Hacking Identify console by NAND?

[planetarian]

So I'm in a bit of a minor predicament.

I've not really been in the scene much lately (the last time I was around, A9LH/menuhax didn't exist!) and now I'm catching back up on stuff. Last night I got A9LH and Luma installed on one of my 3DSXL and it's been working great so far. I'd like to do it on the rest of my units, but I want to make sure all precautions are in order first.

So, I decided it'd be prudent to make sure I had current and factory NAND backups for all five of my units (OG, 3x O3DSXL, NDSXL). Problem is, a number of my backups were from back when I only had a single O3DS and one XL, so they're just named stuff like "NAND" and "NAND XL". I don't really remember which XL I had first, and given that I had traded my OG 3DS for a friend's at some point, I'm not 100% certain which units these backups are actually for. Derp!

Is there a way to open a NAND backup in a hex editor or some such and find a value I can use to uniquely identify the hardware it came from? So that, for example, I can back up my current NAND and compare them to make sure they match. I don't want to accidentally restore a different unit's backup should I have to use any of them.

 

[Temptress Cerise]

You basically sort of answered yourself. Sort of. Use HxD or any other Hex Editor, and then the data up to the NCSD line should be the same across a console that the dump originated from.

So make a NAND backup of your current systems, and then compare that info in HxD Hex Editor, and you'll be able to figure out which NAND backups belong to which system.

Also, label your stuff better. I track over 14 systems, and I don't get confused.

 

[MsMidnight]

or name your systems

 

[planetarian]

You basically sort of answered yourself. Sort of. Use HxD or any other Hex Editor, and then the data up to the NCSD line should be the same across a console that the dump originated from.

So make a NAND backup of your current systems, and then compare that info in HxD Hex Editor, and you'll be able to figure out which NAND backups belong to which system.

Well, yes; were it to exist I already knew what tools I'd be using to locate it. The problem is just that I'm not familiar with the NAND structure, didn't know whether or not such a unique identifier actually existed, and didn't know what offsets to check.

Based on your reply, I now know the answer to the former, and I assume that if I use my google-fu and locate the offset for the "NCSD line", that would get me closer to answering the latter. =x
the filesystem doc I've been looking at hasn't mentioned anything about an ID being in the NCSD, but given that it's the header I suppose I can just dig through it.

Also, label your stuff better. I track over 14 systems, and I don't get confused.

Oh trust me; I know the importance of labeling. At the time, though, I only personally owned two units, and "NAND/NANDXL" were plenty to identify them. I'm sure that, at the time, I hadn't expected I'd be dealing with any more units than that. lol
All of my newer backups have been quite well labeled (verbosely so).

 

[Temptress Cerise]

Well, yes; were it to exist I already knew what tools I'd be using to locate it. The problem is just that I'm not familiar with the NAND structure, didn't know whether or not such a unique identifier actually existed, and didn't know what offsets to check.

Based on your reply, I now know the answer to the former, and I assume that if I use my google-fu and locate the offset for the "NCSD line", that would get me closer to answering the latter. =x



Oh trust me; I know the importance of labeling. At the time, though, I only personally owned two units, and "NAND/NANDXL" were plenty to identify them. I'm sure that, at the time, I hadn't expected I'd be dealing with any more units than that. lol
All of my newer backups have been quite well labeled (verbosely so).

Should be up to Offset 00000100. But it's basically easy to see. You really shouldn't have any trouble finding it. Just open it up in HxD, and you'll see what I mean.

 

[planetarian]

yeah, I wasn't remotely expecting the entire NAND header to be console-unique, but that became immediately apparent when I started checking them.

Turns out, my "NAND XL" backups didn't match either of the backups I had for my first two XLs. I then realized -- the entire reason I bought that third XL was because both of my other XLs were on 9.0/9.2, and at that time, 4.5.0 looked like the last version we'd be able to use, so theoretically, that XL would've been the only XL I'd ever have any backups of. Obviously that status quo didn't stand. =x

 

[Temptress Cerise]

yeah, I wasn't remotely expecting the entire NAND header to be console-unique, but that became immediately apparent when I started checking them.

Turns out, my "NAND XL" backups didn't match either of the backups I had for my first two XLs. I then realized -- the entire reason I bought that third XL was because both of my other XLs were on 9.0/9.2, and at that time, 4.5.0 looked like the last version we'd be able to use, so theoretically, that XL would've been the only XL I'd ever have any backups of. Obviously that status quo didn't stand. =x

Well now you know. Glad you figured it out.