Can 3DS system images be swapped?

[Blargaman91]

I recently hard-modded a 3DS to read and write to the NAND from a PC, and I was wondering why it's impossible to write any image that doesn't come from the same 3DS. I know that the NAND is encrypted to be readable only by my own system's processor. But can't the system's encryption key be obtained and the image decrypted? Then, if the decrypted image were re-encrypted using the key of the console I want to put it on, I could write it to the NAND, couldn't I? I think this would have been done already if it were possible, so what's keeping it from happening?

 

[legofan623]

In theory it would work fine, but Nintendo put in some extra console-specific security for the NAND. Check out this thread from GBATemp: https://gbatemp.net/threads/decrypt-and-re-encrypt-nand.375249/