shogihax - Remote Code Execution on Nintendo 64

shogihax - Remote Code Execution on Nintendo 64

cturt who is an oldschool homebrew developer wanted to program some brew for the Nintendo 64, but didn't want to hunt down old backup units or spend a lot of money on modern flash cards. Instead he figured out a way to run homebrew via using the Morita Shogi 64 game, which came equipt with a built in modem port he was able to exploit.

Quote

Morita Shogi 64 was successfully exploited to provide the first UnPaTcHaBlE ReMoTe CoDe ExEcuTiOn exploit against the Nintendo 64 console.

This exploit allows a user to execute homebrew software on the console much faster and more conveniently than with arbitrary code execution exploits in games without modems, like Zelda, and without having to purchase inaccessible, expensive, unreliable, and unofficial hardware like a GameShark parallel port and USB adapter, or a "flashcard".

Furthermore, once code execution has been achieved through this exploit, the developer has access to the unique modem functionality of the cartridge - this allows development of games which dynamically load more content than would be possible on a normal cartridge, or even implementing real-time online multiplayer functionality (which could perhaps be added to Super Mario 64 using the public decompilation).

Source: https://cturt.github.io/shogihax.html