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Wow, time does fly. More than a year ago, on October 23rd, 2008, Nintendo finally released an update that fixed the strncmp (fakesigning) exploit in all forks of IOS. This disabled any direct methods to install unofficial content on all updated Wii consoles. At the time, version beta9 of The Homebrew Channel had been in the making for a while, so we decided to take the opportunity to use one of our stockpiled IOS exploits to work around the update and release beta9. These exploits differ from fakesigning in that they directly exploit the IOS runtime, injecting code that lets us take control and disable signatures altogether. Therefore, this was our first released IOS code execution exploit. HBC beta9 was released and worked great on all Wiis, as always.

The STM Release Exploit was used prior to the [[System Menu 4.0]] update to install the [[Homebrew Channel]]. It was obfuscated to prolong it from being patched by Nintendo and/or used for warez.

 

In order to hinder Nintendo’s attempts at fixing it, and to avoid misuse by warez kiddies, sven and I had a lot of fun obfuscating the exploit over a couple afternoons. We decided not to release information about it, hoping it would last long enough to be useful for future installers and BootMii. Later we kind of forgot about this, but on a few occassions people have asked us to document it, and we proposed a challenge: we would document the exploit as soon as someone “broke” our obfuscation and figured out how the exploit works. The intent was to promote reverse engineering and also see just how long it would take people to crack it. Apparently, either people weren’t very interested or we did a pretty good obfuscation job, because it took pretty long

 

Well, I’m happy to say that today I received an e-mail from an anonymous hacker who successfully reverse engineered our layers of obfuscation. He (or she!) discovered the inner workings of the STM Release Exploit, as I will be calling it, and did so after three weekends of reverse engineering. Hats off to you, and thank you for taking the challenge!

This bug was discovered by accident, and in fact it is a real honest-to-goodness software bug that is not only exploitable, but a nuisance during regular use. To understand it, you need to understand how STM works.

This bug was discovered by accident, and in fact it is a real honest-to-goodness software bug that is not only exploitable, but a nuisance during regular use. To understand it, you need to understand how STM works.

STM is the IOS module in charge of random hardware functions such as handling the fan, “idle” (WC24) mode, the front slot LED (including the blink patterns), and the buttons. I have no clue what STM means, but I’ve seen it called “State-TM” somewhere on the Wii. One of the main functions of STM is to provide a way for PowerPC software to get notifications when either the Reset or the Power buttons are pressed. It’s worth noting that I have no clue why they did this –the PowerPC already knows about Reset via the legacy GameCube interface, and can be given direct access to Power including IRQ via the shared GPIO system, and IOS doesn’t use these buttons at all– but they did. It works like this: STM creates two devices, an “immediate” device, and an “event” device. The immediate device is used to issue commands to STM that take effect immediately, while the event device is the callback mechanism. The PowerPC code issues an IOS_IoctlAsync() call on the “event” device, and this call blocks (asynchronously) until there is an event (such as a button press). When this happens, the call returns with the event code, and the PowerPC code reissues it to listen for further events.

[[IOS#STM|STM]] is the [[IOS]] module in responsible for some hardware functions like handling the fan, “idle” ([[WiiConnect24]]) mode, the front slot LED (including the blink patterns), and the buttons. It has been to referred to as “State-TM” a few times on the Wii. A main function of STM is to provide a way for PowerPC software to get notifications when either the Reset or the Power buttons are pressed. It’s worth noting that it is unknown why they did this –the PowerPC already knows about Reset via the legacy GameCube interface, and can be given direct access to Power including IRQ via the shared GPIO system, and IOS doesn’t use these buttons at all– but they did. It works like this: STM creates two devices, an “immediate” device, and an “event” device. The immediate device is used to issue commands to STM that take effect immediately, while the event device is the callback mechanism. The PowerPC code issues an IOS_IoctlAsync() call on the “event” device, and this call blocks (asynchronously) until there is an event (such as a button press). When this happens, the call returns with the event code, and the PowerPC code reissues it to listen for further events.

One problem with this approach is that the PowerPC needs a way to shut down the event callback. The IOS IPC mechanism doesn’t provide a way for the PowerPC to cancel an ongoing request; it must wait until its completion. When PowerPC code needs to hand off execution, it needs to clean up all references and file descriptors to IOS, so it needs a way to get rid of the event call. STM implements this by having a call on the immediate interface that forces the event call to return with a zero event code. So far so good. If you’re interested, check out stm.c on libogc (particularly the functions with EventHook in the name).

One problem with this approach is that the PowerPC needs a way to shut down the event callback. The IOS [[Hardware/IPC|IPC]] mechanism doesn’t provide a way for the PowerPC to cancel an ongoing request; it must wait until its completion. When PowerPC code needs to hand off execution, it needs to clean up all references and file descriptors to IOS, so it needs a way to get rid of the event call. STM implements this by having a call on the immediate interface that forces the event call to return with a zero event code. So far so good. If you’re interested, check out stm.c on libogc (particularly the functions with EventHook in the name).

