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Rumor has it that darkfader released some kind of trash firmware upgrade that messes up the DS, can anyone confirm this as true since I feel it is highly unlikely. Also apparently its screwing up flash carts

and where does the basis for this trashing come from? nowhere, b.s. if you ask me.

I seriously doubt that man. First off, the malware was for PSP, not DS, and darkfader had nothing to do with it AFAIK. I have not even heard of any sort of malware for the DS at all. But who knows, it could be some 12 year old script-kiddie posing as darkfader.
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// cybereality

This thread is way off-topic...

Now about what has been "released"...
(1) It poses as a loader for illegal commercial ROMs
(2) It's meant as vigilante punishment of warez0rs
(3) It deletes FW of a bunch of different devices (NDS included)

No respected homebrewer will ever put that thing into a homebrew app. So the only people that should be afraid are the pirates.

BTW: I know not everybody agrees with vigilante justice. I also don't say that I agree with vigilante justice. I am just explaining what that thing is and is meant for.
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www.natrium42.com

Wow, I feel sorry for the poor innocent homebrew user who will inevitably get tricked into running this.
This will be used against us, I suggest that from now on - wait before running anything homebrew on hardware until it is verified to be safe.

Just a minute... How can a software program destroy an unflashed DS without poking a metal thing in the hole? I could understand it attacking a FlashMe'd DS, but not an unmodified one.
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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

Lazy1 wrote:

wait before running anything homebrew on hardware until it is verified to be safe.

And the console makers will likely fold this into their FUD against homebrew. Given Trojan.PSPBrick and now r0mloader, all you can trust is an Official Nintendo Seal.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

Well now, isnt this basically creating a bomb with no fear of it blowing up in our faces..... Especially with the honest homebrewers out there, who like testing other homebrew aps. If say nintendo does decide against homebrew and use this method, it would end up killing the community.

Of course other rumors are that its out to attack all non neoflash owners,
and that Darkfader is in charge of the GST team also, which roms run on Neoflash

What bothers me is that the firmware is writable in the first place, I hope someone can figure out a hardware mod to disable writing to it.
I wouldn't miss it as I use a PassMe and have a bad history flashing things.

And if I remember reading a post correctly from a while ago - only the first 512 bytes are protected by the connector, after that it looks like fair game.
Not a very smart move by nintendo, but I have a 1 year warranty where they don't ask questions >) but it doesn't make this right.

Dwedit wrote:

Just a minute... How can a software program destroy an unflashed DS without poking a metal thing in the hole? I could understand it attacking a FlashMe'd DS, but not an unmodified one.

Because the metal thing in the hole is to allow the flashme to overwrite the first sector of the firmware with a fail-safe boot block, precisely for protection from malicious code. The rest of the firmware is wide open to attack.

Non-flashmed DSs aren't known to have this style of fail-safe, so if the rest of the firmware is corrupted there is no way for them to recover. It is *safer* to have a flashed DS than to use an original firmware with Wifime or Passme. Now that is ironic.

Also, no source was released, so this isn't likely to make it into any other homebrew yet. I'm sure it will be reverse engineered, though. Even if it isn't, the information on how to write to the firmware is already available on the internet. Just read bottledlight, Neimod's DSTek, and the spec sheets for the firmware chip.

This is freaking me out now, even though I know the risks of running homebrew it's hard to believe this could happen.

Lazy1 wrote:

This is freaking me out now, even though I know the risks of running homebrew it's hard to believe this could happen.

Err... didn't you read what I posted? Here is the relevant part again:
So the only people that should be afraid are the pirates.

knight0fdragon wrote:

Of course other rumors are that its out to attack all non neoflash owners,
and that Darkfader is in charge of the GST team also, which roms run on Neoflash

Where did you read all that crap?

Again: Download illegal loaders and you risk brickifying your DS and flash carts! Only use legal homebrew apps from trusted sources!
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www.natrium42.com

I did read what you posted - but whats stopping someone from renaming it to something like "ds-doom.nds" and bricking those who attempt to play it.
Theres no way you'd know until it's too late.

Unless you run it in an emulator which checks for writes into that area.

OK, best measure is to download homebrew from trusted sources. Also, you could install FlashMe which has a write-protected part that can restore NDS firmware if somebody tricks you with a fake homebrew.
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www.natrium42.com

natrium42 wrote:

OK, best measure is to download homebrew from trusted sources.

Then how does a homebrew author become "trusted" without getting on airplanes to travel to key signing parties in order to get into the PGP web of trust?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

i guess new faces on NDS scene like me will be punished.. who will test my codes besides me with this Game Terrorism?
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Sorry Dudu, I ain't testing none of your stuff now that this thing is out :( Though I guess I could check it with a hex editor EACH time I download a homebrew, but even DF said that it could be encrypted easily.

You could get a known, trusted person to test each game/app posted to a reputable website. As long as that person knows what they are doing then they remain safe. I personally will continue to run homebrew code, since I know that I can recover anything that breaks. But I suppose some people won't trust me anymore.

IxthusTiger wrote:

Sorry Dudu, I ain't testing none of your stuff now that this thing is out :( Though I guess I could check it with a hex editor EACH time I download a homebrew, but even DF said that it could be encrypted easily.

i was talking to ROMMAN ( Supercard creator ) he will try to make a file scan so look the code.. mey be it will check for Supercard fimware changes.. and probably will work for everyone..

i just hope other people start making one too.. becouse romman is a lot busier wiht the new firmware in prodution.. ( no file size pro NDS files. no more 32MG limits for hombrew )

i love homebrews.. and i realy want the things come balkc to normal =[
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chishm wrote:

You could get a known, trusted person to test each game/app posted to a reputable website. As long as that person knows what they are doing then they remain safe. I personally will continue to run homebrew code, since I know that I can recover anything that breaks. But I suppose some people won't trust me anymore.

yeah but for me its a little dificult.. becouse i only have a supercard.. an this FU** briker crashes Supercard too =[
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natrium42 wrote:

knight0fdragon wrote:

Of course other rumors are that its out to attack all non neoflash owners,
and that Darkfader is in charge of the GST team also, which roms run on Neoflash

Where did you read all that crap?

This particular BS rumour seems to come from brakken. Here's a link.

Seriously, this isn't as bad as it sounds for homebrew. There is no source to the bricker, so people will have to work out how to make one themself to put it into other games/apps. If you are still worried, a good source of clean, tested homebrew ROMs is www.ndshb.com.

knight0fdragon wrote:

Rumor has it that darkfader released some kind of trash firmware upgrade that messes up the DS, can anyone confirm this as true since I feel it is highly unlikely. Also apparently its screwing up flash carts

It's not just a rumor, go to gbatemp or 64scener and read about it.

Last edited by amiga on Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

That news site is making it worse by providing 3 links to the alleged homebrew firmware destroyer.

Anyone know when that "log" was taken?
I don't know of anytime when Dsdev's reply that fast.

Comparing the published log with my logs...

It's accurate.. not fake.. I was there you know..

Dudu.exe wrote:

i guess new faces on NDS scene like me will be punished

Which will validate the oft-repeated suggestion to start on the simpler GBA platform and only move to the DS once you're comfortable on the GBA, right?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

isnt that like telling people to start on the 386 then move to pentium

Can anyone get hold of DarkFader and ask what is actually going on with all of this?

