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Hackers Manage To Run Linux On a Nintendo Switch (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the if-there's-a-will-there's-a-way dept.

Romain Dillet reports via TechCrunch: Hacker group fail0verflow shared a photo of a Nintendo Switch running Debian, a distribution of Linux. The group claims that Nintendo can't fix the vulnerability with future firmware patches. According to fail0verflow, there's a flaw in the boot ROM in Nvidia's Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip. When your console starts, it reads and executes a piece of code stored in a read-only memory (hence the name ROM). This code contains instructions about the booting process. It means that the boot ROM is stored on the chip when Nvidia manufactures it and it can't be altered in any way after that. Even if Nintendo issues a software update, this software update won't affect the boot ROM. And as the console loads the boot ROM immediately after pressing the power button, there's no way to bypass it. The only way to fix it would be to manufacture new Nvidia Tegra X1 chips. So it's possible that Nintendo asks Nvidia to fix the issue so that new consoles don't have this vulnerability.

5 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Guess my perspective is different by oldgraybeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "have this vulnerability" duh! a vulnerability?

    Anything I can re-purpose by loading Linux on it is a plus in my world ;)

    Just my 2 cents ;)

  2. Not a vulnerability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You have to physically put something on the device to make it work in this way. Being in control of a device you physically control isn't a vulnerability, it's a feature. Being in control of a device because something something network internet packet is a vulnerability.

  3. Re: You can run Linux on it, because of vulnerabil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Oh shut the fuck up Grandpa.

  4. Re: Uhhh... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When old-timers talk, ROM means ROM. If we meant EEPROM, we would have said EEPROM.

    Now get off the freakin' lawn!

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    #DeleteFacebook
  5. How dare people control the computers they own! by jbn-o · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What you point out is a part of a larger and more significant problem that gets into another /. thread—"What is missing in tech today?". What's missing is an appreciation that computer owners ought to be able to use their computers in the way they wish, fully owning and controlling their own computers. What's present is a focus on relatively minor issues like what gadgets people might find slightly more convenient to use (but apparently not to own).

    Since people want this (the phrase "jailbreaking" is a testament to this; we wouldn't need this term if people enjoyed having their devices "jailed") the corporate proprietor-friendly media (and repeater sites) remind us when covering a story like this in multiple ways: from eschewing any reminder of the freedom to run, inspect, share, and modify published computer software like calling the installed OS "Linux" even when Debian calls their system GNU/Linux and the proper name is on the screenshot (just above the "fail0verflow" textual graphic), to using propagandistic language. There's also suggestion that the code is to be seen as "potential[ly] weak" instead of a means of allowing owners to control their own computers, and blaming fail0verflow should they choose to publish the means by which they installed Debian GNU/Linux on the Nintendo Switch for enabling "homebrew apps and (of course) software piracy". Ridiculous unchallenged and undefended anti-user views throughout which is par for the course in corporate media.

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    Digital Citizen