People playing pirated games on their Nintendo Switch are at risk of a console ban
It should go without saying, but if you intend to play online, you should not do it on a hacked console (any console, this is not Switch specific). Let alone playing pirated games online. This should be obvious, but it seems some people are still willing to take a chance.
Switch hacker SciresM has taken to reddit in order to explain how Nintendo have implemented strict authentication checks, and how they could use those to ban consoles or accounts.
Long story short, permission checks are performed server-side by Nintendo, cannot be bypassed, and give Nintendo enough to identify the console and the account associated with it. When you try to play a game online, Nintendo receive enough information about the console and the account that they could ban one or the other if they feel like it.
The hacker emphasizes that detection mechanisms exist both for digital games as well as gamecards. Although the protections are a bit different fort those two use cases, Sciresm explains the security is strong in both cases:
These are extremely strong anti-piracy measures — Nintendo did a great job, here.
In the gamecard case, Nintendo can detect whether or not the user connecting has data from a Nintendo-authorized gamecard for the correct title. This solves the 3ds-era issue of gamecard header data being shared between games. Additionally, there’s a fair amount of other, unknown (encrypted) data in a certificate being uploaded — and certificates are also linked to Nintendo Accounts when gold points are redeemed. Sharing of certificates should be fairly detectable, for Nintendo.
In the digital game case, Nintendo actually perfectly prevents online piracy here. Tickets cannot be forged, and Nintendo can verify that the device ID in the ticket matches the device ID for the client cert connecting (banning on a mismatch), as well as that the account ID for the ticket matches the Nintendo Account authorizing to log in. Users who pirate games definitionally cannot have well-signed tickets for their consoles, and thus cannot connect online without getting an immediate ban — this is exactly how I would have implemented authorization for digital games, if I were them.
Sometimes, the ban might be because of “suspicious” activity on Nintendo’s servers, not related to piracy. This is probably what happened to a handful of Switch hackers earlier this year.
This goes without saying, but people who intend to hack their console should not use it to access online services provided by the manufacturer. Doing this puts you in breach of the Terms and Conditions from the manufacturer, and they will take action to protect their network. This is even truer for people who intend to do this with pirated games. That one in particular should be obvious.
Source: SciresM on reddit
Nice then!!
well, that s the trade, you hack your switch for personal use, not to connect and play online on their servers. thats stepping out of boundaries. It would be a mess with people cheating in smash, splatoon, mariokart etc. These people should be banned, period.
Personally I have zero interest in the online store, and online game modes, I am all for emulators and backups, the deal is clear.
Unfortunately, I think people can still cheat online with a legit cart. 🙁
While true it would seem that since games are more intrinsically tied to each user you could ban accounts much, much easier than before.
Soo, lets say if we would be able to modify those certificats. We can change an value to others guy account and he would get banned when someone uses this game whit certificates :v
I would do that to silica or flow0 hipocrits :v
Please tell me you’re joking
Leaving aside the dumb comments about devs not liking piracy, you would somehow need to dump their console specific data and then find a way to overwrite the data on your system to match, i mean there is also the small issue of geographic location the fact that you would also need to somehow spoof the wireless MAC incase that was sent along with other console specific data
I mean how would you even propose to get hold of their console specific ID’s in the first place, i mean they know how important that data is 😛
you only need to change YOUR console id. if you get banned, change it again.
Or you can just host/setup a private server for hacked switch.
Even then I feel like it’s a simple fix of finding out what the physical games do to verify and just using a mod to have the digital “pirated” version emulate being a physical copy lol Nintendo can’t prove u dnt own it . But that also just depends on how exactly they verify the games. Will be interesting
Well clearly this is something that you may have missed.
If there is a physical copy as you said who’s to say that the certificates of each physical copy is unique and are on a list or database which the switch checks for as it would with digital releases however if someone was to emulate this then all those games that people would use would all share that one certificate meaning that lets say 300 people all did this then 300 different accounts and switches would be sharing this one game cartridge even if they are in different countries. Does this not seem a little like a red flag to you?
So if I just update a pirated games my console might be banned?
Yes
Nintendo have the right to protect their customers. I’m all for modding, homebrew and using backups but, sadly this usually ends up with cheat tools effecting online games. Well played Nintendo!
Over the years Nintendo have been pretty good on anti-piracy protection… Too bad for them this time the entry point is on the NVIDIA hardware… A component obviously not designed by Nintendo…
You must have ignored the clusterfuck that was the security on the 3DS or the WiiU 😛
lol nintendo were never good at anti-piracy, their console were always blown wide open.
Come on, on 3DS you can download (pirate) games directly from eShop servers. You can update without losing jailbreak, you can play online. Switch itself was hacked way before NVidia exploit and to be honest, using near-stock Tegra, a well-documented chip available to tinker with on other (open) platforms was a bad idea.
Yea, the 3DS, Wii and Wii U are… very easy to hack. Wii was a bit harder, and the 3DS got updated to fix the holes. DS was hackable, but primarily with the aid of a physical component. 3DS’s with a Custom Firmware can get updated without fear of losing it, and any games I have on there that are backups from carts can be updated as if they were cartridges or digital only games from Nintendo servers with minimal threat of a ban. If I made a backup, there would be no real way to verify it was legit, and is why any game I could download from the internet I don’t own can be updated. heck, I could even download it directly from Nintendo’s servers, update it, and still be fine.