I'm sure he's drunk...
Or has nothing BETTER to do in his LIFE.

Pardon me, but this whole bit about trusted homebrewers.. Wasn't DarkFader trusted?

How can he be anymore? And furthermore, what's to stop Nintendo accusing the homebrewers of writing a Nintendo DS-specific virus? The simple fact is, someone wrote malicious code for their system, effectively causing people to destroy their systems, and no doubt hundreds of people may actually send their DS's back to Nintendo claiming they're faulty.

Surely, people will be weary of going online with their Nintendo DS now...

I play games that I own for my SNES, and NES on my Nintendo DS. I own them. Should I worry about other homebrewer authors following DarkFader's lead?

I really don't see how much good can come from this. Attacking the pirating community won't start anything more than hatred toward the homebrewer community..

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I'm almost afraid to run software on my DS now, especially from trusted sources.
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Mathew Valente [TSSF]
------
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I'm the same. Until this blows over I'm going to be incredibly careful.
I probably won't get any new homebrew until i feel the scene is safe again.
Possibly the only thing i might risk is moonshell and DSlinux.
I'm going to consider all homebrew created after 6th October 2005 infected until i feel it's safe again.

Heed the words of sgstair

Quote:

There has been a single isolated incident in which DarkFader has written a program with the purpose of overwriting the firmware of the DS, and a few other systems. The homebrew community (and #dsdev) has not endorsed this, nor are they responsible for spreading it.

Quit the hype please, people. A destructive program like this is intentional, and will not affect normal homebrew; DS wifi will NOT be affected. As usual, use caution in what you run, and don't run every odd program off of obscure/illegal forums, you'll be fine.

-Stephen

tepples wrote:

natrium42 wrote:

OK, best measure is to download homebrew from trusted sources.

Then how does a homebrew author become "trusted" without getting on airplanes to travel to key signing parties in order to get into the PGP web of trust?

Haha, that's the biggest BS that I have read in a while. I wonder if you travel on airplanes before you download *anything* from the internet...

Look, anything on the internet cannot be trusted, so just disconnect your computer from it unless you want to risk having your computer BIOS bricked.

tssf wrote:

Pardon me, but this whole bit about trusted homebrewers.. Wasn't DarkFader trusted?

He made that loader so that people can give them to annoying warez lamers spamming our channels. I wouldn't give it to anybody no matter how much I hate pirates, and I know many developers wouldn't either.

amiga wrote:

It's not just a rumor, go to gbatemp or 64scener and read about it.

Yes, thanks for pointing out non-biased, non-warez-oriented news sites... Now I sure know what kind of person you are.
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natrium42 wrote:

He made that loader so that people can give them to annoying warez lamers spamming our channels. I wouldn't give it to anybody no matter how much I hate pirates, and I know many developers wouldn't either.

And I'm sure the first skriptkiddie that has his DS bricked is going to think, "gee, I just learned a valuable lesson about pirating software." Rather than "[expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]ers broke my DS, I'll show those [expletive deleted] by spreading the file I now have in 2000 different repackaged versions everywhere on the 'net."

I don't recall anyone writing code to try and nuke GBA carts even though we suffer from rampant piracy there, and I'm sorry to see this show up on the DS.

because GBA carts can't be nuked. neither could the firmware.

Well, I test every file prior to adding it to ndshb.com.. I don't have FlashMe installed.. but I guess I will need to buy another DS so that I can have it installed.. (I test every PassMe prior to shipping, so I can't use a FlashMe'd DS). Which, I need to buy anyway, so I can try to find a new firmware'd DS..

At any rate.. As Natrium42 said, this is nothing new on the internet. If you want to be mad at someone, how about Nintendo? They are the ones that designed the hardware to allow this kind of code to be created! Sure, they didn't have "plans" for unsigned code to be run on the hardware, but let's just face it.. Nothing is hackproof. If anything, everyone that is safe with FlashMe, should go to loopy's site and donate. Anyone that briked their DS and were able to recover because of FlashMe should go to loopy's site and donate. Anyone that is a pirate, and plans to run stuff downloaded from questionable site (ya'know.. the warez sites?).. should install FlashMe.. oh.. and don't forget to DONATE!

See.. I think it is so funny for people to run around.. downloading free stuff.. pirating, complaining about the free stuff that is available.. etc.. and then when something big comes along, everyone is ready to place blame on someone else.. and are all pissed about it. No one want's to remember that the homebrew community is made up of a bunch of people that do it because they like it. They are not getting paid to do it. They do it for fun.

Erasing NDS flash has been possible since the day the FW was first dumped. This is why Loopy made built-in restoring code in the protected section of FlashMe from the very start.

If you didn't have FlashMe installed and bricked your DS, there is still a way to restore it with some soldering. Here is a link with the instructions: http://darkfader.net/ds/files/ppflash.zip
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www.natrium42.com

If you've got FlashMe on, then can you just recover from the 'BrickMe' by using the FlashMe again?

Again, YES!
How many times do i have to answer that question?
Anyway, don't run it and you won't need to find out...
This is the best link on this topic so far.
http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15156
by gamecop at the 1emulation forums.

I have no intention of running it I just wanted to make sure what I thought was correct. Also at no point within this thread have you answered this question directly

tssf wrote:

Pardon me, but this whole bit about trusted homebrewers.. Wasn't DarkFader trusted?

He was...
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Mithos wrote:

Comparing the published log with my logs...

It's accurate.. not fake.. I was there you know..

Taihen (trouble) is in fact a board game, is it not? With the dice in the bubble or something? And a plausibly good name for a real non-malignant homebrew... guess thats not a good name now though.

Had a look at the skeen log, I'm assuming DF is now banned from the IRC? (goes and visits IRC) From the looks of it no...just some warezors and SGStair (or impersonator)...

http://gbadev.tri-bit.com/

Quote:

11) Any pasting of links to apps that are known to be spyware/viruses will result in a 3 strikes rule. You have been warned.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&oi=defmore&defl=en&q=define:virus

Quote:

A virus is a program written to cause mischief or damage to a computer system. A mild virus might only be a slight nuisance, or even amusing. However, most viruses do damage, whether to your files, your registry, or even your hardware. Viruses are hard to detect, easy to propagate, and difficult to remove. Your computer can pick up a virus when you copy a seemingly normal file from a diskette or download it from the Internet.

PS. I dont and didnt have a brick, but have been trying to help the unsuspecting.

That's a very poor description of a virus, the key requirement of a virus is that it is self replicating ie. it can copy itself from one program to another. DF's nasty little program doesn't do that and hence is not a virus - it barely qualifies as a trojan and is certainly not a worm or virus.

Anyway the hype surrounding this is insanely stupid. At worst you're going to ruin your sub $200 toy, there are thousands of PC viruses/spyware out there that have the potential to cause massive data loss (the time I'd spend restoring my data from backups is worth more than $200 to me), not to mention the possibility of stealing sensitive financial information.

I think this whole issue has been blown up a bit. If you check the logs, you will see it was a joke shared by the people on the channel at the time. I myself do not endorse it, those comments on IRC were meant as a joke about my GBAMP firmware and should not be treated as my personal opinion. I just thought I had to clear that up.

Apart from the links being spread with the reports of the "virus", it has not been given out by anyone on the channel. I won't send it to people, even if they are ROMz lamers bugging me about GBAMP support. That is not right.

