The homebrew community is full of vim and vigor after news broke recently that full control of the Nintendo 3DS has been unlocked. The exploit, which uses a save game vulnerability in a specific game cartridge, unlocks kernal mode in the 3DS and greater control from there. Nothing yet has been done with this exploit beyond very simple code, but eventually... well, the possibilities for homebrew (and also piracy) are many.

Details concerning the specifics of the exploit are few, as the hackers are understandably playing this whole process very close to the chest. Should the vulnerability they're taking advantage of be discovered, Nintendo would be likely to patch over it quickly. Naturally, the hackers would like to protect their 3DS vulnerability in order to maintain a better development environment.

What does this mean for the foreseeable future, as far as homebrew or piracy is concerned? Why, relatively nothing for now. I won't pretend to understand the process, but a working homebrew app would be a lot of work to even be released before the end of the year. Of course, depending on how things proceed from here it could take more or less time.

[11:03] Will the exploit be released any time this year perhaps?

[11:04] no idea.

In the short term, however, a different sort of effect maybe be come to fruition. Some developers have already voiced concerns over Nintendo's platform being too easy to crack. The implication being that developers don't want to make games for a game that has a high piracy rate. How many third parties are already evaluating walking away from 3DS development? It's difficult to say whether, overall, this news is positive or negative.