Who the *** uses pirated consoles with pirated games online in this day and age. Its like piracy 101, use a burner account and play offline. This is less news, more like simple facts of life.
Im sure you can change your hardware id with homebrew before going online. This is something worth looking into. Anything is possible.
are all switch games playable?
It’s Nintendo’s lost funds by denying people access to their stores just cause they hack their own console they bought with their own money. I don’t know why people still buy these watered down PCs that can only be used for gaming aside from exclusives due to how anti consumers these companies that own your gaming experience can be.
PC games were found to have spyware on them just so those idiot companies could track if their social media junk was being clicked on. Companies don’t let hacked consoles into their garden for numerous reasons and cheating is a big one. Yes, cheating can still happen but imagine if they dind’t try and stop it
well many still buying conslows.. be it financial reason, or just lack of brain department to operate a REAL PC
Most importantly in the case of the Switch, it’s portable. As much as people complain about the portability of the switch it’s only a few inches bigger than my phone (If I include the Joycons) and I find it relatively easy to fit into my pockets. A laptop is horrible to lug around on the other hand.
This comment causes cancer…
Please refrain from doing it again…
Nintendo is actually securing their investment, by preventing those with modded consoles from accessing their store, and possibly downloading and distributing their software easily, which will make them lose money, and may make third party developers think again about developing for the switch after seeing the possibility of diminished returns…
Think before you comment…
GOG’s been running just fine and everything they offer is DRM free. Look at them Witcher 3 sales. Also, look up what Gabe Newell thinks of piracy.
You said it, exclusives. There is no other reason (well in the case of the Switch there is the extra mobile form factor that can only be mimicked with say the cumbersome Nvidia Shield, and the GPD XDs and GPD Wins with *** *** intel i3s won’t cut it -you have to give them that).
I thought this was common sense… But apparently some people got the taste for it, like on the PS3 or 3DS.
Dude, you pirate, you stay the *** offline. Period. End of discussion. Want to cheat in online games? *** right off, son! There’s a special place in heck for cheaters.
Huh..wasn’t aware piracy was a thing yet, didn’t hear anything about it at all, usually the usual places go *** out crazy when dumping becomes possible (eg vita with adrenaline and more recently 5.05 PS4) but with switch it’s seemingly silent…
None the less, good on Nintendo for finally upping their security, in that regard Nintendo has always been a joke, but sad that I won’t be able to play online and hack on the same console, them switches are expensive man… Ah well, reminds me of the 360 days, one for JTAG, one for Xbox live…until duel nand came around that is
In short what were you expecting did no one learn from 3ds Bannings? I mean if its hacked internet is a big no for it.
Still no article about Lakka for Switch ? Goldeneye64 in your pocket, looks promising.
pFBA should be also wonderful for retrogaming, but its rom management is nothing more but a spawn from the devil.
In other news: skydivers are at risk of dying in a skydiving accident, pilots are at risk of dying in a plane crash and divers are at risk of drowning.
Nothing to see here.
Nintendo can’t be faulted for trying to fight piracy but on the other hand, the second a reliable way to play game dumps comes out, I’ll go offline happily forever with the switch. I have zero interest in playing online games with it.
It’s common sense if you have been apart of the scene for years you would not go online on a hacked system. Thing is there will always be a way around these temp measures and that’s all it is a temp measure. And if that goes without saying think of when you first owned a console and how long you needed to wait for hacks to had happen.
Huh I didn’t even know the switch was at a point at which pirated games could be played. Anyone have a link for this?
google Xecuter sx pro
“People playing pirated games on their Nintendo Switch are at risk of a console ban”
NO ***? Wololo dominates again!
So for users like me that just want to have emulators on our switch and still buy and play switch games legitimately, what is the risk of entering the store or playing legit games online while there is homebrew in the console?
Did it yesterday.
SD full of HB and roms, but fusée gelée/hekate disabled while connecting to eshop.
I could DL 6/7 demos from Nintendo servers, you know, future donors 🙂
You still have to modify your console to get homebrew. That Violates their Terms of Service and you will get banned also.
As long as they test the pins, which I’m not aware of.
It sure voids the warranty but can it really justify a ban ?
An internal short-circuit can be due to hardware issue or a second hand console.
It doesn’t necessarily implies the use of unsigned code.
A cross check of the SD content, on the other hand…But it could be considered a privacy violation, which is serious business today in europe.
I mean, Nintendo don’t really have any good online games so no loss there.
Especially because the online is going to be subscription based, sooo??
are all the switches still hackable?or have the unhackable models started appearing?
Yes and no.
My hardmod worked on 4.1.0 but almost no homebrew was working (only NES emulator or pfba).
I updated yesterday on 5.1.0, way more compatible with HB and LFS “backup loader” available.
No mariko in sight.
I’m super interested in having Lakka on my Switch to have access to the retro games, but at the same time totally want to be able to stay up-to-date on firmware and play online on stock official firmware for the Switch itself.
Since Lakka’s booting a completely different OS straight off the SD card and I’m not modifying the Switch in any way on its OFW, is there any risk of a ban playing online that people can see at this stage of our understanding of the Switch?
*Currently waiting for a Lakka update they fixes the battery, sound etc issues before attempting this.
I hope in the future I can play online with original cart and a hacked console!
Nintendo Switch roms collection : http://nin10news.com/switch-games-collection-xci/