I think this issue is making a mountain out of a mole hill. It seems that the people doing the most damage are infact warezers (www.tehskeen.com) who seem intent on getting revenge on the DS dev community. A lot of the information being spread is false. This was not made to eliminate NeoFlash's competition, DarkFader is not the ring leader of GST (as far as I know), and the legitimate DS dev community will not be putting this into any other program.

As for warezers who are going on an offensive towards the DS dev community, talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Who was it that created the code for the first PassMe? DarkFader! Who was it that dumped the first ROMs (for educational purposes)? DarkFader! We may have gotten sick of your constant piracy, but that doesn't mean that any of us would purposely damage your DS. Again, I say check the logs, and notice the blatant warnings.

It is rather unfortunate that this has created an us (DS dev'rs) and them (casual homebrew users) attitude. No one wants that. Can't we all just get along?

cory1492 wrote:

Taihen (trouble) is in fact a board game, is it not? With the dice in the bubble or something?

Yes, TROUBLE with the POPOMATIC dice roller is a board game made by Hasbro.

Quote:

And a plausibly good name for a real non-malignant homebrew

TROUBLE is a trademark of Hasbro, as are SORRY! and PARCHEESI. If any Nintendo DS game came out with this name, it'd be a Hasbro product, and it'd be a commercial ROM. But there are generic terms: "ludo", "slide pursuit", and "pachisi".
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

chishm wrote:

It is rather unfortunate that this has created an us (DS dev'rs) and them (casual homebrew users) attitude. No one wants that. Can't we all just get along?

Hey, I trust the dev'rs still. I could recover my firmware anyway if it got trashed, but honestly, I can't imagine tons of people putting this in their games or DS applications or anything like that. If they make these games, dont' they want them to get played? How would they get played if someone tried it, it bricked their DS, and they ran off screaming "OMG OMGOMG! IT IS TEH VIRUS!"

They game wouldn't get played because no one would touch it or their other work with a ten foot pole.

Another thing, as much as I hate the pirates I have to say I wouldn't have gone this far. Anyway, I'm honestly not worried about it.
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Finally.. Someone tried to do the right thing.. and link to the def. of a virus.. and yet shows that this wasn't a virus.. Wow.. I still get amazed at how non-computer people will just go with anything they read.. Oh.. the word Virus.. I saw that on the news.. DF made a virus.. it infected my DS and my friends using WiFi.. it then hacked into my computer and e-mailed itself to all my friends DSs all over the world.. So now every DS in the world is infected, and on 03/31/2006 it will launch it's payload, which not only bricks your DS, but launches a DOS attack against Nintendo.com and the government of Isreal.

until someone can provide a link to some 'trash firmware' or give a detailed account of how they 'bricked' their ds, I don't see why this topic continues to deface DF.

Lazy1 - you're an idiot

tepples wrote:

And the console makers will likely fold this into their FUD against homebrew.

come on dude, the bank switching routines to gba flash cards have been known for years, and nintendo never once implemented this into their bios. I could have written some bios code that would make it impossible to load code off a flash card myself, so could they, but they aren't.

Dudu.exe wrote:

i guess new faces on NDS scene like me will be punished.. who will test my codes besides me with this Game Terrorism?

what 'game terrorism'? not in homebrew.

IxthusTiger wrote:

Though I guess I could check it with a hex editor EACH time I download a homebrew

you can understand arm assembly by looking at it in hex? damn that's good.

IxthusTiger wrote:

no more 32MG limits for hombrew

I wasn't aware of any 32MB homebrew apps, but there are commercial roms of that size. good luck trying to break the gba's 32MB cart limit while pirating your roms asshat.

he did make something bad, targeted at pirates like you. look on darkfader's website, do you see r0mloader anywhere? where do you find it? on ds rom websites:

r0m loader for Nintendo DS
It automatically patches the game during load.
You can switch DS card/GBA cart save and save settings per game.
Put the loader on a CF or SD card together with the NDS files.
Start the loader and select the NDS to play!
Enjoy.

Currently supports:
* Supercard
* GBA Movie player

Future support:
* G6
* M3

patches game during load? sounds pretty cool to a rom kiddie, and that's what you get. homebrew and pirating games is not the same thing. what he did was cool.

Yeah, I'm an idiot for being concerned about my $200 console being ruined by someone renaming the "loader" to something else.

I never said anything bad about DF, infact the only people I am pissed at would be the warezers using it against legit homebrew users as revenge.
Sure we who read this thread know what to look for but what about the poor, innocent moron who goes into an irc channel or something and gets something like:

person1: yo, check out my doom port for ds <link to ds bricker>
person2: cool, downloading now

So please - go back, read my posts and tell me where I trashed DF.

anyway, this is a bad thing. Since that the big N has the power, it could just say: Homebrew is a bad thing, we are going to close EVERYTHING that talks about homebrew. ok ok, you know, they have the power to do this
(power != famous, power == money).
Thinking this way, they can close the bad forums, and the good ones too for those here that really like the DF little child..

And you say: ohh! bad for pirates! piracy is bad!
/you slaps pirates arround with a large trout

remember: you still need a ds to play piracy. People will buy Consoles for piracy, but probably will not buy consoles for play a pong port for DS. I really like the homebrew scene, the hexen / heretic ports for ds kick asses, the dslinux and all the stuff, but im really sure that one guy trying to make fun with pirates, will mess with all the homebrew comunity, while the pirates will be there making 'N' gain "SOME" money

Hi! all,

Maybe you're right about piracy, and everything... BUT Why did the DS Bricker kill the GBAMP? This one is known to not allow the launch of original roms. Why attacking this device?

I have bought DS games, but I mainly buy the DS for using it as a PDA, that can also play good games in decent conditions. That's why I have lots of hopes into DSLinux, Wins, etc... Sadly, I couldn't contribute to the DS scene, as I have no time to developp (children, work, and a really busy life) and I hope I can find some time to(as I'm a computer engineer).

Now, if there is a loader on the GBAMP, that can launch commercial games too; it can be very usefull, as I can use my personnal games stored in a flash card,and Linux on the same DS without having to change anything on the DS. BUT did this use make me a Pirate hungry of the blood of the developpers????

I also have a supercard because some homebrews cannot be launched from the GBAMP (or couldn't at the time I bought it BEFORE it can launch NDS commercials).

To resume: I found extremely troubling in attacking an honorable device like GBAMP. Natrium42 who has done a lot for the DS Scene (an the one who made my passme (one of the 100 first sold serie)) say that gbatemp is a headquarter for piracy? Why did Darkfader post on this forum? I know this forum because I was looking for the beginnigs of the "legal homebrew" DS Scene....

Trust me or not, I'm not a pirate, BUT I condamn this DS Bricker.

I don't want to bother the ones who made the homebrew start; but at the beginnings, there was lots of rumors about the "collaboration" between NeoFlash Team and Darfader, and a possible leakage from original Nintendo documentations. Rumors are rumors.... But the things that really makes me surprised is that possible attack of the GBAMP....

Unless there has been a loader that I'm not aware of on the GBAMP, I'm in great troubles about the fact that the only device that is not affected is the Neoflash one....

Sorry for my bad english (I'm french) and for being so long...

Kick

One other thing,

Suppositions:
Last week, the neoflash team finally released their backup manager/patching software. Is it to make their device "clean", as it can now be used as a legal "backup device"? So now that they are not in the piracy business?

