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Just 1 day before Switch Online becomes a paid service, hackers defeat Nintendo's anti-cheat system

Atheerios

Atheerios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,097
In July I made this thread: Splatoon 2 doesn't have any auto cheat detection and now players can't even report cheaters. Cheating was becoming a problem in Splatoon, mainly because the server believes anything the client tells it and players can just modify the ROM and make invencible weapons.

Then on August it was discovered that Nintendo implemented an anti-cheat system in Splatoon 2. It basically consists on integrity checks of the game files. It's not a very good system, as it's still done client-side, but at at least hacking stopped for a while.

Now, today, just 1 day before Nintendo Switch Online becomes a paid service, hackers have defeated Nintendo's anti-cheat measures and the hacker has placed himself in the #1 ranked player.





Kinda ironic.
 
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Nanashrew

Nanashrew

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,328
And they'll be banned because to hack Splatoon, you have to hack your system. Say hello to a perma-ban and never being able to use your system online ever again.
 

Marukoban

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
2,298
And Nintendo doesn't provide cloud save backup for Splatoon 2 because they are afraid people will cheat rank lol.
 

VAPORxDYNE

Member
Oct 27, 2017
184
Unfortunately, combating cheats is a reactive endeavor. As long as people want to cheat, there will be cheats created that circumvent the protections that companies put in place. We just have to hope that the anti-cheat systems in place are updated often enough that the risk of getting console banned is not worth the momentary god status of the cheater.
 

Deleted member 3017

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,653
That's not surprising at all. Nintendo just needs to stay aggressive and now that they're charging people for this service, they'd better be.
 
texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,153
Indonesia
Atheerios said:
Basically the player is levitating and throwing infinite bombs.
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Iva Demilcol said:
The guy is painting everything without recharging and I guess they don't take damage either.
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ccc said:
He's flying, has infinite ink (basically ammo but applies to all weapons), and throwing bombs as faster than he should be able to.
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So the video uploader is in the same team as the cheater, right? I see.

Anyway, while this is indeed a problem for Online launch, I think this is only a temporary one. As I understand it, hacking is not possible anymore on newer/revised version of Switch. So let's say that there are 10 millions of hackable Switch out in the wild, in the long run the cheating will only get more rare as more cheaters get banned while there's no new source of hackable Switch.
 
Risq

Risq

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account.
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Oct 29, 2017
479
PSN should be free, never seen anyone cheat on there, not even item dupes on Diablo 3, nuh uh no way.
 
Atolm

Atolm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,826
It's a fight against the sea in that regard. The system is so wide-open almost nothing can be done about cheaters.
 
glasiche

glasiche

Avenger
Feb 12, 2018
474
Hacking destroys multiplayer communities and Nintendo needs to go above and beyond.

Ninty you've got to pony up that fat wad everyone knows you've got and make this service prestine, I'll check in around Smashmas time.

Make it right, you've got something to prove
 
Irrotational

Irrotational

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,134
I'm sort of amazed that someone made an online PvP game with no server side checks of any kind...

But I guess I can see the chain of logic :(
 
OP
OP
Atheerios

Atheerios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,097
texhnolyze said:
Anyway, while this is indeed a problem for Online launch, I think this is only a temporary one. As I understand it, hacking is not possible anymore on newer/revised version of Switch. So let's say that there are 10 millions of hackable Switch out in the wild, in the long run the cheating will only get more rare as more cheaters get banned while there's no new source of hackable Switch.
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There are more than 20 million hackable Switch out there. And hackers already have an exploit ready for the new units but are waiting for the Mariko revision.
 
Hamster Plugin

Hamster Plugin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,840
Risq said:
PSN should be free, never seen anyone cheat on there, not even item dupes on Diablo 3, nuh uh no way.
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Cheating has nothing to do with paid online (so this thread does indeed have a weird premise). However, the PS4 and Xbox One are still totally hacker free. Diablo 3 issues are caused by the developer of the game as they allowed character transfers from last gen consoles which are badly hacked. So you can blame Blizzard for that one.
 
