Switch pirates don’t want you to pirate their piracy-enabling firmware

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As expected, the unpatchable Nintendo Switch exploit published months ago has now led to the existence of piracy-enabling custom firmware for the system. In an ironic twist, though, the makers of that firmware have introduced anti-piracy code to prevent people from pirating their own work.

While there is a free version Team Xecutor's custom SX OS available online, loading that firmware only allows Switch players to play homebrew software. To load pirated (or "backed up") versions of copyrighted Switch games, you have to buy a licensed copy of SX OS from an authorized reseller.

Trying to load the paid version of SX OS without a valid license leads the firmware to execute a "brick code" path, locking up the system's internal NAND memory behind a password. It's possible to recover your hardware from this "bricked" state, but regaining control can be an opaque process if you don't know what you're doing.

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