But the GST roms where exclusively for them! They start the commerical launch of non-clean backup (meaning you couldn't backup the game and make it start yourself). Maybe the DSBricker could have started attacking this SYMBOL of piracy....

But this device seems not affected....

That why all those things are "bizarre".

Kick

tssf wrote:

Pardon me, but this whole bit about trusted homebrewers.. Wasn't DarkFader trusted?

I can't remember I put my name in the executable or text file. So you don't have to trust the executable in that case.
Whenever I release something trustable, I put my name in/with it. (No guarantees that others could not use my name)
I did lower the trust level of the whole DS homebrew community though. But it might also scare off some pirates. So it's like a double edged sword.
It was fairly simple to make and I had this idea for a long time. If PSP has malware, DS can have some too. It's proven now that both DS and PSP are vulnerable and this stuff doesn't need to happen again. Perhaps Nintendo and Sony will try to protect their next systems somewhat better.
BTW.. I'm working on a supercard fix now.

Nobody would have learned how to do this had they simply given us the writable game cards.

Considering how many DSs people have bricked and had replaced so far, I think it could have saved money ;)

Anyway, I'll just leave it at this for myself, and some sensible others may decide to follow:
It's done. Randomly taking shots at DarkFader won't fix anything -- what he did wasn't black and white, but it probably has had a positive effect, assuming that Nintendo NEVER KNOWS. Unfortunately, they probably will know, and this is even more likely considering the spectacular number of discussions about BrickMe.
Find a way to detect the problem.
Use this check if wanted... Better safe than bricked.
Seeing as the check will probably not be done (or known of) by the mob of software pirates, all will be fine.

I have worse things to worry about, and I'm sure you do too.
Things such as AVG Antivirus's OOhh! Look at me!!! I'm Updating!!! screen that believes that it, a program that runs in the background, is permitted to minimize a ginormous full-screen app. I mean... seriously. Am I supposed to care what my virus scanner is doing???? As long as it works, it's fine. GAAH.
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Last edited by Mr. Picklesworth on Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:18 pm; edited 3 times in total

phonymike wrote:

come on dude, the bank switching routines to gba flash cards have been known for years, and nintendo never once implemented this into their bios.

That's because the BIOS is a mask ROM on the same die as the CPU and because games call the BIOS directly through SWIs. Firmware on the other hand is an application loaded only at power-on (apart from the saved settings), and games don't call into it. Therefore, changing the BIOS needs a lot more re-verification of correctness than does changing the firmware.

Quote:

I wasn't aware of any 32MB homebrew apps, but there are commercial roms of that size. good luck trying to break the gba's 32MB cart limit while pirating your roms asshat.

The first homebrew DS program to break the 33554432 byte barrier was ScummVM. Or does your country's copyright law not recognize an exemption for private format-shifting of copyrighted Lucasarts games?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

What Darkfader has done is damage beyond anything not only the DS Homebrew scene but all homebrew scenes, granted he took a swipe at Warezers but ifs thats the case why was the first release an hentai viewer,

I can guarentee that this code will get into Homebrew some how and thats where the most damage will happen.

No person has the right to release programs like this and any idiot who thinks its amusing it seriously tapped, personally i hope Nintendo get a hold of his name and address and thats not hard thankfully and prosecute the man.

He has also given Nintendo the go ahead to have a real go at the homebrew scene as a whole and also bring out new firmwares that close of all routes into the DS.

Smart and exceedinlgy lame move Darkfader, ahh well. heres hoping you get your just desserts.
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I don't think nintendo will go that far, they are probably just going to lock the entire firmware now instead of a little chunk. As for those sending back there DS's, if Nintendo finds out about this then those people are sh!t out of luck for using products that do not carry the seal

As for the neoflash, I do not think that card can be damaged due to the fact that its a flash card and doesnt have firmware

AHAHAHAH, sure DF is a good guy aeuhaehueuhaeuhuhea

http://ds.gcdev.com/dsfirmware/

Mouse over the installation link...

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7682/flashme2dr.jpg

Sure sure, he did this just to avoid the l33t Warez0rs to flash their ds's...
or better, he did a mistake while uploading the new version of the flashme :D

oh.. c'mon...

I noticed that the MD5 and SHA1 sums of the new "flashme" and the one I had already do not match. Probably just a harmless new version.

MD5:
2158b21391a30a79f5a74b9e54b32d90 (old version)
6b6b6f2b50958888222d24ea53e74ed3 (current version on site)

SHA1:
46263ddc7a38c41c33dc270533f05b0f62c15083 (old version)
ede5cb592f07cfe2079d515e10ac3e6af1d173a4 (current version on site)
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Dwedit wrote:

I noticed that the MD5 and SHA1 sums of the new "flashme" and the one I had already do not match. Probably just a harmless new version.

MD5:
2158b21391a30a79f5a74b9e54b32d90 (old version)
6b6b6f2b50958888222d24ea53e74ed3 (current version on site)

SHA1:
46263ddc7a38c41c33dc270533f05b0f62c15083 (old version)
ede5cb592f07cfe2079d515e10ac3e6af1d173a4 (current version on site)

just a harmless version.. or not o.0
I went to the dsbrick channel at efnet (something like this, dont remember the channel) and dark was there ^^
anyway.. since that darkfader was the last to update the flashme page, i really dont trust that website anymore. I Asked a op there and he said that its just a joke, and the file there maches the new flashme version.

Oh yes, wasnt a joke that turned some DS's into paperweights? (brick is a obsolete term o.0)

got logs?

Code:

Session Start: Sun Oct 09 20:07:32 2005
Session Ident: sgstair
[08:07] <SolidSnak> sgstair why df added his "tool" in the place of the flashme zip?
[08:08] <sgstair> he didn't
[08:08] <sgstair> he just changed the text
[08:08] <sgstair> I haven't been able to contact anyone else who's an admin on that site yet though.
[08:08] <SolidSnak> and why we get a .nds instead of a .gba file
[08:08] <SolidSnak> ?
[08:08] <SolidSnak> since we need to flash it to a card in order to work
[08:08] <sgstair> it's been that way for a while, just add a loader to it (the directions tell you how)
[08:08] <SolidSnak> it should be a .gba file right?
[08:08] <SolidSnak> o.0
[08:09] <sgstair> some systems don't need it to be a .ds.gba file
[08:09] <SolidSnak> but it should be a zip, shouldnt it? with readmes, etc..
[08:09] <sgstair> like gbamp and possibly supercard.
[08:09] <sgstair> it hasn't been recently.
[08:09] <SolidSnak> lol
[08:09] * SolidSnak has fear anyway o.0
[08:10] <sgstair> I've checked it, it's the right version.
[08:10] <SolidSnak> my ds would be a nice paper holder. but anyway..
[08:10] <SolidSnak> ok, i guessed he did a bad thing again kkkk
Session Close: Sun Oct 09 20:10:58 2005

Code:

