As part of our efforts to understand how the Wii works, we believe we
have found a security issue that could allow pirated Wii games to be
played on an unmodified Wii console.
I would like to speak to an engineer about this — please have one contact me.
Sincerely,
bushing
Update: A representative from Nintendo has contacted me (see comment below). The rest of you can stop emailing me now. Assuming Nintendo acts in good faith, I don’t expect to be writing much more about this until it’s resolved.
Update 2: Apparently I presume too much of e.g. MaxConsole. The “comment below” was referring to comment 11. I listed the email in the order I received it.
The rest of the copycat emails can stop now. Srsly, guys. I did not post my email address here to invite you to debate this with me. Suffice it to say that I have put more thought into this than you have, and when you find your own exploits you can decide how to handle them.
13 responses so far ↓
1 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 5:21 pm
ATTENTION: THIS IS A FAKE EMAIL I RECEIVED
First of we do not support what you are doing, but since you found
a issue that could allow pirated Wii games.
We have to see to patch this as fast as possible, So what is
this security issue you want to talk about.
Tyson Green
http://www.nintendo.com/
NOA
2 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 5:31 pm
3 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:16 pm
From: t********s@hotmail.fr To: bushing Subject: Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:15:55 +0200 Dear Bushing You do not know me is nobody know me (I wish that the rest). Because only I should have probably less than you in advance regarding the IOS. But know that the fault that you have that you have found and simply unusable. Hoping that is not the same as I have found. I will say no more because since I know you do not really have confidence. I will not talk with any code -- IOS -- etc so on the mail. Because you too you know what happens to this programmer who reveals too -- I may seem strange but I have but reason. You can not bore no attention to this mail - but knows he will always be people like me in the shade. As you view I am not english and therefore uses a translation software. T********s "PPCs" PS: I can you prove what i said4 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:19 pm
5 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:23 pm
hello bushing,
i am not a nintendo engineer and i am not asking for how to run pirate games on the wii as i am COMPLETELY against piracy of all kinds. i am also a coder working on a project for the wii (not willing to disclose yet!) and i am intersted to know what the bug is. i would never use it and if you dont want to release this information i completely understand. i would never relese it and i would never disclose it. i am just interested to know what said bug is? i was under the impression that inorder to boot non nintendo discs there must be a harware modification? you see, i am writing a dvd playing program for the wii and at the minuit am am having trouble getting it to read the discs. so if you are willing to disclose it could be very useful. thankyou.
regardes,
Adam
6 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Please share your softmod for the wii with us. I really want to use some homebrew stuff as well as my backups from my wii games.
Thanx in advance! 🙂
7 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:31 pm
how is this possible could you tell me how?
8 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:38 pm
ATTENTION: THIS IS ALSO FAKE
Return-Path: <support@nintendo.com> Received: from mail.deadfake.com (xult.org [85.17.173.10]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id u6si2107929uge.8.2008.07.18.13.00.18; Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:00:20 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning support@nintendo.com does not designate 85.17.173.10 as permitted sender) client-ip=85.17.173.10; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning support@nintendo.com does not designate 85.17.173.10 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=support@nintendo.com Received: from Spooler by mail.deadfake.com (Mercury/32 v4.52) ID MO0001B1; 18 Jul 2008 21:00:18 +0100 Received: from spooler by xult.org (Mercury/32 v4.52); 18 Jul 2008 21:00:04 +0100 Received: from VPS107 (85.234.143.173) by xult.org (Mercury/32 v4.52) with ESMTP ID MG0001B0; 18 Jul 2008 21:00:03 +0100 x-mailer: DeadFake Mailer (http://deadfake.com) x-originating-ip: 24.72.28.204 mime-version: 1.0 from: support@nintendo.com to: bushing date: 18 Jul 2008 21:00:07 +0100 subject: HackMii ResponseHello Bushing. This is a response regarding your troubleing announcement on hackmii.com. We would appreciate all of your help in preventing the public release of the exploit of the Wii software that you have found. We understand, through reading other posts on hackmii.com, that this may be in the form of a wii elf homebrew executable file. To help deal with this in a private matter. We will wish to chat with you via IRC on efnet. We will be under the username NB64W. We would like it if you could tell us about this bug and if we may be able to find an elf binary. This way, we should be able to release a Wii update to patch it and prevent from code inside this file from running.
—
No, this email’s not real, it’s
http://deadfake.com
A little later…
[13:01:05] <NB64W> Did you receive our email? [13:05:26] <NB64W> Bushing [13:06:29] <NB64W> We are here regarding your recent bug found in the Wii software. [13:08:45] <NB64W> Are you available for discussion [13:08:46] <NB64W> ? [13:15:34] <NB64W> Look, we don't have much time right now. We'll be back on this IRC server sometime next week. [13:16:01] NB64W left IRC. (mibbit.com: Bushing!)9 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Dude you have to release how to play pirated games on an un modded wii,
the fact that you posted that on a homebrew site means that your fine with hacking the wii
so why not release this hack so we can play backups.
10 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:47 pm
11 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 6:51 pm
(Insert a polite reply here from a real person at Nintendo, indicating that they received my message and will reply further shortly.)
(No, I won’t be posting any other correspondence with them.)
12 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 7:00 pm
(author asked me to keep this email anonymous or confidential, so I’ll pick the former)
Dear Bushing,
I find your comment “Dear Nintendo” quite strange.
Instead of playing nice with Nintendo, I believe you should release that bug to the public domain so that we can make a program for the homebrew channel to run backups – a softmod.
In Norway, where I live, it is perfectly legal to sell modded systems and it is reasonable under fair use. Furthermore, making copies of software to close friends and family is not only legal – it is seen as legit and normal behavior.
If you live in the U.S. (I don’t know where you live so it’s just to support my chain of thoughts) you might get problems from releasing such software, and you might have a different world view from many other people in the world in regards to these things. However, you would be in your full right to publish the details about the circumvention method, and also ethically on fair ground if you were to encourage Scandinavian modders to make the softmod and release it.
Apart from that I would like to say that I really appreciate all your good work to bring homebrew to the Nintendo Wii. I’m using ScummVM and Gecko loader and loads of other software and I really appreciate homebrew enthusiasts like you that enable all this.
However, I don’t see any separation or any strong need for the homebrew secene to differentiate itself from the copying scene. It’s a non-issue to me. They are different, but the need to prove it isn’t there IMHO – particularly because in most parts of the world ethics are different from what big corporations have brainwashed people to belive in America.
N.B. Thanks for sending me one of the few respectful emails, although you still lose points for taking advantage of the email address I posted. As one of the “brainwashed”, I’m subject to the DMCA.
[…]
There are lots of other reasons than running pirated games to open up the system.
– Backups
– Software that is not controlled by Nintendo. Games with adult content, for example. Should Nintendo have a monopoly on free speech on their systems? Like a video player that is locked so it can only play videos sanctioned by the maker of the player….?
Now I DO see the wider picture. If softmods come out, Nintendo might get aggressive and delete all Homebrew with a system update. But they already started going down that path. I seriously doubt that you warning them of this glitch enabling backups will make them change their mind and think of the homebrew scene as something “better” – they are a huge corporation, there’s lots of money involved. I don’t think you’ll get anywhere by doind dialogue with Nintendo. I just don’t think so..
I don’t really feel like getting into word games (“copy” vs “backup”). As for your last point, you may be right. At the same time, AFAIK nobody else has actually tried to engage Nintendo on a mature, professional level, so we feel obligated to try.
13 bushing // Jul 20, 2008 at 7:09 pm