The Zelda exploit: Unsigned code running on Wii without modchip

Here’s some relatively big Wii news to lighten up your day. It appears that two Wii coders were recently able to run unsigned code on the Wii without the use of a modchip. It’s only four lines of code though, but that’s with a day’s worth of work, so you never know what they’ll be able to come up with in the coming days.

For the complete details of this story, feel free to check out the full article.

Over on the TehSkeen website, Brakken reports that two Wii coders were recently able to run an exploit on the Wii that enabled them to activate their own code. Segher and Bushing were able to modify a saved game from Zelda to crash the machine and run unsigned code on it.

The process, however, isn’t simple. Bushing notes that modifying a saved game requires it to be signed with three keys: the encrypted save game, the signature for the save game (using your console’s private key), and a copy of your console’s public key, signed by Nintendo.

Granted, it was only four lines of code, according to them, but this was just one day’s work, so the future might hold something very useful for Wii users. Specifically, Bushing notes, they hope it will one day lead to the creation of a homebrew loader for the Wii. They aren’t making any promises however, so we shouldn’t assume anything for the moment. For now, let’s just enjoy the step forward that’s been made this day.