Session Start: Sun Oct 09 19:59:52 2005
Session Ident: #brickhelp
[07:59] rLz Falando agora no #brickhelp
[07:59] T?pico: Bricked DS? tutorials to come... soon. | Yes, it was really DarkFader, christ
[07:59] Colocado por: StoneCybh!StoneCyphe@dialup-4.241.220.159.Dial1.SanDiego1.Level3.net em 08 de Outubro (S?bado) de 2005 ?s 20:28:59.
[08:00] <inde> which is exectly what i said earlier, sad thing is cos of 1 persons actions you all get screwed
[08:00] <SolidSnak> www.solidflog.k6.com.br
[08:00] <SolidSnak> if you want to see at live
[08:00] <SolidSnak> go to the flashme site
[08:00] <SolidSnak> :X
[08:02] <DarkFader> funny uh?
[08:03] <SolidSnak> lol
[08:03] rLz Entrou: PayNoaAtt (PayNoaAttn@pcp169019pcs.plsntv01.nj.comcast.net)
[08:03] <SolidSnak> DarkFader hiho
[08:03] rLz Desconectou do mirc: shoryu (Shoryu@lns-p19-2-idf-82-251-124-153.adsl.proxad.net) []
[08:03] <SolidSnak> o.0
[08:03] <SolidSnak> DarkFader why dont you join dsdev so we can talk o.0 ?
[08:03] <PayNoaAtt> Can stock bricked Ds be restored?
[08:03] <DarkFader> perhaps because I'm banned?
[08:03] <SolidSnak> i know
[08:03] <SolidSnak> thats why i asked >:)
[08:04] <DarkFader> and I need to go to bed now...
[08:04] <@sgstair> PayNoaAtt: yes, but it's difficult.
[08:04] <PayNoaAtt> Just checking. I'm not bricked.
[08:04] <SolidSnak> kkkk
[08:05] <PayNoaAtt> Is it better to use flashme to be better prepared in case I get bricked?
[08:05] <SolidSnak> since you cant download it anymore...
[08:05] <SolidSnak> cof cof
[08:06] <PayNoaAtt> Sorry, just read the topic. I'll wait til the guides are out.
[08:09] rLz Desconectou do mirc: PayNoaAtt (PayNoaAttn@pcp169019pcs.plsntv01.nj.comcast.net) []
[08:11] rLz Desconectou do mirc: SolidSnak (Ideas4Life@201-0-182-50.dial-up.telesp.net.br) [EOF [ www.srulez.com ]]
Session Close: Sun Oct 09 20:11:01 2005

tepples wrote:

Therefore, changing the BIOS needs a lot more re-verification of correctness than does changing the firmware.

I'm talking about in the boot procedure, when you see the gameboy logo, a quick routine to change banks on known flash cards could be implemented without interfering with any bios calls or anything of the sort.

Quote:

The first homebrew DS program to break the 33554432 byte barrier was ScummVM

this guy wasn't looking to play scumm games. when a homebrew app (like scummvm) needs to exceed the 32MB barrier it can use bankswitching code and get the data it needs. I don't see how this would be possible on a commercial nds game running from a flash card. it would require rewriting code when data/code beyond that limit needs to be read. again, good luck to nds pirates when more games are larger than 32MB.

gba flash cards have limited rewrite cycles of like 100,000. anyone could have wrote a little demo that erases the first sector of a card that many times in a couple seconds and render the card useless. this kind of thing was gonna happen some time. and DF with all his hardware knowledge mine as well been the one to do it. again I don't see it on his site, so if some pirate site posted it, I wouldn't try it. that's what the rom kiddies get, flashing their bios from shit they got off a rom site.

phonymike wrote:

I'm talking about in the boot procedure, when you see the gameboy logo, a quick routine to change banks on known flash cards could be implemented without interfering with any bios calls or anything of the sort.

But those changes might have timing or other effects on the other routines in the BIOS. For this reason, and because the BIOS sits on the same die as the CPU, you have to re-QA the whole thing and make a new tapeout. This gets expensive. Besides, it's an Open Secret(tm) that official developers use Chinese flash cards, and if they have to buy Nintendo's own expensive cards in order to test multiplayer code on production units, then somebody's going to defect to the other guys' platform (N-Gage, Palm, Xboy, or PSP).

Quote:

when a homebrew app (like scummvm) needs to exceed the 32MB barrier it can use bankswitching code and get the data it needs. I don't see how this would be possible on a commercial nds game running from a flash card.

Easy: the patcher inserts code to set the bankswitch whenever loading a 512 byte block of data. The GST patcher is rumored to do exactly this.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

darkfader wrote:

But it might also scare off some pirates.

do you really believe that ? seriously ? I can believe that !!

only a little child without knowledge of piracy history can believe that.

I know the problem, I'm professional game developper (ppc/palm/phone)
_________________
http://honolulu.free.fr/
http://www.int13.net/
http://rcbike.free.fr/

man darkfader U f#cked it up this time... How low can you go!! soon people will be spreading ''infected'' homebrew apps and games and al thanks to............> YOU

You really helpt the homebrew scene this time!

tjas wrote:

soon people will be spreading ''infected'' homebrew apps and games

Don't forget to say also that a meteorite will crush on Nintendo's DS factories and Bruce Willis will save the world by flashing the firmware of an alien shuttle...

DarkFader, be honest:

You were drunk, weren't you?

Quote:

Don't forget to say also that a meteorite will crush on Nintendo's DS factories and Bruce Willis will save the world by flashing the firmware of an alien shuttle...

??? what the hell are you talking about? Why isn't it possible that some weird people put the trojan in a hombrew app/game

This whole thing is blown out of proportion.

The code to reflash firmware was known for a long time.
That's why the "homebrew" firmware got a recovery stub.
No doubt programs that erase firmware would surface, but it is not a big deal as the first 64KB region can be protected (or all regions with Sanyo chips) and replaced with a much smaller sized firmware.

I'm just sad DarkFader did not hit more pirates and dumb people.
Because obviously, there are too many of them.

the only thing that bothers me about all of this is the mistakes a newbie could make here and end up destroying their DS. What I mean is this. When I was new to the home brew scene, i didn't know much difference in roms and home brew roms, I just knew that i had to have a rom cart and I could run stuff. Just happens to be that it runs home brew as well as pirated games. The DS, as we know, is a world more complicated and things like flashing and wifi loading nd whatnot become buzzwords that some newbie night not understand. and if someone like dark fader comes out ad say here, use this to run games, a newbie might just very well do what he says. After all, darkfaders name is thrown out about as reputable and trustworthy.

All I'm saying is that your not only hurting the pirates...there is the unsuspecting little guy too. One less future home brewer

Lets stop with the Darkfader flaming and act like adults here.

You could see darkfaders purpose here, I myself could care less for pirates, most pirates arent mass producing what they pirate, so nintendos loss is not that great. The pirates that sell the crap is what really hurts industry.

notb4dinner wrote:

That's a very poor description of a virus, the key requirement of a virus is that it is self replicating ie. it can copy itself from one program to another.

True, if you go by the terms used by comp.geek people, or look up the medical term of virus in a biological organism.

layman:
I dont go to the store to buy the product "symantic antivirus" and "symantec antitrojan" and "symantec antihijacker" and "symantec anti whatever else you can come up with" - virus describes all of these as they are in the net/pc world - malicious code that generally either hides as something else and does something bad or benign code that either hides as something else and does something insignifigant.

but in even simpler terms: if you support or laud the actions of the virus (whether spread to warez ppl or not) you will be more inclined to side with the geek/bio definition of virus, and if you dont support it (or for that matter dont know much about PC's in general) you will be more inclined to support the layman definition (ie: someone infected with a trojan and seeing strange behavior of their device will likely go to check if they have a VIRUS).

and the link has many def's of virus, I chose the one I beleive to be accepted by many non-geek people who are often even capable of programming.

edit:/

Quote:

11) Any pasting of links to apps that are known to be spyware/viruses will result in a 3 strikes rule. You have been warned.

so for all intentents and purposes then, posting links (warned or otherwise) to known trojans in the #dsdev channel could be considered acceptable behaivior among said dev'rs? I though virus/spyware had a broader meaning in those TOS, glad I havent been hanging about IRC clicking links there, mighta got myself a great trojan or 3.

