It's been barely a month since Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch. But it didn't take too long for hackers to break into the operating system of the new console. And once hackers find a small loophole in the console's security, a lot of possibilities can happen. All it takes is one small exploit and hackers can break the system wide open.
The Verge reports that two hackers namely, @liveoverflow and @qwertyuipz have claimed to hack into the Nintendo Switch and jailbreak the device. The hack is centered around a Webkit exploit in the Nintendo Switch. The console as of the moment does not come with an installed web browser. So it's remarkable that hackers were able to find an exploit on the console with limited internet capabilities.
Despite the lack of an internet browser, the Nintendo Switch still supports Wi-Fi and relies upon a Webkit to load captive portal web pages. These portal web pages give users access to public networks and are similar to the page you see when you log in an airplane or Starbucks network. They require a certain login or acceptance of terms.
But since the portal web page redirects the Nintendo Switch to an external web page, hackers though that this would be the good place to start hacking the console. Their investigation led to the discovery that the console was using an outdated Webkit that already has certain vulnerabilities. Thus, it only required the hackers to compromise the captive portal page to execute their own code.
Nintendo could have easily avoided this issue if they shipped the Nintendo Switch with an updated version of the Webkit. While Nintendo has already patched the bug, initial units came in with the outdated Webkit. And with the Nintendo Switch currently out of stock to major outlets, expect the next batch to come in with the updated security.
Then again, with the small loophole, hackers were able to execute their own codes into the Nintendo Switch. Certain users were able to use the exploit to install a myriad of homebrew apps. The Mirror reports that one user has installed N64 and PS2 emulators on his Nintendo Switch.
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