GameCube backdoor revealed

ReGex · Post by **ReGex** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 1:43 am

I hadn't seen any discussion here about this, but I feel it's important. Recently, an exploit has been found that allows foreign code to be run on the GameCube. This is probably tied to the recent warez release of GC games, and has been credited to Crusader of the infamous release group Kalisto. Regardless of where this has come from, homebrewers have already started exploiting this hole. Check out : http://www.gcdev.com for the story and download of the tools.

I think this is fantastic... All you need as price of admission is a GameCube, GC-BBA, and PSO... then you can upload your own code.

-ReGex

law56ker · Post by **law56ker** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 1:54 am

Your alive!

ReGex · Post by **ReGex** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 1:55 am

I never left, did I?? :D

Gmc · Post by **Gmc** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 2:03 am

O_o Woo...I have a GC, a GC BBA and PSO...hmmm....

EDIT: Right, I gave it a try and it just froze PSO up at the pioneer screen. Its probably me doing something wrong...

EDIT 2: Yep, its working

Apparantly you can download the action replay and freeloader ISO's and use them...hmmm....

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 5:11 am

Erm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like this will require a permenant PC connection to load anything. Kind of loses a lot of interest to me because of that, such a hassle. Oh well. I guess we're not likely to see mini CDs working, considering the whole thing with the GCN spinning them backwards and reading them in reverse.. Blah.

Gmc · Post by **Gmc** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 5:54 am

GC spins them the normal way, but it reads em usin a diff method or somethin

Doing it over a LAN isint exactly a bad thing...dont have to spend money on discs (I'm a cheapass) :p

oh, and if you guys want to see a video of PSO booting one of these intros, just ask and I'll make a short video of it for ya.

area · Post by **area** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 7:34 am

That's pretty cool - it'll lead to a better homebrew scene. Unfortunatly, though, it'll lead to warez releases - a double edged sword. Doesn't really effect me though, as I don't even have a Gamecube

curt_grymala · Post by **curt_grymala** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 8:50 am

As long as that doesn't mean we'll lose all the talent here at dcemulation. I would really be depressed if all of the DC homebrew games became dead projects.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 9:45 am

I don't see any way that could be used to make warezed copies of anything. The commercial programs will all be trying to read from the disc, which will be PSO. So really, the only game you could possibly run on it is PSO. Which you have to have anyway.

Gmc · Post by **Gmc** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 10:04 am

Who said copies? we can basically FTP stuff to the Cubes RAM from our computers...

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 10:08 am

Exactly - It's good for transferring a single program over to the Cube. While that wouldn't allow games to run, since they need the data on the real disc, it'd allow homebrew to run, since it won't need to touch the disc. Then, it can set up the GC's BBA, and use that to read files from the PC's hard drive.

In other words, this particular back door is useless for pirates, and useful for homebrew.

Gmc · Post by **Gmc** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 10:11 am

Meh, as long as we get something out of it, I'm happy

I want a GBA emu! lol.

DuffMan · Post by **DuffMan** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 1:31 pm

This is quiet cool, it seems that everyone was proved wrong about Homebrew Developing for Game Cube.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 3:46 pm

Pretty slick really, but I'm still unimpressed. They say 2 megs is effectively the limit for one, and requiring a constant connection to the PC is kind of lame. I mean, if you're going to have a wire running like that, might as well just buy a TV out card for your PC

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 7:52 pm

All that means is that you have a 2MB limit for the program first loaded, and that limitation is probably put there by PSO itself. If you were to use the PSO loader to load a second program, which is less than 2MB, and then use that loader program to load a second program, you could quite probably get around the 2MB limit.

Aside from which, you could very easily use a really old PC, and it wouldn't matter too much. Probably an old P2 would easily do the job. Just set it up near your GC, and when you want to use some homebrew stuff, turn it on, pop PSO into the GC, and turn that on.

sonicblur · Post by **sonicblur** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 8:30 pm

The reason for the 2MB limit is because he's using PSO to do all of the TCP connection work. If he overwrites any of the memory PSO is using (Almost all of it) the game will crash.

And no, you dont need a permanant connection. As soon as the program is done uploading, the server program should automaticly quit.
There is no way to send data after that, and there is absolutely no way to receive data in the publicly released version.

Agent21KGB · Post by **Agent21KGB** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 8:33 pm

Yeah Kalisto supposidly has had the isos for a couple months but just couldn't figure out how to make them work. Good to here they ate still the best. I love their work.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 8:38 pm

There is no way to send data after that, and there is absolutely no way to receive data in the publicly released version.

Not yet anyway. But I would think that getting a connection to the PC back would be among the list of things to do for any potential homebrew devkit.

sonicblur · Post by **sonicblur** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 9:49 pm

BlackAura wrote:
There is no way to send data after that, and there is absolutely no way to receive data in the publicly released version.
Not yet anyway. But I would think that getting a connection to the PC back would be among the list of things to do for any potential homebrew devkit.

The author of the PSOload program has intentionally removed all ability to receive data, and I assume the same goes for the other one. He's very much against this being used for piracy. If there's ever a way to send data back, it wont come from him. I know he's done everything he can to prevent misuse, and he even removed his code that encodes PSO's encryption code before he released it. I've spoken with him a few times but yes, he is capable of receiving data.
Caution: I am not a reliable source of this information.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 12:43 am

And no, you dont need a permanant connection.

By permenant I meant you will always be dependant on having another PC connected to the GCN.