Hoagie: That's total BS! I don't care how stupid someone is, or how big of a "newb" they are.. they know the difference between running pirated commercial roms and homebrew roms. So don't give us that crap!

cory1492 wrote:

True, if you go by the terms used by comp.geek people, or look up the medical term of virus in a biological organism.

layman:
I dont go to the store to buy the product "symantic antivirus" and "symantec antitrojan" and "symantec antihijacker" and "symantec anti .. blah blah blah

There will NEVER be a day I accept a definition for something computer related from the media or anyone else that doesn't have the technical knowledge to define it!

I don't care if the NEWS calls the latest WORM a VIRUS because THEY DON'T KNOW THERE IS A DIFFERENCE! The reason people are trying to correct others, that are refering to it as a virus, when it IS IN FACT the complete definition of a TROJAN.

In other words, if someone corrects you and says.. It's not a virus, it's a trojan.. Go look it up and see instead of trying to find a definition that fits into your arguement.. Hell, if you give me a few seconds, I can create a definition page and link you to it.. with what I SAY the definition is.. cause.. we know everything on the internet is true..

Lynx wrote:

Hoagie: That's total BS! I don't care how stupid someone is, or how big of a "newb" they are.. they know the difference between running pirated commercial roms and homebrew roms. So don't give us that crap!

Your right, Thats not what I'm saying. I'm saying that if some newb thought that to run ds homebrew he had to run this flashed thing that DF made, he might not know any better, and ruin his DS for DF's private mission to hurt all pirates. I know when I was new to this, if someone told me on these boards to run X program and it will work, then I would. If X program was DF's little hack, then I would be screwed. Regardless, How can you justify purposly destroying someones property though deception. It's kind of a crock.

Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with what DF did. But, to say someone is looking for homebrew on NDSROMZ.com or some other warez site.. Well.. just doesn't fly with me.. I think everyone agree that you can't trust ANY downloads from these kinds of sites..

i can agree wtih that

I don't care what you call this, its still malicious software and its illegal. We all know who Darkfader is. His real name and address are on his site. I say if this affects any of us a class action lawsuit would be in order. Seriously, there's no reason we should have to live in terror of doing something legit because some jerk thinks he's Batman.

as far as I'm concerned, it seems to me that nds files (*.nds) are the ones with the potential trojan. Can gba files do the same damage? or are we safe running homebrew and flashed gba games with the gba extension?

Juhees: so you say we should trust sites with homebrew?
I dont get it. Some people say its dangerous to run homebrew now.
nintendo-ds-roms seem to be flashed copies of the actual games. I'm guessing this site is illegal. I dont think I trust that site anyway. But I did run some of those roms they have with iDeas and some run (but very poorly). has anyone downloaded from this site and tried it on their DS?

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but I am new to the scene. I am a programmer and I would love to learn more about how to program these handhelds.

Can anyone list trustable sites?

Should I change my NDS firmware? or should I mantain the original firmware? (by this I mean, avoiding nds files completly; reason why I ask about gba files).

I also read that DarkFader said:

Quote:

I can’t remember I put my name in the executable or text file. So you don’t have to trust the executable in that case.
Whenever I release something trustable, I put my name in/with it. (No guarantees that others could not use my name)
I did lower the trust level of the whole DS homebrew community though. But it might also scare off some pirates. So it’s like a double edged sword.
It was fairly simple to make and I had this idea for a long time. If PSP has malware, DS can have some too. It’s proven now that both DS and PSP are vulnerable and this stuff doesn’t need to happen again. Perhaps Nintendo and Sony will try to protect their next systems somewhat better.
BTW.. I’m working on a supercard fix now.

KidBomba wrote:

as far as I'm concerned, it seems to me that nds files (*.nds) are the ones with the potential trojan. Can gba files do the same damage? or are we safe running homebrew and flashed gba games with the gba extension?

nds.gba files are the same as nds files but with a loader pre-pended (got it right this time). :P So anyway, they can do whatever NDS files can. In general I don't think you would need to worry honestly. And yah, that is a website that seems to be hip-deep in piracy.
_________________
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On Darkfader's website you can download a nds-demo:
LightsOutCube0.4.zip - Put out all the lights from all sides of a cube.
Will it put your NDS's lights out and turn it into a cube (aka brick)?
;)

oh great
This stupid "programm" found the first home-dev victims.
SaTa's DS has been bricked and now he stops developing for DS ;(
GGgggrrrrr.....

just to let some people know: SaTa was involved in developing "Moonshell" and programmed "EEPROMDS" and the "DS thermometer".

Now he is seriously pissed(who won't be?) and stopped all DS projects.

Quote:

I don't allow CrashMe.
(Closing)
My NDS was destroyed by r0mloader (aka CrashMe)
.......
Me SaTa. Protesting to this situation, it closes this page.

god damnit!
*shakes head and walks away*

BTW: everyone should take this:
[Images not permitted - Click here to view it]
and spread it in the whole www.
_________________
Abusing Cube and DS with all sorts of homebrew and hacks.

my point

I would like to see some sort of rom scanner to make sure they are safe.

I guess people are already working on it? If only I knew more, I would be investigating this right now :) Imagine, you would be a hero.

EDIT: what happens when you run malicious ROM in an NDS emulator? Is there a way you can make an emulator detect attacks?
Or would a rom scanner make more sense? (start a new thread somewhere?) I think scanning for malware is an interesting topic that can be put on another section.

Chek out:

www.darkfader.net
_________________
Sorry for my english ><

Quote:

I want to say sorry to everyone out there. I should have realized the impact. Not just few DS'es that were hurt, but all the damn media and whatnot.
I cannot really justify my actions. It was also very selfish to draw some attention, which I tend to do in odd ways.
It caused some harm to some non-targetted and targetted people owning a DS with non-Nintendo-approved hardware.
And that is a terrible thing to do. Even more so with the reputation I had in the DS homebrew scene that now completely abandoned me.
I do not have clear reasons and I can't blaim the little headache I had at the time. I just had to realize the idea I had after seeing the PSP variant of a bricker.
The files do not come with any form of name/signature of me, a thing I would do if it could be trusted.
I won't release any more of this crap for DS and I don't think parts of this trojan or the idea itself will emerge in future homebrew releases.
The point is probably clear. Do not run any form of untrusted code that just suddenly appears without any name.
If you only use official Nintendo games, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.
Untrusted code includes ROM loaders and that sort of stuff. It's probably not a very good reason since it has been proven before.
I can tell that the negative feedback is far greater than the positive ones. I received one donation of $6.66 and I'm not proud of it.
One news site completely ignores the r0mloader version and reasoning behind it. grrrrr.
Another common mistake: A TROJAN IS NOT A VIRUS! That means that it does not propagate on its own. And thus non-intrusive.

