Hackers Extracted Wii's Encryption Keys

Hackers Extracted Wii's Encryption Keys Hackers Extracted Wii's Encryption Keys

During 24C3 hackers' convention, an unnamed group announced that they have managed to extract Wii's encryption keys and demonstrated a proof of concept Wii homebrew program which they were able to run using those keys.

Those keys cannot be used to make a console run unlicensed games, instead they are meant for homebrew programmers to sign their code, allowing it to run as a Nintendo-signed original game. Game crackers can also use those keys to encrypt their game images to fool (unmodded) Wiis into believing the illegal copy is an original game disc.

The hackers used a custom made serial interface to do a full Wii memory dump at runtime. Having a full memory dump in hand, it was relatively easy for them to parse it until they found the aforementioned encryption keys.