Nintendo DSi update (256 MB internal flash+it’s now hacked)

November 7th, 2008

The Nintendo DSi is out in Japan, and except for what was already known, here’s the latest news:
1) It has a 256 MB internal flash storage. It was known before that it has internal memory, but not how much. This memory is presumably meant for storing items purchased in the new Nintendo shop.
2) Nintendo has upped the security when it comes to running homebrew. Homebrew on the original DS/DSLite was shamelessly easy to do by using the many existing flash cards available on the market. Here’s a video of someone trying practically every flash/pass card on the market, and all fail. So far it is unknown whether these devices have been blacklisted or if there’s a whitelist of all existing games in the firmware. This will probably be discovered later. There are two different ways the cards are failing a) by producing an error message (So far only available in Japanese. Is there a translation of this message?) b) and more curiously, some cards don’t appear at all in the menu (As if there’s no card in the slot)


3) A small update is that the DSi has support for WPA encryption for WiFi. WPA works only for new DSi games, though.
4) The biggest news is that just 3 days after the release, Japanese hacker Yasu has managed to run unsigned code on the DSi. There has been some speculation which method he has used. He’s not telling, but hes saying that it is the method that everybody was atalking about. The consensus on the scene seems to be that it is a buffer overflow TIFF exploit. The TIFF image format seems to be a goldmine for buffer overflow attacks. There are already TIFF exploits for the iPhone/iPod Touch and PSP, and just recently a TIFF exploit for the PS3 was found.
I have another idea. What if he used a savestate exploit for an old DS game… Since old DS games will still boot normally, that should be a fully possible way, given that you manage to find a savestate exploit in the first place, of course. Even if that’s not what he was using, I think people should be looking for them. I think savestate epxloits have been widely overlooked because of the availability of flash cards. However, a rumour (although unconfirmed) tells me that classic DS games running on a DSi will run in a restricted environment.
Anyway, here’s Yasu’s video of his exploit.

Follow the discussion on the GBATemp forum

5 Responses to “Nintendo DSi update (256 MB internal flash+it’s now hacked)”

  1. Nintendo DSi update (256 MB internal flash+it’s now hacked) » iPhone Tricks says:

    [...] Gameboy Genius added an interesting post today on Nintendo DSi update (256 MB internal flash+it’s now hacked)Here’s a small readingThere are already TIFF exploits for the iPhone/iPod Touch and PSP, and just recently a TIFF exploit for the PS3 was found. I have another idea…. [...]

  2. Meier says:

    in the hope to get updateinstructions for dsi

  3. Meier says:

    can i get update instuctions for dsi

  4. alex1899 says:

    show me a vid on how to u get the hack the whole thing

  5. alex1899 says:

    show me on how to get this hack from step by step

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