Seedminer is a process used to find a 3DS family system's movable.sed (the system-unique encryption key) and is used in the majority of CFW installation methods on the latest firmware. At present, there are three main ways to derive movable.sed: the automated BFM (Bruteforce Movable) service, manual mining, and Mii mining.
If you're interested, a presentation on Seedminer's technical aspects can be found here.
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If BFM is inaccessible or you encounter issues using the site, join our Discord server and ask for help. |
All systems that can access the HOME Menu and either add a friend or create Miis can use Seedminer, but which methods are available will depend on your system's ability to add friends and whether you can access BFM.
The potential outcomes are as follows:
If you can add friends, you should follow the Seedminer page to use Bruteforce Movable to automatically mine your movable.sed.
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Before attempting these methods, try another wireless connection or get closer to your router, as BFM is significantly easier to use than the manual methods. |
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Manual mining methods require a reasonably powerful dedicated GPU on hand to be efficient. If you don't have a dedicated GPU (or are not good at using the command line), you should join our Discord server for assistance. |
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Manual mining methods require a reasonably powerful dedicated GPU on hand to be efficient. If you don't have a dedicated GPU (or are not good at using the command line), you should join our Discord server for assistance. |
The movable.sed file is a system-unique encryption key for the 3DS. It is supposed to have 128 bits of random encryption, which would be impossible to bruteforce with modern hardware. However, due to various flaws with Nintendo reusing code, the number of possible values is ~2^40 instead of 2^128, a decrease of 2^22 (1 trillion trillion, or 70%) from the expected value.
This is due to half of movable.sed being created from the LFCS (Local Friend Code Seed), a file which any hacked system that has the target 3DS as a friend can dump, and another quarter being mathematically related to the LFCS. These factors make it possible to derive the encryption key with modern consumer-level hardware.
If the system cannot add friends, a Mii QR code can be bruteforced to derive the same information that would be exchanged in a friend exchange. However, the smaller amount of data available for this method means that this takes a significant amount of extra time.
If you can obtain the LFCS, needing to mine only ~30% of the potential 2^128 values makes it easy to bruteforce with almost any dedicated GPU - even older models such as an Nvidia GTX 760. Integrated graphics are not powerful enough and may take multiple hours.
If you cannot obtain the LFCS, Mii mining takes significantly longer (up to 2 hours, depending on GPU strength) since it must also bruteforce the full LFCS before it can bruteforce the random values. Attempting to use integrated graphics for this method may result in it taking upwards of a day.
Once created, the movable.sed created can be used to decrypt any system data on your SD card (such as digital game save data). Because a bruteforced movable.sed only contains the data necessary to decrypt system data (and not other data that is used to verify that it is valid), it is not recommended to inject a bruteforced movable into your NAND (though, it won't brick your system).
movable.sed is within bruteforcing territory with modern dedicated graphics cards; with optimizations and volunteers, the process can be entirely automated with mining times of 5 minutes or less. [Bruteforce Movable] is a working implementation of this, and is the method used for Seedminer in our guide.
If you want to volunteer some of your GPU power for mining others' movables, go to the Seedminer website and read the "Mine for BruteforceMovable" header for isntructions.
If your system is altered in certain ways, you will be unable to follow one or more of the Seedminer methods. Some examples:
If your console is a launch model Old 3DS (made in 2011), its movable.sed cannot be derived through Seedminer. Therefore, these consoles cannot use any Seedminer method.
Any system that has received a system transfer from a launch model will also be unminable, but will become minable again after a system format. If your console appears to be impossible to mine, either do a system format first or look into an alternate exploit path.
For alternate paths, kartdlphax and ntrboot are both viable options, but if you cannot do either of these without significant extra effort, you should see if you have the resources needed for one of these paths.
Although BFM is generally very stable, it requires your computer to be able to connect to either https://seedminer.hacks.guide or https://bfm.nintendohomebrew.com. If BFM is down, your connection is too unstable/slow, or an internet block is disabling access to both of these websites, then join our Discord server for help.