modchip (or very low firmware) for homebrew to be ran

 

[Adran_Marit]

Yep, that is definitely true
This is not explicitly true, "Erista" and "Mariko" just refer to the names of major SoC revisions. The ipatched consoles, the first ones to not be exploitable via RCM, are still Erista consoles, yet require a modchip (or very low firmware) for homebrew to be ran

which its been stated on the twitter (this) doesn't work with patched eristas

 

[Sono]

Just a small correction: on the image that looks like an RP2040-Zero, which is not a Raspberry Pi, but Waveshare RP2040-Zero, using Raspberry Pi Foundation's RP2040 chip.
The reason people mix it up, is because the marketing department must've been 5-head, and decided to name their own RP2040-based board Raspberry Pi Pico, which is NOT a Raspiberry Pi, as the regular Pi is a microcomputer, the Pi Pico is a microcontroller board.

tl;dr: Please correct the title so it either says "Raspberry Pi Pico", or just "Pi Pico", or just say "RP2040-based modchip".

Yes, I know this is stupid, and I will accept laugh reactions. My day would be slightly better though if this mistake got corrected

Edit: oops, while reading the article I have accidentally skipped an entire paragraph - the auto-linking console names really throw me off
The title is still somewhat incorrect though.

 

[froid_san]

was confused at the title as I've never saw a raspberry pi costing 3$ especially at this chip shortage climate and found a more accurate name of the component at the comment section by Sono

 

[Sono]

was confused at the title as I've never saw a raspberry pi costing 3$ especially at this chip shortage climate and found a more accurate name of the component at the comment section by Sono

It's also mentioned in the article body, but there is also says that the RP2040-Zero is a Raspberry Pi - which it is not -, so I guess fair enough, yeah.

Besides, the reason it bothers me is that good luck doing this with an actual Pi, I don't think you can even time something such extremely precise with a Pi running Linux. Or at least, definitely not without some kernel module tomfoolery...

 

[Dionicio3]

It's also mentioned in the article body, but there is also says that the RP2040-Zero is a Raspberry Pi - which it is not -, so I guess fair enough, yeah.

Besides, the reason it bothers me is that good luck doing this with an actual Pi, I don't think you can even time something such extremely precise with a Pi running Linux. Or at least, definitely not without some kernel module tomfoolery...

The standard Raspberry Pi, for all intents and purposes, is a PC (just not an x86 one). PCs pretty much always lack the hardware necessary for strict enough timing to perform stuff like glitching attacks, it's just not what they're made for. Also on the topic of stuff in the OP that should be changed for better clarification,

we can expect to see more details about the exploit eventually.

This implies that this is using a newly found exploit. I can guarantee that it's exploiting the same thing as the TX/Hwfly chips, just using much cheaper and easier to obtain components.

 

[Jayro]

Oh boy, more scene drama.

 

[Duo8]

It's also mentioned in the article body, but there is also says that the RP2040-Zero is a Raspberry Pi - which it is not -, so I guess fair enough, yeah.

Besides, the reason it bothers me is that good luck doing this with an actual Pi, I don't think you can even time something such extremely precise with a Pi running Linux. Or at least, definitely not without some kernel module tomfoolery...

Considering all modchips so far required an fpga, not even a microcontroller is fast enough it seems.

Oh boy, more scene drama.

View attachment 342517

Gotta love it.

 

[r1vver]

and single Waveshare RP2040-Zero is also not $3. It's more like $4.49 + shipping. So at least twice as much as $3. And even more likely all 10$.
but 10 doesn't seem to sound as dramatic as 3.