Wii Internet Connection Reverse Engineered 166
AlexTheBeast writes "By packet sniffing his Wi-Fi connection, this hacker has already begun to dig into the internet interactions of the new Nintendo Wii. Basically, by using Firefox and after setting the user agent correctly, anybody can easily browse many WiiShop pages including the WiiShop main page and startup manual. More advanced connections including binary and virtual console downloads are currently in the works. Come join the project."
That's what happens... (Score:5, Funny)
(Sorry, couldn't resist YAWJ (Yet Another Wii Joke))
Re: (Score:1)
It's actually a very good name. (Score:3, Funny)
Here in Finland there used to be a brand of chocolate milk called Jukiuilla. That sounds very, very close to a word which translates best to English as "bloody assrape".
People remembered that brand of milk. It became a hit sensation among teens just because of its name. While other chocolate milks had more benign names, that chocolate milk had a name that stood out. I think Nintendo has managed, intentionall
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Certainly everyone talked about it.
And now we make affectionate jokes about the name, and it's quite accepted.
Methinks Nintendo made a very smart (or lucky) choice.
Re: (Score:2)
Now everyone might not make it our top priority gaming purchase (I am!), but no-one can ignore the games lineup, the innovation and the quality of service that Nintendo are offering.
Re:It's actually a very good name. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's actually a very good name. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Huh? I'm not that young but I've never heard of such product. It doesn't get a single google hit either, not even suggestions for possible typos. Also, while I know more filthy slang terms for shady activites than would be really healthy, I can't figure out how that word could mean anything at all, let alone violent sodomy in Finnish. Did th
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Great choice, they could have called it "shite".
Piss 3 (Score:3, Funny)
So what does that make the Piss-3?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry to be serious but no, we didn't have that brand of chocolate milk in Finland and no, it doesn't mean "bloody assrape" nor does it mean anything else in Finnish. This whole post is a nice story but totally false.
Re:So how long it takes.... (Score:2)
Bad smell (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Bad smell (Score:5, Funny)
in fact, all my muscles are stiff. I'm in such bad shape, my wii makes me stiff.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Bad smell (Score:5, Funny)
I can't decide if this is a Soviet Russia joke in disguise...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
but yeah, you're right. =P
So ... What's next (Score:5, Funny)
Will we be getting a news story about a Hacker who had installed the Wiis web-browser on his PC by going to http://www.opera.com/ [opera.com] ?
Re:So ... What's next (Score:4, Interesting)
So in summery this isn't even remotely interesting. Go home script kiddies...and by home I mean digg! (Yes I do have the karma to burn.)
...Still four weeks till we get Wii's in Australia.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
but its a start at developping homebrewed apps for the wii. heck, maybe create homebrewed wiishops servers so users can share wii games.
thats the good thing with consoles on the net, its fairly easy to fool them once you know what kind of answer they expect.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm guessing this would allow you to create custom channels by returning whatever content you wanted to the Wii. Perhaps it might also bypassing the need to buy Opera, as it sounds like it's already built in.
Re: (Score:2)
Already Locked Down (Score:5, Informative)
Correction (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Correction (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
If you RTFA, you will see what user agent to set your browser to.
Re: (Score:2)
Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1038-58; Wii Shop Channel/1.0; en)
Roms! \o/ (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems like this system will be hacked rather easily.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The only issue might be the extra CPU involved in using SSL, but if they're going to be preventing loss of revenue I can see the accountants springing for the extra hardware
Re:Roms! \o/ (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems like this system will be hacked rather easily.
Well, being that Nintendo is not stupid I suspect that ever virtual console game is signed to prevent copying; on top of that (being that each game is only usable on one particular system) it is possible that Nintendo signs the signed code for each console when you buy a game. Now, unless the system is physically cracked, I think that it is nearly impossible to break this system.
