Generic .elf loader for the Wii U
Go to file
2019-07-25 10:31:47 +02:00
src File size should be 0x3000 2019-07-25 10:31:47 +02:00
.gitignore first commit 2019-01-12 20:29:45 +01:00
LICENSE first commit 2019-01-12 20:29:45 +01:00
Makefile first commit 2019-01-12 20:29:45 +01:00
README.md first commit 2019-01-12 20:29:45 +01:00

Payload loader

This is a generic payload loader for the Wii U to load arbitrary from the SD Card.
Currently it's hardcoded to loads a .elf file from sd:/wiiu/payload.elf.

Preconditions

This loader expects:

  • to be able to run at 0x011DD000 (and copied to this place and then executed).
  • to be running inside Mii Maker (for the SD card access),
  • the common kern_write (0x35) and kern_read (0x34) syscalls installed (hooks on 0x0xFFF02234 (write) / 0x0xFFF02214 (read) on FW 5.5.0+)
  • the 0x09 syscall installed which is expected to be a function manipulate IBAT0 (extern void SC_0x09_SETIBAT0(uint32_t upper, uint32_t lower);)

Running in any other application with sd access may also work, the IBAT0 setup may be to be adjusted though (set back to orignal values at the end)

Usage

A common usage for this would be to exploit an application, do a kernel exploit to be able to have kernel read/write, somehow copy the sections of the payload loader .elf file to the expected destination in memory fulfill the mentioned preconditions.

After that, simply put the .elf to be loaded in sd:/wiiu/payload.elf

The loaded .elf needs to be statically linked somewhere between 0x00800000 and 0x01000000. This whole area is has rwx for both, user and supervisor (kernel) mode and can be used.

This mapping only lasts for this exeuction! As soon as you leave the running application (in this case the Mii Maker), the mapping will be reset and you will loose access to the 0x00800000 region.

Compiling

In order to be able to compile this, you need to have installed devkitPPC with the following pacman packages installed.

pacman -Syu devkitPPC

Make sure the following environment variables are set:

DEVKITPRO=/opt/devkitpro
DEVKITPPC=/opt/devkitpro/devkitPPC

Technical details

  • This payload loader is supposed to loaded somewhere between 01000000..01800000 (virtual address), 0x011DD000...0x011E0000 should be free to use.
  • The 0x09 syscall is used to set IBAT0 to map 01000000..01800000 (virtual address) to 32000000..32800000 (physical address) with r/w for user and kernel. This includes the region where payload loader is, and allows us to register and execute kernel syscall.
  • This setting is meant to match the orignal IBAT0 values (at least in Mii Maker), but with r/w for the kernel. Resetting is not needed when using the Mii Maker, but may be needed to be adjusted.
  • Afterwards it's possible to register an own syscall (we use 0x36 as it's unused) to setup IBAT4 and DBAT5 to make 00000000..00800000 (virtual address) to 30000000..30800000 (physical address) with r/w for user and supervisor. This allows full user/kernel access to this region, for data and code.
  • The mapping is done for all 3 cores.

Credits