The trojan was released in two forms:
Trojan.DSBrick.A, 151361 bytes, md5sum a959cfa514f4c7162a81421ee99d3356, r0mloader.nds
Version A was intended for the so called ROM-pirates. Hence the name of the filename and description.

Trojan.DSBrick.B, 548673 bytes, md5sum 8e7a3728759df265ca3a78553cf27bb8, taihen.nds
Version B was not really released into public and should rarely be seen. It was only directly released in a closed IRC channel with prior notice of what it did and a comment that might have triggered some (less evil than me) persons to pass it along.

I cannot control the propagation of the files or the names it might be disguised as.

Ok, on to the more technical details:
The trojan _tries_ (but not definately succeeds) to:
* Erase DS firmware. Practically the first 64 KBytes are write-protected and thus is recoverable when the FlashMe firmware was installed.
* Erase first few sectors of CompactFlash card inside GBA movieplayer. You can try to sort out your data sectors if you really want something back.
* Erase GBA movieplayer firmware. Fairly easy to fix using flashmp utility.
* Erase Supercard firmware. A fix is currently being worked on.
* Erase/lock XG/Neo flash card. Seems it was forgotten to be mentioned in r0mloader.txt.
If you have a legal use for these functions like testing recovery tools, you're welcome.

Here are some fixing utilities and links:
ppflash.zip - Contains info, sourcecode and binary to flash the fail-safe loader also contained in FlashMe using a parallel port connection. Some soldering skills are required to perform this operation. Don't worry about voiding your warranty because you already have according to the DS manuals.
FlashMe - The page to get FlashMe. You can't survive without it.
flashmp.zip - Firmware flasher for GBA Movie Player. Supports writing to Supercard, but the included firmware IS NOT WORKING probably because of a bad firmware dump! If you have an original firmware version and Flash Advance Linker, let me know.
Probably more to come.
You can detect DSbrick by using DSbrick.signature and the utility grep:
grep -F -U -f DSbrick.signature FileToBeTested.nds
A good way to prevent malicious firmware access is to keep a record of known ARM7 binaries. This could be incorporated into ndstool.

from darfaders page

1) for the unexperienced, ppflash seems pretty hard to do.
2) Where can I get a good copy of flashme? and can I play ds carts weven with the upgraded firmware?
3) Where can I get a good copy of flashmp.zip? (I have GBAMP)
4) Any way to restore firmware on a G6 gen3 and m3 perfect?
5) Can someone explain the DSbrick.signature grep thing? how would you do that in windows? say I have this wierd.nds rom, how do I test it?
6) "keep a record of known ARM7 binaries. This could be incorporated into ndstool." Is there a record? is this being developed?is this a rom scanner of some sort to see if its malicious?

I appreciate any help on these points. I'm new to the dev scene here. I develop music apps in windows and I just got into this whole homebrew thing :)

Edit: These trojans made it to the Symantec Database! Does that mean symantec is working on a detection for it?!?!

KidBomba wrote:

2) Where can I get a good copy of flashme? and can I play ds carts weven with the upgraded firmware?

To get FlashMe, get lucky with Google. And yes it can still play Nintendo DS official game cards.

Quote:

3) Where can I get a good copy of flashmp.zip? (I have GBAMP)

Possibly from chishm's page.

Quote:

5) Can someone explain the DSbrick.signature grep thing? how would you do that in windows? say I have this wierd.nds rom, how do I test it?

Did you mean capital-W "Windows" as in any program designed for Microsoft Windows brand operating systems, even a command-line app such as GCC? Or do you mean lowercase "windows" as in a GUI app? Anyway, this page seems to explain how to compute the md5sum of a file.

Quote:

6) "keep a record of known ARM7 binaries. This could be incorporated into ndstool." Is there a record? is this being developed?is this a rom scanner of some sort to see if its malicious?

In the future, ndstool might be updated to take the md5sum of a file's ARM7 binary.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

another way of protection would be if emu authors added a check in the theire emulators that looks for writes to the firmware and if a firmware write happends tells this to the user. this would be the safest way to detect destructable code.

Thanks Tepples, I will upgrade my firmware once I get my G6 3 flash card.

from the page you sent me, there is an install.zip which has an nds file.
It says also that to convert an .nds file into a FlashMe/PassMe binary, you need to append it to an nds loader. How is this done? or can I just copy the nds file into my g6 card and follow the flashing procedure?

dXtr wrote:

another way of protection would be if emu authors added a check in the theire emulators that looks for writes to the firmware and if a firmware write happends tells this to the user. this would be the safest way to detect destructable code.

Thats what I was thinking. Hopefully soon! keep the posts updated for this :)

FlashMe is compiled with a special startup code that sticks a tiny loader into the header, so that it'll work either as a .nds file or as a ds.gba file simply by renaming it. However, some GBA flash carts' official writing programs try to "repair" headers of all .gba files. This is useful for real .gba files but not for ds.gba files, so if you can't turn this "feature" off in your writing software, you will have to copy /b ndsmall.bin+flashme.nds flashme.ds.gba before you can use it.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

Tepples: copy /b ndsmall.bin+flashme.nds flashme.ds.gba

By ndsmall.bin , where did you get that? Is that the ndsloader.bin? also, I dont know if I have to do this with a G6 3rd gen flash cart or not, but does it matter if I do it or noteve ifI don thave to?

I hope everything works fine I guess you have the flashme installed then ;)

I just did the grep thing Darkfader explains and scanned a few nds files that I have and the grep executed , but didnt say anything. So I guess they are DSBrick safe?

This info would be cool to put it somewhere in another thread for newcomers like me to notice.

Now I just need to know how to recover a dead G6 3 flash card (http://www.g6flash.com/) Their download section has a few things. There is an update for the flash cart, but I dont know if this can be done if the firmware is screwed up? There is also a maintenance util but it looks complex and hard to undertand :|

Edit: oh nvm, I found this on their site ;P

Quote:

Safety of our firmware
10-10-2005

One of the slide show homebrew software was found that it would destroy the NDS firmware and most of the flashcard firmware. However, unlike another flashcard product, the first part of the M3 firmware is hardware protected so it is safety to recover the firmware by re-installing our update software. To prevent NDS firmware form permanently destroyed, we suggest installing the “FLASHME” as it can allow users to recover the NDS firmware by re-installing “FLASHME”.

Visit http://ds.gcdev.com/dsfirmware/ for the details of FLASHME:

Hopefully its true

His reply to the debacle doesn't help matters at all in my mind. The way I thought of DarkFaderis ruined forever and I can't believe someone that tried to do so much for the community messed it up so bad. It's a shame to see.

Quick question,

Can this f*cking thing be sent via wireless multiboot? The reason I ask is that if say the big N sets up the Wifi hotspots and run demos from them, some f*cktard like d*rkfader (sorry, but honestly) could serve it to a lot of unsuspecting DS owners who have no f*cking clue about homebrew. They could call it Metroid Prime Hunters 2 Demo and everyone and their mother would dl it.

If it can be sent via wmb, I hope all the websites with it on their pages take it off, quickly. Stop the spread while we can.

And really, the gbamp isnt even capable of running ripped romz, so wtf? I own the gbamp personally and love the homebrew scene as it was. Theres a few updates out that I want to use that I am sure are from trusted devs, but this damn thing is on my mind. I dont have enough money to go get another DS. I dont have a gba flashcart to restore it either.