In order to better understand the mechanism, it’s worth looking at the individual messages as they are exchanged with IOS. Here’s what it might look like:

In order to better understand the mechanism, it’s worth looking at the individual messages as they are exchanged with IOS. Here’s what it might look like:

close(1)

close(1)

close(1) result = 0

close(1) result = 0

Now, when I was reverse engineering STM, I noticed that things didn’t work well when using the Twilight Hack. This is because Zelda’s STM eventhook is still active, and STM won’t let you register a new one. So I added an STM eventhook release to the Twilight Hack code. One slight issue is that we can’t know if there was an old eventhook or not, depending on what the state of the machine was (since the Twilight Hack can be relaunched from software, as an SD loader of sorts, and this was popular in the early days), so we just make it attempt to release the eventhook always. This is fine, as the release function will return an error if there is no eventhook active.

 

Things didn’t work well when using the [[Twilight Hack]] because Zelda’s STM eventhook was still active, and STM won’t let you register a new one. So an STM eventhook release was added to the Twilight Hack. One slight issue is that we can’t know if there was an old eventhook or not, depending on what the state of the machine was (since the Twilight Hack can be relaunched from software, as an SD loader of sorts, and this was popular in the early days), so we just make it attempt to release the eventhook always. This is fine, as the release function will return an error if there is no eventhook active.

Then IOS started crashing sometimes.

Then IOS started crashing sometimes.

     AckMessage(imm_msg, 0);

     AckMessage(imm_msg, 0);

}

}

In the Twilight Hack, this location usually contained some odd value, which caused IOS to crash with an unaligned access exception. We added a workaround in a later release of the Twilight Hack so IOS will no longer crash. It looks like this:

 

In the Twilight Hack, this location usually contained some odd value, which caused IOS to crash with an unaligned access exception. We added a workaround in a later release of the Twilight Hack so IOS will no longer crash, which looks like this:

     // STM bug workaround

     // STM bug workaround

     printf("Releasing STM callback...");

     printf("Releasing STM callback...");

     /* ... */

     /* ... */

I chose IOS34 for the exploit because it is not used for homebrew or any games that I own (so I can patch it for debugging with impunity), and it shares the same STM binary with IOS35, which is mostly what I’ve been reverse engineering. The exploit is quite simple: we simply find the address of the stack location that contains the return address for the function (LR), and write it to 0×18. Then we release the STM callback twice. The second time around, STM zeroes out the return address and the function returns to execute code at address 0. We place our own code there, and clean up afterwards by jumping to the real return location, so STM keeps on running happily.

The exploit is quite simple: we simply find the address of the stack location that contains the return address for the function (LR), and write it to 0×18. Then we release the STM callback twice. The second time around, STM zeroes out the return address and the function returns to execute code at address 0. We place our own code there, and clean up afterwards by jumping to the real return location, so STM keeps on running happily.

But wait, we need to somehow break into the kernel to disable the signature check. How can we do that? Well, it turns out that Nintendo left behind some useful IOS syscalls. They look like this:

But wait, we need to somehow break into the kernel to disable the signature check. How can we do that? Well, it turns out that Nintendo left behind some useful IOS syscalls. They look like this:

Now, this exploit isn’t just caused by the small bug in STM; it’s also a consequence of poor security in IOS in general:

Now, this exploit isn’t just caused by the small bug in STM; it’s also a consequence of poor security in IOS in general:

IOS should unmap the zero page and cause NULL dereferences to abort.

* IOS should unmap the zero page and cause NULL dereferences to abort.

IOS should NEVER allow or use execute permission for memory controlled by the PowerPC (!!!).

* IOS should NEVER allow or use execute permission for memory controlled by the PowerPC (!!!).

IOS system calls should be code-reviewed and checked for validation of arguments, as they are critical to security.

* IOS system calls should be code-reviewed and checked for validation of arguments, as they are critical to security.

Nintendo needs to backport security fixes to all IOSes. They had found the syscall bug and fixed it in newer IOS forks, but this is useless without backporting it back to all older IOSes. In fact, changes like that draw attention to the bugs.

* Nintendo needs to backport security fixes to all IOSes. They had found the syscall bug and fixed it in newer IOS forks, but this is useless without backporting it back to all older IOSes. In fact, changes like that draw attention to the bugs.

 

Which of course brings us to the fact that having dozens of forks of security-critical software is a maintenance nightmare and a really really bad idea.

Which of course brings us to the fact that having dozens of forks of security-critical software is a maintenance nightmare and a really really bad idea.

Unfortunately, given later exploits and Nintendo’s changes to IOS, it seems they can’t be bothered to do any of the above. They fixed the STM bug and backported the syscall fix from other IOSes, but there are others with similar bugs.

Unfortunately, given later exploits and Nintendo’s changes to IOS, it seems they can’t be bothered to do any of the above. They fixed the STM bug and backported the syscall fix from other IOSes, but there are others with similar bugs.

Hope you had fun reading this latest episode of How To Pwn a Nintendo

[http://hackmii.com/2010/01/the-stm-release-exploit/]

 

In order to hinder Nintendo’s attempts at fixing it, and to avoid misuse by warez kiddies, sven and I had a lot of fun obfuscating the exploit over a couple afternoons. We decided not to release information about it, hoping it would last long enough to be useful for future installers and BootMii.

 

The [[System Menu 4.0]] update eliminated the STM Release Exploit, but it was still left undocumented. Team Twiizers eventually proposed a challenge: the exploit would be documented when someone “broke” the obfuscation and figured out how the exploit works. The intent was to promote reverse engineering and also see just how long it would take people to crack it. An anonymous hacker successfully reverse engineered our layers of obfuscation.

 

[http://hackmii.com/2010/01/the-stm-release-exploit/The STM Release Exploit - HackMii]