Pokemon Games(and al DS and Wii games) are getting the WiFi services down

[PortalDark]

It seems we are getting the WiFi servers down on May 21st

Is this event gonna affect the GTS abuse?

Quote via Serebii:

Nintendo has announced that, as of May 20th 2014, all online services across the DS and Wii games will terminate. This means that you will not be able to go online with any of the following Pokémon games: Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl, Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon HeartGold, Pokémon SoulSilver, Pokémon Battle Revolution, Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, Pokémon Black 2, Pokémon White 2, My Pokémon Ranch, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia & Pokémon Conquest. All online features of these games will be inaccessible, regardless of the console you play them on. All 3DS and Wii U games will continue to be playable online, as will Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter.

[formlesstree4]

It seems we are getting the WiFi servers down on May 21st

Is this event gonna affect the GTS abuse?

Quote via Serebii:

This might affect how Shiny2 and ShinyGTS function; they do pass information through every now and then to the official Nintendo servers. This might take out GTS abusing for those programs; it just depends.

[codemonkey85]

It sounds like we're going to have to create a fake Nintendo authentication server.

[PortalDark]

well, with a little packet sniffing and watching the correct response from the server(which bothers me as the DNS should already redirect that, meaning that you would need to know how to redirect the auth first) and it can be done

[Pipian]

It sounds like we're going to have to create a fake Nintendo authentication server.

Unfortunately, part of the authentication process (nas.nintendowifi.net, which is apparently used for ban-checking and generation of new friend codes) is encrypted using SSL. Furthermore, Pokemon Pearl (at the very least; and almost certainly others) validates that communications with this server are encrypted using a certificate signed by a certificate authority operated by NOA (in the US at least; it's probably different in other countries).

It IS possible to edit the Pokemon Pearl ROM to validate against a different root certificate by swapping out the default public key for one of your own choosing. By substituting a public key of your choice at offsets 0x142250-0x1422CF and 0x145050-0x1450CF in the NA ROM (I don't know what .narc file those are in, or whether both are necessary or just one) and setting up an HTTPS server which uses a certificate signed by the appropriate root certificate corresponding to your chosen key (the issuer should be "C=US, ST=Washington, O=Nintendo of America Inc, OU=NOA, CN=Nintendo CA/emailAddress=ca@noa.nintendo.com" for an NA ROM), it's possible to apply a man-in-the-middle attack to help reverse-engineer the friend-code registration and authentication process. Funnily enough, it's evidently also possible to edit the URLs "https://nas.nintendowifi.net/ac" to instead read "http://nas.nintendowifi.net/ac\x00" to force an HTTP connection instead (note the extra null byte to ensure that offsets remain the same).

The bigger problem is that there is no workaround for retail carts short of using an Action Replay codeset to deliberately overwrite the public key or https URL when they are loaded into memory (Well, okay, there's also factoring a 1024-bit RSA key to sign your own certificates as if you were NOA, but if you can do that, you've probably got more important things to be doing).

The only faint sense of hope to hold out would be if nas.nintendowifi.net is kept up beyond the shutdown date. Unlike the Gamespy servers that provide for most NWC services for other games (and are supposedly the reason why the servers are going down in the first place), nas.nintendowifi.net is on a Nintendo-owned IP subnet and is hosted in a different data center. So are the GTS servers for that matter (as is well-known, they use an HTTP protocol rather than Gamespy).

I wouldn't hold out hope for this though, as even GTS depends (if weakly) on Gamespy, if only for the fact that Gamespy is a crucial component of how friend-codes are generated (incidentally, the fact that generating a friend-code occurs simultaneously with the creation of a new Gamespy account for the game is probably why different DS games have different friend-codes on the same console).

IN SHORT: It's possible to reverse engineer friend-code generation and authentication, but it's only going to be useful when used with hacked ROM files.

[DIllusionist]

This news has been bothering me a lot, seeing I still play the older games often and still compete and trade with friends via Wi-Fi. I was wondering; do normal trades and battles also require the authentication from the Nintendo Servers? In other words, would some sort of "redirecting both games to a common server hosted by either party" be something plausible or even possible?

[Pipian]

This news has been bothering me a lot, seeing I still play the older games often and still compete and trade with friends via Wi-Fi. I was wondering; do normal trades and battles also require the authentication from the Nintendo Servers? In other words, would some sort of "redirecting both games to a common server hosted by either party" be something plausible or even possible?

The only Wi-Fi communication that does not depend on the HTTPS server are local trades and battles. Anything that depends on your friend code (i.e. anything that goes through the Nintendo Wifi Connection) depends on the HTTPS server to initialize communications and will probably not be able to be faked with retail carts. (It may be possible to fake the NWC to work with hacked ROMs however)

[codemonkey85]

long detailed explanation

Well so much for that idea. Thanks for taking the time to explain it so well!

