New Wii exploits, now you can re-sign ISOs

[Lunchbox]

Note that I'm not condoning piracy or anything, but considering what kind of use this will have in the homebrew community I thought it was worth mentioning here.

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/0 ... ibilities/

The Trucha Signer is the latest tool to hit the Wii hacking scene, enables kids at home to "modify the contents of a Wii ISO and then re-sign it with an electronic signature the Wii will accept." So, does this mean you'll be able to play pirated games without modding your console? No, not at all.

From what we understand, whenever someone alters the code of a Wii game, the resulting product will not match its signature, and the disc will be rejected. Using an undocumented bug, Trucha Signer will resign the code of an adapted ISO (disk image for storing data on a CD-ROM), allowing you to load the disc successfully onto a modded Wii. We're not sure yet what's possible with this new development, but we've already heard a wide range of fantasy scenarios -- downgrading firmware, copying VC games, switching regions, etc.

Already, GBAtemp forumer Mr.O has posted instructions for "enabling gore" in Manhunt 2 (chipped Wii required). Keep in mind that Nintendo can patch this exploit at any time with a firmware update.

[|darc|]

Well, this has absolutely nothing to do with piracy, so this post isn't really condoning it in any way.

But yeah, I'm gonna have to check this out when I get home this weekend.

[Mattiethomas]

There's no way I would open my Wii to do this.

...My Dreamcast maybe, but not my Wii. Even if it does sound like a fun project.

[pavelbure]

has anyone tried this snes emulator ?

http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6159

[Veggita2099]

There's no way I would open my Wii to do this.

...My Dreamcast maybe, but not my Wii. Even if it does sound like a fun project.

Same

[JuddWack]

I don't get it. If I'm interpreting it right this new exploit doesn't yet do anything that can't already be done. So the big hype is what it could lead to?

[|darc|]

I don't get it. If I'm interpreting it right this new exploit doesn't yet do anything that can't already be done. So the big hype is what it could lead to?

No, this lets you do a lot of new things.


Before, a modchip only let you play copied games. You couldn't edit the contents of the disc because the disc was signed with a special key. You could make straight pirate copies and be fine, but you couldn't play any homebrew. This exploit now makes it so you can resign a disc after its been edited, meaning playing homebrew off a disc is now possible with this exploit. That is, until Nintendo patches it.

[JuddWack]

Thanks for clearing that up Darc. I understand now.

[Mattiethomas]

Thanks for clearing that up Darc. I understand now.

Awesome. Now that we're all on the same page..Homebrew for Wii = Not likely to happen very soon.

[Skynet]

But I was under the impression homebrew Wii is working on the Zelda exploit?

[not just souLLy now]

wiibrew.org
homebrew on wii has already happened. There's tons of things happening at the moment. That SNES emulator is for GC actually, it's an old release someone posted in error that got spread around, however there is an mp3 player, tetris and a few other misc demos that do work via the Twilight Hack

[|darc|]

Thanks for clearing that up Darc. I understand now.

Awesome. Now that we're all on the same page..Homebrew for Wii = Not likely to happen very soon.

Um, did you not read what I said or were you being sarcastic? Homebrew for the Wii already exists.

Homebrew for the Wii can either be executed using this resigner, or if that becomes patched, you can still run homebrew using Zelda. I don't think they'll be capable of patching that at all.

[Ex-Cyber]

Homebrew for the Wii can either be executed using this resigner, or if that becomes patched, you can still run homebrew using Zelda. I don't think they'll be capable of patching that at all.

I wouldn't rule out a patch for the Zelda exploit. It might be feasible to have the firmware patch it when it's loaded.

[BlackAura]

Whether this is fixable or not depends on how it works.

If someone's found a way to trick the code that checks digital signatures, you can expect this to stop working at the next update of the Wii's firmware.

If the modified executable are signed with Nintendo's own key, they will be indistinguishable from binaries put out by Nintendo themselves. Not really fixable, and it'll be a long time before this is fixed (assuming it's ever fixed).

The only way they could fix it would be to whitelist all existing signed binaries that they issued, and switch to a different key. Future Wii games with that new key would be unplayable without a firmware update to add the new key.

[MulletMan13]

Right now it appears pretty useless... just putting emulators out. I mean GameCube emulators run just fine, just as fast, so why redevelop them just to run in Wii-mode?

Light gun games are a possibility, but I'm not quite sure how it would be possible to map light guns to the WiiMote (technically speaking). I'd love to see Point Blank or PB2 come out... I miss real light gun games

[BlackAura]

Light gun games are a possibility, but I'm not quite sure how it would be possible to map light guns to the WiiMote (technically speaking). I'd love to see Point Blank or PB2 come out... I miss real light gun games

From the point of view of an emulator, it's easy. Emulators tend to use mice (and X and a Y coordinate) to emulate the lightgun. Many Wii games use the remote as a pointer, with an on-screen cursor, and it acts just like a mouse. It'd be hooked up in the same way.

It wouldn't feel like a lightgun though - it'd feel like a Wii remote, where the aiming is relative to the sensor bar instead of the TV, and there's a slight lag caused by input filtering to reduce shaking of the cursor.

It is actually possible to make the Wii remote behave exactly like a light gun, but it requires the sensor bar to be in an absolutely fixed position relative to the TV, the player to be standing directly in front of the sensor bar, and some tricky calibration. The limitations and calibration step are probably why Nintendo didn't make it act like a light gun in the first place.

[Lartrak]

and there's a slight lag caused by input filtering to reduce shaking of the cursor.

[/quote]

The lag on the cursor absolutely destroys light gun games. I could never deal with it.