Late last year we told you about Nintendo's rather intriguing "Bug Bounty" programme, which was offering monetary rewards for tip-offs to security vulnerabilities on 3DS; when the Switch launched the official website was updated to include the new system, too.
The programme seems to have sprung to life, and it's an interesting insight into Nintendo's efforts to get hackers and modders on board. A day ago three users were registered as having received rewards for successful submissions; to earn these 'bounties' reports typically need to provide substantial details and evidence of vulnerabilities. Perhaps not coincidentally a homebrew hack that went through the 3DS sound app got shut out in the most recent 'stability' update.
As evidence of the continual struggle, however, a few Nintendo Life readers have pointed us to forums sharing the latest 3DS homebrew exploit, this time exploiting free app Swapdoodle. As soon as Nintendo shuts one door, another inevitably opens.
It's intriguing, in any case, to see the Bug Bounty programme start to pay out - perhaps it'll be an effective way for Nintendo to try and keep up with the homebrew and hacking scene on the Switch and 3DS. Time will tell.
[source hackerone.com]
Comments (23)
For old times' sake, @ThanosReXXX, do you know We Are Number One? I bet you do.
Now listen closely!
Here's a little lesson in hackery,
this is gonna make Nintendo's history!
If you wanna be a hacker number one,
you have to catch Mr. Robot's season one!
Just get firmware updates, sneak around,
be careful not to make a sound! (Shh...)
[a Switch gets bricked]
No no, don't touch that!
We are gonna hack,
hey!
We are gonna hack!
We are gonna hack!
Ha ha ha!
Now this custom firmware, that I just found:
when I say go, put this baby on!
Go!
[another Switch gets bricked]
(On his Switch, not mine!)
(Ugh, let's try something else.)
Now watch and learn, here's the deal,
they'll slip and slide on this update here!
(Ha ha ha, gasp! what are you doing!?)
[the outro is painfully easy to switch up - pun not intended... maybe - with the new lyrics, you can figure it out]
People are going to invent hacks just to make money.
Oh, brother...
"As soon as Nintendo shuts one door, another inevitably opens."
As a QA/security engineer (and a pentester, but sssh, as some NL users are gonna chase me around with torches, splurting words like "hacker!!!111"), I'll just say it's totally normal. Nothing is guaranteed to be 100% tested and secured, as there's pretty much no way to achieve that kind of test coverage - sooner or later some vulnerability is going to pop up for sure. The only question here is "when" and "how".
And hey, a bounty bug program is much better than a zero-day, y'know. Especially for a brand new piece of shiny hardware.
@AlexSora89 Never be too sure of things, my friend: I'm not that into internet memes, so I'm afraid that I actually didn't know that one, so I had to look it up to see what the fuzz was all about. Can't really say that it has enriched my life...
I do know Lazy Town, but only from the internet and only by name. Didn't know that it was from Iceland though, so I guess I learned something.
I think you should change the fourth and fifth line: rhyming one with one is a bit cheap, but kudos for yet another inventive text rewrite.
So, Mr. Robot, huh?
Still have to watch the second season of that series, but the first one was actually quite good.
I won't be updating my new 3ds anytime soon.
They're only just starting a programme like this now? Didn't Nintendo-hacking take off in the DS/Wii era?
Has there ever been any console that wasn't hacked?
99 little bugs in the code, 99 bugs in the code, fix it up, compile again, 101 little bugs in the code.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE - That's actually a good question.
I have heard many many stories and heard of entire communities based around hacking Nintendo hardware, especially the Wii and DS...but I seldom hear or read anything about other consoles being hacked, jailbroken, homebrewed, modded, etc...
I know that was a big thing back in the PS1 days, but I haven't heard much about Xbox or later Playstation hacking or modding communities.
@Action51 You can hardware mode your Dreamcast (and PS1) by getting a laser emulation after your laser get broken. PSP or PSVita is supposely very hackable (don't quote me on this one). Dunno about Microsoft's systems.
@KTT - Yeah, that's interesting.
I'm not into hacking or modding, just observing which ones I seem to hear the most about.
@Action51 Really? XBox modding is a pretty huge thing. I know PS2 modding is pretty big, too.
They also make modchips and/or flash carts for most consoles, if that counts.
See, hackers? It is possible to use your powers for good and profit!
@Action51
Huh? Haven't you heard of the Dreamcast community? I'm surprised, actually, as the DC scene is (almost) as big as it was back in 2000. Let me give you a brief rundown of the things we managed to achieve:
-reverse engineer some of the Dreamcast online games and the connection protocols - it's possible to play online on your DC right here, right now - party like it's 2000. Gems like Alien Front online, Worms World Party, Chu Chu Rocket or Phantasy Star Online - not only that, but there's also a small app/web page called Dreamcast Now!, which shows who is currently playing what online. All you need to have is a small telephone cable mod and a Raspberry Pi/computer with a modem,
-GD-ROM emulator boards (both for SD cards and USB thumbs) are now available, no more fears about dead lasers (and they're compatible with pretty much every game out there). Hell, you can even hard-soldier an IDE hard drive to the DC board, and it'll work!
-several indie games (including commercial ones) and ports are being announced and released on the Dreamcast every year
-lots and lots of people are actively hunting down Dreamcast development kits and memory cards, in hopes of finding unreleased games or obscure DLCs - one of such unreleased gems (Millenium Racer) was discovered recently in a late beta state, totally playable, and released to the community. As for DLCs, there's a special online archive, where you can download all of the discovered ones.
The Dreamcast may have died back in 2001 (2004 in Japan), but the Dream still lives on.
Seems like really easy financial incentives to join hacking communities acting as a mole for Nintendo.
@Waninoko
The dream still lives on
👍🏻
...Just leave the custom music thing alone if Smash 4 makes it to the Switch. TwT
Around here, when you hear about modding it's with Nintendo consoles. Exploits with Xbox or PS aren't all that well known...
@Jumpman
Will do.
@ThanosReXXX
Ouch, it's been one of the best-known memes of last year!
But still, yup.
And the lame rhyme was meant to keep "number one", so I had to sacrifice creativity on that one.
Also, I have the first season of Mr. Robot but never bothered to catch up with it.
Yet.
@Waninoko - Well that's interesting, and I have heard of this and seen some of the new releases for what is essentially hardware that hasn't been officially supported for over a decade.
@Asaki - thanks.
I really have not heard anything about anyone modding any Xboxes for any reason. It seemed like later Playstations weren't of much interest to modders either.
Maybe it's just a case of my not owning any of those, so I wouldn't catch the news on sites related to those consoles...although I do visit some broad based gaming sites that cover all platforms.
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