Nintendo's solution to Switch bootROM hardware exploit has been cracked

During the course of this week, Nintendo released System Update 6.2.0 for the Switch although the changelog for the update was simply listed as being "general system stability improvements to enhance the user"s experience". While that in itself may sound somewhat innocuous, it soon became clear that the gaming stalwart had brought the hammer down on both homebrew and piracy by attempting to address a previously discovered flaw in the Nvidia Tegra bootROM. This was done by rebuilding the secure boot process.

In addition to mitigating against the hardware flaw, Nintendo also brought the practice of "CDN downloading" to an end, a method used to identify newly released games on the Nintendo eShop. In order to access the platform, everyone had to upgrade to System Update 6.2.0.

Of course, in any game of cat and mouse, many were waiting to see how long it would take Switch hackers to respond to the latest development.

6.2.0 cracked
Here are some SHA256 hashes in celebration :)
PK11: 7D58F68E73784DCF8453B6BB67E78CC7D88004612DDD35DBEC91C385E3AF9413
Master key: 9497E6779F5D840F2BBA1DE4E95BA1D6F21EFC94717D5AE5CA37D7EC5BD37A19

— motezazer (@elmirorac) November 23, 2018

Given the extensive nature of the patch, it was expected by some for the development of a solution to take somewhere in the order of weeks to materialize but, as demonstrated, it only took a matter of days in this instance.

However, with the ball back in Nintendo"s court, the question of not if but when it will strike back remains, particularly with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate set for launch in less than two weeks time. That said, it probably wouldn"t be a surprise if the company had configured the game to require the installation of System Update 6.2.0 to force gamers to upgrade prior to playing the new title.

Source: NintendoSoup

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