r/HowToHack • u/cold_fuzion • 13d ago

Getting access to a Linux based console

I have a Polymega. It’s a Linux-based gaming console and while the manufacturer does technically still support it, updates can be a year or more apart with no communication or support in between. Unfortunately it’s a niche device and apparently no real hacker has taken interest in the thing.

So, my idiot self is going to try. I can get the boot text to display, but that doesn’t really help anything. I’ve tried all the key commands I can find to try to halt or interrupt the boot process with no luck so far.

Any pointers on how to start getting access to this thing? I literally just want to see if the community can start making the improvements the vendor can’t/won’t. If I can show you can get access maybe someone more talented than myself can pick up the ball.

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u/itsmrmarlboroman2u 13d ago

I would start here: https://www.megavisions.net/polymega-can-be-hacked-to-play-games-you-dont-already-own/?utm_source=perplexity

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u/cold_fuzion 13d ago

I’ve done that and I’ve hit the limits of what that can accomplish. I want to find out if the emulator cores can be replaced or if the database can be altered. Really I just want to see what’s possible.

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u/NuQ 12d ago

I'm not familiar wth the devices, have you opened it up yet? from the looks of it it's just a specialized x86 system, yeah? if so, identifying the chipset/platform controller hub chip could give you an idea of where to start. checking to see if there is a jumper to reset bios would also be helpful.

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u/cold_fuzion 12d ago

I have opened it to upgrade the processor. It’s just an x86 machine with some specialized hardware. I can open it again to make note of the chips. Pretty sure there wasn’t a jumper.

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u/NuQ 12d ago

If you can locate the bios chip (usually near a button battery) take note of that as well, it may be possible to simply replace that chip with another that is programmed with a bios to a similar mobo (one with the same processor series/pch controller) this would allow you to install custom bios and open up any restricted access to operating systems, etc. since you're going to be digging around you might as well document as many chips as you can, particularly anything related to the gpu/igpu, usb, storage controllers etc.

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u/DutchOfBurdock 9d ago

Will need to learn up on SPI flashing. The "BIOS" on those are locked out: looking for a signed kernel and encrypted partitions. Pull the current image from SPI, modify it, flash back in hopes an EFI bootloader can go onboard.

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u/cold_fuzion 8d ago

I was afraid this was going to be the answer. That’s outside of my pay scale unfortunately.

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u/DutchOfBurdock 7d ago

SPI readers aren't too expensive, CHA347 you can get for $10-$20 and J-Flash for around $40. Little bit of searching, reading and playing with a soldering iron and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank. Imagine if you were to one to unlock that thing.

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u/cold_fuzion 7d ago

I have found a tool that will extract ROMs from their encrypted game collections. I’m looking into that as being more up my alley. I need to decompile an exe that looks like it was made in Python based on what I’m seeing in Procmon. If I can dig into that I can probably figure out how to decrypt it.

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u/NuQ 3d ago

Have you considered giving Ghidra a shot at it?