Fail0verflow has officially hacked the Nintendo Switch

Since the release of the switch last year there has been plenty of attempts to exploit the system with minimal success but FailOverflow (George Hotz and associates) managed to achieve kernel access paving the way for Homebrew software. A browser exploit was achieved during January but now the first permanent bootrom exploit has been released for the Switch, allowing anyone to run ‘unsigned’ software on the system.

Upon discovering the exploit Fail0verflow disclosed it to Google’s Project Zero team, but the 90-day window has passed and multiple other hacking groups have already discovered the exploit, which is why it is now being made public.

The hack exploits all Tegra chips powering not just the Nintendo Switch, but multiple Android-based devices too and it is believed that Nintendo won’t be able to patch this exploit with a firmware update, instead it would require a hardware level revision.

This exploit affects every Nintendo Switch unit currently in circulation and paves the way for legitimate homebrew software, but it also opens the doors for piracy.

Nintendo has yet to respond.