Hacking Hacking the WiiU: A Simple Progress Guide

[admin]

Is the WiiU hacked like the Wii yet? (Backups, Homebrew, etc)

YES!


DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE:
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Late 2013: Fail0verFlow (The Dev team that produced the first usable exploit for the Wii) Announced that they had found an exploit, and showed some MD5 hashes of the WiiU's security keys. However, they also said that they would not release it.

February 2014: A separate hacking team unrelated to F0F has announced they they have also developed a parallel exploit, and have dumped the Boot ROM. It has been independently verified and the MD5 hashes match that of the F0F Exploit, Corroborating F0F's claims. They also would not release this exploit.

June 2014: A usermode Exploit (though one only available in 4.1.0) was released.

Also, Wii U Games started to get Dumped, as well as their Key hashes. The Wii U Ancast key had also been dumped and made available.

March 2015: Some proof of concept Homebrew has been made available using the 4.1.0 Exploit.

April 2015: A Kernel Exploit was announced, however it was not released until September.

June 2015: A new usermode exploit was released, this one compatible with Firmware 5.3.2.

September 2015: The previously announced kernel exploit was released, allowing for limited access to the hardware by coders.
HTTPGecko and What would eventually become Caffiine was released, allowing for game modding and cheats.

October 2015: Loadiine was released, a Backup loader that at the time could only load games from SD cards (this would later be expanded to load games from the local network, and USB hard drives.)
More information is available here.
A Compatibility list is available here.

December 2015: Two Separate IOSU based hacks were announced. Only one would eventually release.

February 2016: @smealum posted a video of an early version of RedNAND, a 3DS-esque EmuNAND based software loader for the WiiU.

May 2016: An update to the Kernel exploit, allowing for homebrew to be loaded on FW 5.5.1 was released.
@smealum also released proof of concept code for an IOSU-based hack. It still required some further exploits of the WiiU's security systems to work properly, however.

Early October 2016: A pair of posters going by the names of the 2016 US presidential Election candidates posted a usable IOSU exploit, and the first publicly available homebrew for said exploit, which displays almost the entire set of Per Console "OTP" keys for the user's WiiU, finally cracking the WiiU's security wide open and allowing for nearly unfettered access to the hardware.


20 October 2016: Nintendo Announced the Switch.
"The Brazillian Method" was released, a combination of homebrew and PC tools by various devs, allowing WiiU backups to be installed directly to the console NAND or a USB hard drive formatted for the WiiU, loaded from an SD card, combined with a download directly from Nintendo's eShop servers on PC. This required a further patch per title as tickets were not correctly copied.

22nd October 2016: The first experimental CFW loader was released, allowing developers to finally fully explore the WiiU's file system.

27th October 2016: Crediar updates DiscU, a dumper for WiiU discs, patching the ticket issue with the Brazillian Method.

30th Oct 2016: RedNAND is officially released. Using the CFW loader, RedNAND can make a copy of WiiU/vWii NAND on SD card and boot from it. This version has signature patching enabled, allowing installation of titles regardless of their signature/console origin (allowing installation of eShop games extracted from another console for example, even if tied to that console).

Fix94 also released WUPHAX, a method to hack vWii from WiiU mode and install the homebrew channel. This allows vWii to be hacked without requiring a compatible disc!

Nov 2016: Haxchi is released, an exploit in the WiiU's DS (and N64) emulators that allows code to be arbitrarily executed in place of the DS Rom. Now you can load apps such as the Homebrew Channel Directly from your Home menu!

Dec 2016: Fix94 releases WUDump and WUD2APP, A pair of tools that allow users to dump their own discs into raw WUD format, and optionally convert it into Ticket files for NAND installs with WUPinstaller.

During The 33c3 Nintendo hacking talk, a team of hackers revealed that they had created an exploit using Fault Injection Techniques to access the Boot1 ROM through Boot0, allowing (with some more work) access to the vaunted Boot1 Encryption key. However, they did not explain the method with which they did so, and will not release details.

Mid-December 2016: Mocha CFW was released, An all-in-one custom Firmware for the Wii U that has plenty of features and customization options.

