The recently released Nintendo Switch which has done phenomenally well for itself, does have its fair share of growing pains -- which are to be expected. However, not too many people would have figured out that the Nintendo Switch would be hacked, which is something that would raise eyebrows and possibly, concerns. A hacker who is known by the handle “qwertyoruiop” has laid claim to have hacked into the Nintendo Switch, taking less than a couple of weeks since the latest gaming console hit the market.
This particular hack is a legit one, where a Nintendo Switch was hacked with its proof of concept Webkit exploit having been published for the masses to check out. Developer LiveOverflow has come up with the Proof of Concept file in order to further confirm the iOS 9.3 webkit exploit that is able to take advantage of the newly minted Nintendo Switch.
This particular exploit was first given prominence by the very same person who is the brain behind the iOS 9.3 Jailbreak. It does make perfect sense, since the Nintendo Switch was hacked with the very same vulnerability as its starting point for the iOS 9.3 Jailbreak, Where a slight tweak was all that was required in an existing jailbreakMe iOS Webkit exploit in order to get the job done. This involved the small matter of removing iOS specific code from the jailbreakMe iOS Webkit exploit, and voila! The Nintendo Switch is laid bare and open for hackers to take advantage of.
The hacked Nintendo Switch was spotted in a photo, where it sat right on top of a notebook with some code shown off on the screen. There was the Nintendo Switch which obviously featured the “qwertyoruiop” handle alongside the word “Done.” This particular breach was allegedly attempted successfully via the browser that resides on the Nintendo Switch, but remains hidden from users at the moment. Phew! That is certainly a relief to hear.
So far, Nintendo has not mentioned anything about this particular hack, but we do hope that subsequent updates that arrive after the Day One update will be able to patch up this security loophole. After all, browsers have been known to be the main avenue of attack when it comes to hacking hardware. Consumers, or gamers, in this particular case, do not yet know just how far reaching the potential consequences for this particular exploit can go, or if there are any security risks involved, but it would certainly be a huge relief for everyone the sooner it gets patched.
For hackers, this particular exploit will allow them to check out the internals of the Nintendo Switch OS in a greater degree of detail, including seeing the RAM and knowing more about the inner workings of the firmware. It might eventually lead to the ability to dump a few libraries, and is normally the precursor to discovering a privilege escalation vulnerability aka a kernel exploit that will eventually provide full and unrestricted access to the hybrid console itself.