[Mega Mewtwo X]

I'm super sad about this and wish they did not have to take it down

Is there any other way we could extract pkm files and insert them back into the game without gts??

[Guest]

In case nobody tried this before; you can just edit the "https://" URLs to "http://" URLs in RAM or ROM to disable encryption completely.

[randomspot555]

I'm super sad about this and wish they did not have to take it down

Is there any other way we could extract pkm files and insert them back into the game without gts??

Flash carts

[Pipian]

You're absolutely right Purin, as I noted in my post. In fact, it was a post on these very forums that informed me of that.

I've been pushing ahead with figuring out the authentication mechanism nevertheless, and there's a lot that can probably be shared with the ongoing work to make a Mario Kart Wii server, as both protocols use Gamespy to negotiate and create friend codes.

I've gotten so far as creating a new GameSpy profile, and I suspect there's enough documentation between the MKWii wiki in the last link and various other projects designed to re-implement the GameSpy protocol to stand a good chance of having a working server for hacked ROMs to access at the very least. Right now I'm focusing on Gen IV games; I'm not sure how tricky getting Gen V up and running would be.

The only disadvantage is that Pokemon would require a hacked ROM file to do all this because retail carts will necessarily require the HTTPS server to be up.

[Poryhack]

The only disadvantage is that Pokemon would require a hacked ROM file to do all this because retail carts will necessarily require the HTTPS server to be up.

It's definitely a bummer but there's still a lot of value in this work even for retail cart users. Documenting the authentication server as well as possible now will be crucial if a TLS workaround is ever found for the DS.

[Mega Mewtwo X]

They really should of gave us more time. Why couldnt they notify us a year before? I hear the reason behind this is because Wii U isnt getting any attention. I dont see why they have to do DS as well.

[evandixon]

I dont see why they have to do DS as well.

It costs money to run online servers. Their game servers don't directly make them money, especially for games that sell less and less every day. What better way to save/make money? Kill services for old products to make way for services for new products.

Not that I like what they're doing, though I personally never used them much, especially since WEP Wi-Fi is required for most DS games.

[Mega Mewtwo X]

It costs money to run online servers. Their game servers don't directly make them money, especially for games that sell less and less every day. What better way to save/make money? Kill services for old products to make way for services for new products.

Not that I like what they're doing, though I personally never used them much, especially since WEP Wi-Fi is required for most DS games.

Maybe the wii and DS are in the same server. If one goes, the other does too. Idk they have lots of money and they just want to compete with sony and microsoft but they cant really beat them. Wii U wasn't a big improvement from the Wii and lacks good games. Most people get systems later cause the prices are high and wait for more games to be released

[randomspot555]

Microsoft and Sony have both said they'll be discontinuing support for PS3 and Xbox 360 around 2-3 years after the new consoles come out. That's a bit shorter than Nintendo is doing but not by much. Nothing at all unusual and people can still enjoy the games on the system.

[Pipian]

I've written up some documentation about registering with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection on Gen IV. Since the GTS protocol has already been pretty well documented, I'm currently planning on working on the Wi-Fi Club protocol for Gen IV next.

[Mega Mewtwo X]

hey whats is this and is this new?

http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/Wii-LAN-Adapter__EF000257.aspx

Does this help for Wii users after the wifi goes down?

[Poryhack]

hey whats is this and is this new?

http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/Wii-LAN-Adapter__EF000257.aspx

Does this help for Wii users after the wifi goes down?

No. The Wii has had a LAN peripheral for ages, there's even an official Nintendo model. It has nothing to do with the shutting down of online services though.

[Pipian]

I've been continuing to update my findings on the Wi-Fi Club protocol for Diamond and Pearl on the previously linked page. My understanding is now complete enough for me to have successfully conducted a trading session this evening without referring to Nintendo's servers at all. There are a few minor services I still need to test, but otherwise I'm about ready to move on to documenting and testing Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver (I'm going to be foregoing documenting the packets for this at the moment in the interest of capturing as much as possible now)

[Poryhack]

I've been continuing to update my findings on the Wi-Fi Club protocol for Diamond and Pearl on the previously linked page. My understanding is now complete enough for me to have successfully conducted a trading session this evening without referring to Nintendo's servers at all. There are a few minor services I still need to test, but otherwise I'm about ready to move on to documenting and testing Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver (I'm going to be foregoing documenting the packets for this at the moment in the interest of capturing as much as possible now)

I've only skimmed your write up, but I just wanted to say that you're doing excellent work. Thanks!

[Mega Mewtwo X]

I hope we find a way before the deadline

[BlackShark]

Really nice work, Pipian!

Thanks for your effort!

[Poryhack]

I hope we find a way before the deadline

Did you read Pipian's post? The information he's compiling is enough to allow anyone to trade freely without the need for any of the services that are about to be shut down.