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Portables (Games)

Nintendo DS Trojan Creator Apologizes 48

Posted by Zonk from the shouldn't-oughta-have-done-that dept.
Mike wrote to mention an apology from the creator of the DS Trojan. From the article: "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."
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Nintendo DS Trojan Creator Apologizes More

Nintendo DS Trojan Creator Apologizes

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  • Do portables have some protection?

    -Would you like to execute 99 times this external unknown command that could destroy your portable?

    There was an article some time ago about a cell phones that could be infected by other phones. There was a popup every 5 seconds unless the person would say "yes" or walk away. Why are there no threshholds? Why do I have to think about everything in here? ;)
    • This isn't that huge a problem. To execute, one needs to run it with a Passme / Wifime / Flashme, all of which most people would most likely not use, only those interesting in ze homebrew would.

      Narrowing it more is indeed a "security feature" included in Flashme, the modified DS firmware that many or even most people with interest in homebrewed stuff use. The flashme adds a small failsafe to the beginning of the firmware that can not be overwritten without the person actually sticking some metal into a hole

  • oh thank goodness. (Score:3, Funny)

    by JVert ( 578547 ) <corganbilly@hotmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Monday October 17, 2005 @03:24PM (#13811278) Journal
    He is sorry. Good news!

    Whew! Dodged that bullet aye?

  • Why Not Link to the Original SIte (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:00PM (#13811571)
    Slashdot newsposters, please understand that the correct site for this news/apology was http://darkfader.net/ [darkfader.net] and not the ContentHoldings.com/Freepsp scam machine, i myself found the newsposted on the Nintendo DS news site http://nintendo-ds.dcemu.co.uk/ [dcemu.co.uk] / http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t= 12308 [dcemu.co.uk] on the 13th and the site you linked copied the news off them. But anyways what Darkfader did was terrible and if anyone had their DS Bricked then according to the site i linked to above their is a site who repair dead Nintendo DS consoles heres the link http://www.aheadgames.com/ [aheadgames.com] Lets hope this never happens again

  • next console battleground? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Somegeek ( 624100 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:30PM (#13811814)
    What if this becomes the next battleground for console makers?

    What if MS realizes that they can write and untraceably release a Trojan that would kill Playstations? Who would stick to a certain console brand if it kept getting infected after every few weeks of online play and you had to keep exchanging it for a new one? How long could Sony stay in business in such a situation?

    If you were in a multi-billion dollar battle how far would you go to win?
    • That virus would be pointless as most PS2s die of disk read errors much earlier. People still keep buying Sony hardware.
      • Funny thing is, my version 2 PS2 still reads all media but has some kind of lock up when I try to play The Zone of Enders. My version 4 and 9 PS2 units are either incapable of reading any media or can not read DVD media. I am working on re-calibrating them if I can (I do electronics work and have an Oscope.).
    • There would be too much risk in committing a crime like that. The engineers who wrote the code would have to be kept quiet, and everyone who knew about it. If it was discovered, it would lead to legal action and public hatred for the company.

      Plus in order to write code like that, you'd have to have access to a dev kit for the competition, which are carefully controlled by the console manufacturers.

  • Weird (Score:4, Informative)

    by Gogo0 ( 877020 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:47PM (#13811952)
    It is kind of funny that the guy who released this trojan for the DS is the same guy that has done some of the most important DS hacking in the homebrew scene.

    Most notably:
    He made the first PassMe to run homebrew code in DS mode.
    He hacked and released the GBAMP firmware to allow .nds files to be run from a flash card.

    This guy has done a HUGE amount of work and made homebrew (DSLinux, Moonshell, touchscreen ports of Doom, Heretic, etc) possible on the DS. He is easily the all-around most important person in the scene.

  • *sigh* (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Wraithfighter ( 604788 ) <mtgfighter@yahoo.com> on Monday October 17, 2005 @05:18PM (#13812206)
    This is the argument hackers use to claim the high ground: "I only did this to show everyone to be careful!" And yet, if it weren't for the trojan makers and hackers, we wouldn't need so much security. You make malicious code and release it into the web, YOU are responsible. Even if its obvious that the users shouldn't download the code, the problem wouldn't exist were it not for you.
    • Ironically, this is the same guy who made it possible for us to run ANYTHING on the DS at all! I suspect this was motivated by a disdain for unethical uses of his original software, that allows one to run both commercial games and "homebrewn" demos. This nonsense about signatures doesn't really solve the problem. So some guy signs his code; do you trust him?

      If anything, this demonstrates the in-viability of the passMe mechanism and flashable firmwares.
    • At the same time, better this than something that tries to turn every DS into a spam-relay, right?

      You may think the hacker ethic is a fallacy, but at the same time they do (probably) the least damage. At worst, they can take up a lot of bandwidth should a worm get out of their control. (Pretty bad, but better than opening up tons of backdoors to make zombie nets)

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