Guessing which firmware your Nintendo Switch will ship with
The switch hacking community has been trying to understand which Firmware consoles ship with, based on their serial numbers.
Data on this for now is very limited, but it is already known that up to firmware 3.0.0 included, the Nintendo Switch is hackable, however firmware 3.01 patched a critical vulnerability. Today, all new Nintendo Switch consoles on the market ship with firmware 3.0.0 or below, but at some point in time, probably sooner than later, models with firmware 3.0.1 or above will start hitting the market. People looking for a lower firmware will therefore need this valuable information.
According to user CTCaer on GBATemp, a Nintendo Switch serial is composed of 5 digits/letter that indicate manufacturing information that’s irrelevant to the date it was manufactured (see below), followed by actual information on the batch. Specifically:
X: From NX. It’s actually the platform code.
A: It’s the hardware code. A: Switch, B: Joy-Con (L), C: Joy-Con (R). And I assume D for Pro (check the plastic sliver that came with, if it exists).
J/W: West or Japan? Probably the region that was supposed to reach. Maybe with all the pre-orders and the after-launch demand, they just sent them everywhere to keep people happy. Or, at some point they weren’t Region-free.
10/14/40/70: Factory made or assembled?
User Essometer gave an additional example:
For example: XAJ70002712345
X: Product of NX line
A: Switch Hardware
J70: Assembly line
The following numbers are probably a consecutive number. So the Switch in the example is Switch number 2712345.
The people driving the effort in the community hope that the numbers will help giving estimates of what firmware the console ships with. This is assuming those numbers are consecutive or grouped by batches.
So far the initiative has only gathered a limited number of replies, making it difficult to make any guess. People might be worried to share their serial number, so for now the original poster on GBATemp recommends to just share the beginning of the number. A shared spreadsheet has been put in place, which at the time of this writing only has a bit more than 50 entries. Sadly not enough to make a good guess yet. You can participate and add your own Switch’s data if you feel like helping the cause!
Source: GBATemp
XAW1000 = Release Switch – has left joycon issue
XAW7000 – Release Switch – has left joycon issue
XAW4000 – Around a month-2 months after release. Does not have left joycon issue
XAW1001 – Released around july. Most issues fixed.
XAW1002 – Newest. Released this month
First 3 for sure ship on 1.0. The rest except for 1002 likely ship on 1.0 as well.
Serial number breaks down mostly like you guys think
The first 3 letters have nothing to do with the firmware. XA never changes. W is the region. W is CA/NA. J is japan. There’s 6 or so.
^
Only applies to NOA. I don’t know *** about Japan.
Is there even a single “Proof of Concept” that 3.0.0 or lower is hackable?
Seems to me like another 1.76 on the PS4, where NOTHING worthy came of it (i.e. backups, homebrew, fricken anything) – and don’t give me that “Linux” *** because it’s bull. If you want to run Linux, get a $35 Raspberry Pi.
If you aren’t a developer, currently there isn’t any way to make use of the hacks that are available on 3.0.0 and lower, yet.
To answer your question, there is proof that it works; independent confirmation from multiple hackers in at least two groups have conclusively proven that there is a privilege escalation. You should follow the twitters of ReSwitched Team and the people it follows, Daeken, yellows8, and other people involved.
There is not arbitrary code execution yet, so developing homebrew will come later.
It is, however, an important escalation which will prove to be useful when a vulnerability and exploit are publicized, so staying on or below 3.0.0 is definitely not a waste, if homebrew is your goal.
Once arbitrary code execution is achieved, it’s a matter of developing the tools necessary to make homebrew work.
Linux or Android, while it would be a lot nicer on this device than the PS4 or a Raspberry Pi imo, is not yet on the radar. It already runs well enough on similar hardware with the same SoC, such as the Pixel C, and the effort needed to port it will be minimal.
tl;dr: 3.0.0 is important. There’s proof it’s hackable. In a similar vein to PS Vita 3.60, hacks for future versions aren’t being considered yet, because the very important vulnerability in sm (http://wololo.net/2017/08/21/smhax-huge-nintendo-switch-vulnerability-thats-good-bad-news/) has been patched.
The focus now is on finding and enabling code execution, and developing the tools for homebrew writers to do their magic! Not Linux. Not yet.