Wii U’s Dirty Little Secret (Installs Firmware Updates without Your Permission)
November 21st, 2012 | 
Author: 
I Just wanted to give everyone a huge heads up in the homebrew scene. We were doing some research and found out Nintendo likes to Rape people, not literally but pretty close. It turns out Nintendo has a secret background service running on the Wii U that automatically updates your firmware regardless if you decline to perform it or not.
This is a very dangerous thing for a couple of reasons.
First off a lot of people decline updates until they are fully tested. If a person declines this update for the time being and they do not realize that their Wii U is performing a system update, this may bricktheir console since it’s trying to flash an incomplete firmware update.
I have heard rumors that this has happened to a bunch of Wii U Consoles already since the first update could take an hour or so to update.
UPDATE:Â If this happens to your console try turning it on and leaving it alone for an hour or so, it may be frozen at the Wii U Logo screen until it completes the update in the background.
If for some reason you attempt to leave it and it’s not finishing the update Nintendo will expedite shipping and repair for you. You have to call them at 1-800-255-3700
I would still try this a few times before sending it in as their current turn around time is almost 2 weeks.
You could also try unplugging the Wii U for 20-30 minutes, plug it back in, power up and leave it alone overnight to see what happens before resorting to their repair centers.
Second if we are to discover more flaws in Nintendo’s security allowing the Wii U to run homebrew than they could potentially automatically patch the flaws before everyone was able to jailbreak their Wii U’s
I have talked to a few members and we are almost to a unanimous decision to tell everyone a week or so in advanced if we have any major announcements to remove their Internet connection from the Wii U so we can have everyone perform the hack rather than it get patched up by Nintendo.
We are also going to write software to block updates from Nintendo unless it is a safe update, this is already possible to do using DNS redirection but rather than over complicate things for people in the Wii U hacking scene we’ll make it a Wii Based service just as Nintendo has decided to make their secretive update service.
It appears this does not block the Wii U Smash Stack exploit, but could be very dangerous like I said, everyone be careful, Even if you decline a Wii U update it will still do it with or without your permission. If you see a System update message on your TV trust me DO NOT power off the console at all, back away from it. If it shuts off you will have a shiny brick to display on your door steps.
Nintendo I have a message for you. No means No
Posted in Wii U Hacks News
So, question: If these secret updates are being downloaded/installed against my will, what would happen if I shut off my Wii U, not realizing a secret update was being done? Could that brick the system? Does this mean that Nintendo’s own updates are dangerous for ANY user even if they’ve got no intention to hack their Wii U?? O.O
An automated update without user consent is very danerous for many reasons the least of which is you may not know it’s updating or it could update during a storm.
An update could be buggy this has happpened in the past and will of course happen agian.
It’s also an extremely bad thing to have from a security stand point as it makes the device far more vurnable to remote exploits then it normally would be.
I would never have the console remember lets say a credit card number.
If they don’t remove this “feature” I think there will be a media fiasco when people start suing over bricked consoles and stolen personal data.
Yeah, real good idea to bring rape into this.
Hmm….. There’s a “buttsecks” joke in here somewhere… Something someone named “Dr. BUM” being upset about a rape comment… Something about being “butthurt” maybe? … Nah, too obvious.
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The terms of service mention that it does automatic updates without approval, but I didn’t see anywhere that told me not to randomly unplug my WiiU.
I think the automatic update is really going to bite nintendo in the butt in the long run, possibly with a class action suit. I have seen many Windows updates corrupt windows files in the past, imagine if the update bricks all consoles online at that moment.
which it will, if they leave it in there.
we will make sure it will.
hint.