Re: (Score:1)
I find it doubtful that Nintendo would do this. This would be putting the private signing key on a theoretically publically accessable network. You wouldn't believe how tightly guarded signing processes are - it's normally only 2 or 3 peo
Re: (Score:2)
Not really
If Nintendo can keep their super private signing key priv
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I could be wrong but I think the difference between what I'm describing and Fair Play is that Fair Play takes an unsigned data format and signs it to be specific to your particular account/machine and there is nothing that prevents you from using an unsigned version of that data with your account/machine; now, Nintendo could design a system such that it will only play games that were both signed by Nintendo (to make them an offici
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If I wanted to play NES or SNES games I'd just get an emulator (I know it could be cooler using a Wii but meh..). I'm not a Nintendo fanboy so I don't have much Nostalgia for any old Nintendo games (apart from MarioKart
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think you'll stop him from downloading games that ARE obtainable in other ways, either
Re: (Score:2)
Seems fair to me.. that's like £5 a game at most (though I recently completed my first ever Mario game, think it was Super Mario World on the SNES that was in our holiday home - completed it in 2 days, which I think is okay for someone that always thought they sucked at Mario games).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, they're facing the exact same problem content providers are facing: you're trying to lock down content while at the same time giving the user the means
Re: (Score:2)
The key to prevent piracy is to have keys at both ends which are verifiable. The store should use a pre-arranged key the wii can verify, and the wii should use a per-wii key that the store uses to modif the files, whether via signing or encryption does not matter. In this way, the wii wil
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
As anyone should know by now, you can download ROMs and emulators for nearly any system you want online. It's not even hard. The Pirate Bay even has nice, huge, torrents with practically every ROM ever (including tons of bad dumps I have no idea why anyone would ever want).
So really, they shouldn't even bother. It would be a total waste of their time and money. Heck, if t
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine if a buffer overflow error was found in the emulator, which allowed for unsigned code to be run, so the hacker could replace your firmware which allowed for booting from a usb hard-drive
Backup (Score:2)
I've been looking forward to Wii's release for some time, especially Virtual Console. Flicking through the linked manual, I have a couple of concerns. Check this out:
Re: (Score:2)
Though it mentions transferring blocks to the SD card, it appears to be referring to game saves--not to the games themselves.
Please let me know if my interpretation is incorrect, though!
So when will the remote get hacked? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
But you DO need to point it at the screen so that the camera in the front of the wiimote can see the IR beams to know how to translate the sensor data received from the wiimote into movement in the screen.
Let me put it another way: The wiimote doesn't know which way is up if you don't poin
Re: (Score:2)
Mice without sensor bars have existed in the past and work.
Re: (Score:2)
It also can't use gravity to figure out it's position relative to anything.
It can detect *movement* in six axes (x/y/z, rotation around x/y/z), but it can only figure out absolute position in two of the rotational ones due to gravity.
That's where the sensor bar comes in -- it gives the remote a reference point (above or below the display)
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't matter. A mouse doesn't know where the edge of the screen is either. Besides, having a controller which requires you constantly point it at the screen to use a cursor is tiring and very clumsy. But you DO need to point it at the screen so that the camera in the front of the wiim
Squid proxy = Homebrew injection (Score:5, Interesting)
By setting-up a squid proxy one could be able to make homebrews appear as games requiring 0 wii points before being sent to the wii, which will gladly accept it as a runnable executable!
Now we just have to reverse engineer the 'Virtual Game Console'. 100 say it will turn-out to be a Mame clone.
Can't wait till the Wii gets released in Europe. Oh my
Besides, we may even be able to stream a divx player using this technique.
Signed code You (Score:1, Insightful)
Something tells me they learned a few lessons from the DS and WiFiMe.
Re: (Score:2)
Well that has never been cracked before
Re: (Score:1)
If not though, does it run Linux?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://wiicade.com/Home.aspx [wiicade.com]
Have fun!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would love to see a homebrew community formed around flash Wii apps. People could test out ideas very quickly, and show them to others as well. In fact, once Opera is officially released I really hope to see this happen.