Hamster Plugin

Hamster Plugin

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Oct 25, 2017
4,840
SinCItyAssassin said:
At the very least, that is incorrect for PS4.
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Hackers are stuck in old firmwares for now, so you won't see them online. It's a situation that won't last (they'll eventually find a way to install hacked updates), but it's currently the case.

The whole point was that paid online has nothing to do with cheaters.

Risq said:
Oh man to be this naive again. Living the dream.
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They are hacker free right now. There's nothing wrong or naive there. I know that the PS4 is broken, but at THIS MOMENT online play is hacker free.
 
angel

angel

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,333
I totally forgot about this, will it affect older games that have had online for free...so no more free MK8 for me?
 

feroca

Banned
May 12, 2018
823
Cheating has nothing to do with a paid online service though.

The Fifa hacks, the cheaters in Call of Duty games and so on all started during paid online services.
 
Nanashrew

Nanashrew

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,328
Atheerios said:
There are more than 20 million hackable Switch out there. And hackers already have an exploit ready for the new units but are waiting for the Mariko revision.
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Waiting for Mariko? Really hoping that exploit that was found was not taken out? And that whole thing created an implosion in the homebrew scene already with some major players now turned white hat for Nvidia/Switch. And now Nintendo is currently hiring software engineers skilled in their line of work of reverse engineering, hacking, developing exploits, etc., to make a career out of this. Nintendo is taking the Microsoft approach here and that will be enticing to some.
 
SoftTaur

SoftTaur

Member
Oct 25, 2017
489
Hackers in Mario Kart 8 can enter private lobbies and ruin everything. And there's not even a way to report them.
 
Jaysc

Jaysc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
201
I feel this would be more worst if it was a day after the paid online service.
 

Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,467
There's few things sadder in online games than people cheating. Imagine being so desparately needing approval from others without having any skills whatsoever that you'd alter the results of a literally pointless random online lobby. At least when you cheat in eSports, physical sports, politics, school, etc. you actually have a lot to gain - not that it justifies it, but at least there is legit something positive to get out of it if you succeed and don't get caught. Cheating in online videogames is just so damn low and pathetic.

Having said that, it's not exactly encouraging Nintendo is getting nailed already in this. Granted, I don't play a lot of online games on the Switch, but makes me even less interested in paying for their online service. Then again, Xbox Live and PSN aren't cheat-free either as much as people like to act so.
 
Beatle

Beatle

Member
Dec 4, 2017
1,123
It's good that the hackers are flushed out and show themselves, Nintendo now has them in their sights
 
Edge

Edge

A King's Landing
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Oct 25, 2017
21,012
Celle, Germany
Risq said:
Oh man to be this naive again. Living the dream.
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He is correct tho, your posting is dumb. Item hacks in Diablo 3 are only possible because of the save import from PS3, where hacks were possible.
Yes you could mention a few other games like FFXIV, but here, also, only because it's Crossplay with the PC and the hacking happens on PC.

It's not possible an PS4 or Xbox One and therefore not a thing.
 
OP
OP
Atheerios

Atheerios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,097
Nanashrew said:
Waiting for Mariko? Really hoping that exploit that was found was not taken out? And that whole thing created an implosion in the homebrew scene already with some major players now turned white hat for Nvidia/Switch. And now Nintendo is currently hiring software engineers skilled in their line of work of reverse engineering, hacking, developing exploits, etc., to make a career out of this. Nintendo is taking the Microsoft approach here and that will be enticing to some.
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Hackers analyze every single firmware update. We know that the Déjà Vu exploit (the one still kept secret) hasn't been fixed, nor on current units nor Mariko (as the current firmware already has support for Mariko). Some mitigation has been done, but the exploit is still there. If Nintendo fixes it completly then it will be released regardless of Mariko.
 
Jaysc

Jaysc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
201
Hamster Plugin said:
The cheaters will be there the day after the paid online service. Paid online does not remove cheaters, they'll keep cheating because 4 dollars (price of 1 month) isn't going to stop anyone.
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I was hoping that the paid online would bring along infrastructure changes to servers as well. Of course, hackers would still attempt to cheat but it's all cat and mouse.
 
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