It can only be sent via wireless multiboot to recipients who have FlashMe installed.
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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

Last edited by Dwedit on Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:02 am; edited 1 time in total

You are sure about that? Everything Ive read says that the DS is recoverable if flashme is present. Not that only flashme are in danger.

Normal, unmodified DS's will only be able to run wireless multiboots that are cryptographically signed by Nintendo. FlashMe allows the DS to run unsigned multiboots.

It's practically impossible to sign r0mloader with Nintendo's private key, unless you are Nintendo. Like Nintendo would ever sign anything like that!

So, there's no risk of permanent damage from wireless multiboot abuse, except for users with no way to run a restore program on their brickified GBAMP.

(also editing my previous post to clarify...)
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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

duh, yeah my mind took a lil leap of logic there.

I imagine that, since the network is hosted by and thus easily monitored by Nintendo, spreaders of malicious software via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection could be identified and probably blocked.

Anyways, it's probably true that messing up the firmware is an easy thing to do, so it could be sort of considered a good thing that DarkFader did it before some other doubley manic maniac.
_________________
Thanks!
MKDS Friend Code: 511165-679586
MP:H Friend Code: 2105 2377 6896

DarkFader = Evil Genius... sometimes they do bad things...

it sucks, but its forgivable. Maybe it'll humble him a bit.

hoagie wrote:

it sucks, but its forgivable. Maybe it'll humble him a bit.

I suppose....the thing that gets me though is the sheer number of folks freaking out over it. I'm just hoping it doesn't scare people off.
_________________
Now with 20% More Old Man from Zelda 1 than ever before!

Since noone has the source code except for DarkFader, I think we're safe to assume that it won't get any worse -- For example, MoonShell DS's BrickMe protection will probably always work.
If someone creates his own version, it's pretty safe to assume that it means that it could have been done by anyone, and it's kind of an advantage that we learned of the possibility from someone who wasn't crazy enough to crash all of our DSs. It can be considered a good thing that we are now aware of the possibility of malicious software getting onto a DS.

So... my plan is to not download something unless I know that it works. ie: A video of it in action on the system. Most people who manage to create something good will not hide a trojan in their wonderful application that took them two months to build, and they also won't release a trojan instead of the application. Simple reasoning.
_________________
Thanks!
MKDS Friend Code: 511165-679586
MP:H Friend Code: 2105 2377 6896

I thought it was known from the very beginning that something like this could happen, thats why theres the recovery section in flashme

Can this thread die already? It should have been locked a long time ago.
_________________
Warhawk DS | Manic Miner: The Lost Levels | The Detective Game

If I lock it, someone's likely going to create a new thread just to continue to spout off.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

In response to Mr. Picklesworth:
It is very easy to rename the r0mloader.nds to something else. The MD5 can be changed simply by pasting a few bytes onto the end of the file, which will be ignored. And if someone really wanted to they could "unbuild" the nds file, add some useless bytes to the ends of the binaries, change the icon and name, then rebuild the file. This is a farily obvious thing to do, so "Security through Obscurity" isn't likely to last.
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http://chishm.drunkencoders.com
http://dldi.drunkencoders.com

One could test everything they download from semi-untrusted sources on an emulator, though there's no guarantee that even real homebrew will work correctly on all of those.

I'm not particularily worried. I hope that people don't freak out and not trust me due to my complete newness, for example, but it's not really that big a fear. One brave soul will always try something, say that it works, and alleviate any worries anyone else might have. No biggie.
_________________
Reverting to old nickname...
IRC: SdnlyDead
Forum and elsewhere: Suddenly_Dead

At least it looks as though he's trying to fix things as best as he can. I don't agree with this DSbricker but at least maybe the damage can be minimized. Maybe we can get a fund together for Sata...I'd hate to see him end up leaving the DS homebrew scene totally....I love his EEPROM program, it's totally useful.
_________________
Now with 20% More Old Man from Zelda 1 than ever before!

Anyone with a firmware flashed DS (probably most people in here), can run the DSBricker and restore back to the original firmware. So no, I'm not particularly worried either. Personally I think DarkFader has done more good for the scene than bad. But doing evil things is the nature of the dark force ;)
_________________
Warhawk DS | Manic Miner: The Lost Levels | The Detective Game

The 9th Sage: Don't worry that much, I've talked to him. Seems like he fixed his DS.;) (Don't know how though)

This is a good reminder anyway - always be careful with what you run. It is just lucky that people were warned before too many of them bricked their DSs through curiosity. Pirates I don't care too much about, but if they lose their hardware then they won't ever buy any real games, so it is best that their DSs remain unbricked too.
_________________
http://chishm.drunkencoders.com
http://dldi.drunkencoders.com

Extreme Coder wrote:

The 9th Sage: Don't worry that much, I've talked to him. Seems like he fixed his DS.;) (Don't know how though)

Ah, that's good...I was wondering, since after I posted that I went to his website and found a new picture dated for yesterday (the day I posted) of his Rain application. :P
_________________
Now with 20% More Old Man from Zelda 1 than ever before!

So now what will we all call our touch-sensitive homebrew clones of Super Breakout, if we can't use the word "brick" (as seen in Brick Out, one of the BASIC games that was packaged with the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system for Apple II Plus)?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

Blockout?

Ok, here's what I know about DS. You can't do anything to the firmware unless you short that thing in the battery case. I luckily have old copies of all my favourite 'brew from before this came out. However Infantile Paralysiser had a bricker out for awhile. And since I'll be using a slot 1, no passme or passkey or anything. Anyways, is it only wifime that's affected?

chishm wrote:

This is a good reminder anyway - always be careful with what you run. It is just lucky that people were warned before too many of them bricked their DSs through curiosity. Pirates I don't care too much about, but if they lose their hardware then they won't ever buy any real games, so it is best that their DSs remain unbricked too.

I don't think that pirates should have their DSs bricked. Who's to say that the game industry is much better than the music industry? And BTW: I do own quite a few games, so no I'm not a pirater. And if my DS was bricked with brew, I would try out a gp2x instead, cuz it looks kinda cool. So yes, they would lose business anyways.

Way to double post in a 2 year old thread...

classic

gbadev.org forum archive

DS Flash Equipment > DarkFaders good name getting trashed....?

#56354 - knight0fdragon - Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:53 am

#56355 - phonymike - Sat Oct 08, 2005 3:20 am

#56361 - cybereality - Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:12 am

#56362 - natrium42 - Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:53 am

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#56364 - Dwedit - Sat Oct 08, 2005 6:29 am

#56365 - tepples - Sat Oct 08, 2005 6:30 am

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#56442 - natrium42 - Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:09 pm

#56451 - ecurtz - Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:48 pm

#56460 - JaJa - Sat Oct 08, 2005 9:38 pm

#56462 - Lynx - Sat Oct 08, 2005 9:43 pm

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#56499 - tepples - Sun Oct 09, 2005 2:58 am

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#56616 - SolidSnake - Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:29 am

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#56707 - hoagie - Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:35 pm

#56710 - knight0fdragon - Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:03 pm

#56722 - cory1492 - Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:46 pm

#56734 - Lynx - Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:29 pm

#56747 - hoagie - Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:23 am

#56751 - Lynx - Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:33 am

#56753 - hoagie - Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:40 am

#56757 - Mark 2000 - Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:21 am

#56788 - KidBomba - Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:17 pm

#56796 - The 9th Sage - Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:14 pm