Am I the only one who is impressed by..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Welcome to the New Console Hack-fest (Score:5, Interesting)
I really think the Wii and/or the PS3 are going to be hacked to death. They have browsers, neither are experienced here and with Sony in particular, the whole thing seems kinda....rushed(?). I mean, with the media they are fine - people won't be burning blu-ray cheap enough soon enough. One click pirated downloads would be even worse though...it would be much easier. Given the cost & market for the PS3, a hack like this would be instant death for developer support.
Re:Welcome to the New Console Hack-fest (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I hope you're not fooling yourself that the PowerPC is now doomed, doooooomed. It's already been in embedded devices for ages, and it looks like it will be staying in consoles for the foreseeable future as well.
Re: (Score:2)
That is something I found very interesting about Microsoft's new console. I kept hearing about the Hypervisor this and the Hypervisor that and the new Xbox was unbreakable and antihacker box and all that from Microsoft, after it was released I followed some of the hacking efforts and it seemed to be very heavy loc
Re:Welcome to the New Console Hack-fest (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, some people may end up downloading pirated games instead of buying them from Nintendo, but as iTunes shows, people are perfectly willing to pay reasonable prices for things they can get free elsewhere.
And since the Wii hardware itself is actually profitable for Nintendo (as opposed to the PS3), they're still going to make money from people who buy a Wii with no intention of ever buying a legit Virtual Console game or even a real Wii game. And maybe once these hackers have a Wii they'll buy some games after all.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
And I am sure their primary userbase is not the hacker that downloads from romhustler or priarrrbay but mom and dad that get out of work, turn on their Wii and choose the newly released game from the Wii Channel.
Re: (Score:2)
Mom and Dad will still pay the measly $5 (although I really wish they had gone with iTunes' pricing model for 20 year old games!) and just click to download.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh.. One of the benefits of competing formats is that they're prone to price wars. I'd be surprised if BD/HD-DVD recordable media isn't below the $5 mark by this time next year, and burners in the $200-$300 range. That would be cheap enough to attract more than a few people, especially when it's the same cost as buying 3-6 games at $50-$60 a pop.
DNS redirection (Score:5, Informative)
MOV (Score:2)
mythtv client (Score:2)
PAT
DMCA violation...? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:DMCA violation...? (Score:5, Funny)
Depends. Reverse engineering is not a violation, but cracking encryption is.
Note I haven't ever read the DMCA, so am I am relying on what I have heard on forums and new sites.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Lesson 2: Just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean it isn't a valid question.
why does this even work? (Score:3, Funny)
Though I suppose in a couple months we'll see a "software update" (i.e. they drop the portcullis) and that'll be the end of the tinkering without a screwdriver.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Now imagine that someone creates the program to sniff the packets and grab the game payload.
The only thing missing is a way to re-inject those payloads to a Wii, and any
Re: (Score:2)
Why would you encrypt this? (Score:2)
Encryption takes overhead. And since every console would have to have the same key (public not private by the way in order to sign a page with something Nintendo would recognize) the key would not remain secret for long - so it would be a bit of development trouble for zero gain.
Re: (Score:2)
The news is that someone at a 'enterprise' was able to figure that out.
Because of all other examples we're getting recently, we expected otherwise.
How to setup for this (simple way) (Score:5, Informative)
type
about:config
in FF Address bar
right click in window. New->String
use
general.useragent.override
for preferemce name, click ok
use
Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1038-58; Wii Shop Channel/1.0; en)
as string value. click OK. you should now be able to hit the site without a redirect to wii.com
Re: (Score:2)
Lots more to explore, more later.
Where's the Opera browser download then? (Score:3, Interesting)
You smell that? (Score:2)
Has anyone done this for XBL or Sony's PNP yet? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
No, they'll just update the Wii software so that all this will be encrypted. Much easier.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)