Fix94 released Custom Boot Haxchi (CBHC), an update of Haxchi to patch the WiiU into CFW mode automatically at console's boot.
September/October 2017: WiiU Wii virtual console channels can now be generated and injected with any Wii games, gamecube games or vWii homebrew, all supporting WiiU Gamepad thanks to Fix94's work.

So, Can we Run WiiU ISOs/Backups?

Yes!
Most, if not all games now work under Custom Firmware, but there are a few exceptions, and some games (particularly ones that were not on the eShop) may require additional work to run properly. Please consult the Forum Stickies and research if your game backup is compatible first.


What else can we do in WiiU Mode?​

• Run Backups? Yes!
• Run Homebrew? Yes! There's a decent amount of Homebrew available.
• Use Cheats/Mods for games? Yes! Cafiine and TCPGecko can be used to Modify or cheat at your games. (Please don't cheat in online games!)
• Run Wii games with gamepad support ? Yes!
• Run Gamecube games with gamepad support ? Yes!

How do I Hack my Wii U?

First: DO NOT UPDATE YOUR CONSOLE BEYOND WIIU 5.5.2!
If your console is 5.5.1 or below, do not update it yet!

Then, click the link below!

https://gbatemp.net/threads/451297/
(Big thanks to Kafluke and all users who are continuously helping maintaining it updated)


Wii Mode(vWii)


Is Wii Mode (vWii) hacked yet?

Yes!



What does that mean?
What can we actually DO in vWii Mode?

Here's a simple, easy to use list of our current progress in Hacking the Virtual Wii in the WiiU.
(Basically, most stuff works the same, with a few exceptions.)
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• Perform an Exploit? YES! (Here's a list of working exploits for vWii)
• Run Unsigned Code? YES!
• Dump the NAND? YES! (FSToolbox has been updated to work with the vWii.)
• Restore the NAND? YES! But Be Careful!
  (NAND Restores are always dangerous if you don't know what you are doing, ESPECIALLY on the WiiU! Make sure you do!)
• Install the Homebrew Channel? YES!
• Run Emulators off an SD card? YES!
• Install Emulators onto the NAND? YES!
• Install Virtual Console/WiiWare WADS? YES!
• Install and Run USB Loaders? YES! But a few games may not work. If it didn't work on the Wii, it won't work in vWii.
• Run Retail Wii Discs? YES!
• Run Foreign Retail Wii Discs RegionFree? YES!
• Run BURNED Wii Discs? NO
• Use SNEEK on vWii? YES! (Crediar released the source code for the vWii version of SNEEK before leaving the Wii U hacking scene.)
• Install Bootmii on vWii? NO
• Install Priiloader on vWii? NO
• Use Cheats/Mods through Gecko OS? YES! (Use Wiilauncher, which is an alternative to GeckoOS with AHBPROT patching for vWii)
• Run GameCube Games? YES! (Nintendont is a compatibility layer for Gamecube games to run on the Wii and vWii. More info available here!)
• Run Linux? Eh.. Kinda.. Thanks to a proof by Fail0verflow and some fantastic work by the Trinux team, a distribution of Linux running on all three cores of the Wii U's CPU running under vWii is under development. More information (and how you can help!) here.

So how do I mod vWii Mode?


So, you're gonna go through with it?
Congratulations.
BTW, Your warranty is now Void.

An utterly FANTASTIC tutorial can be found here.
It will guide you step by step on how to mod your vWii.


Also, PLEASE read the other stickies in the forum, especially this thread.
It will tell you what is and isn't safe to install on your vWii. You don't want a brick on your hands, so you?

A quick note about Wii U Firmware and VWii:

Updating your Wii U will not impact your ability to hack VWii as they are entirely separate operating systems on the console.

HOWEVER: Improperly hacking vWii can cause it to brick, which will cause your Wii U to be unable to update, and may cause issues with Wii Mode hacks!

And lastly, before you do anything,
Always Read the stickies, do your research, and be careful!

Good luck!

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I'll update this with more more accurate information as time passes.