Hackers Find Nintendo Switch 2 Exploit Just One Day After Launch—Enables Running Custom Code on OS

Some folks are already poking around in the guts of the new Nintendo Switch 2. David Buchanan—yeah, he’s on Bluesky, if you’re wondering—dug up an exploit, and it’s all about this glitch in the console’s shared library. Honestly, I don’t get half of what that means, but it sounds nifty, right?

So, there’s this techy thing called a userland Return-Oriented Programming exploit (mouthful, I know), and apparently, it lets Buchanan mess with stuff by changing a program’s course. It’s like telling your GPS to take you to the beach but ending up in the mountains with checkerboard graphics. Yep, that’s a thing now, I guess.

Now, I’m thinking, “Is this even a big deal?” Well, since this thingy only runs at the user level (not tinkering with the deep, mysterious kernel stuff), it doesn’t give you almighty powers over the Switch 2. So, don’t get too excited; it’s not gonna free your console to run wild. And Buchanan was super chill about it, saying there’s no real point, like, “Hey, maybe it’s just a fancy YouTube trick?” But, yeah, others have confirmed it’s legit.

And let me tell you, Nintendo’s like that protective parent with their intellectual property. They’re serious, maybe too serious at times, about stopping folks from messing around. Like, they’ve actually said they might brick your console if you try funny business with Nintendo Account Services. The new Switch 2 thinks you’re better off not tweaking stuff.

But here’s where it gets juicy—what happens down the road? The console just hit the shelves, so we’re in for a wait-and-see game. Could be ages before anyone cracks the code and lets it run a custom homebrew OS. Oh boy, that’d be a showdown with Nintendo!

And hey, if you’re into this scene, hit up Tom’s Hardware on Google News for all the latest high-fives and facepalms in tech news. They’ve got the goods.