Ever wanted your Nintendo Switch to be able to run on another OS? Well, one group of hackers did, so much so that they decided to exploit a bug within the portable console’s security and transform it into a fully-functioning Linux tablet.
The hacker collective, which goes by the name fail0verflow, first showed off its attempt of it on Twitter in a picture back in 6 February 2017. Less than two weeks after that photo, the collective then tweeted a minute-long video of the successful hack.
The gaming console is shown running the full Linux OS with full touchscreen support, a fully-functioning web browser, as well as a demonstration of the tablet’s GPU prowess.
Code execution is all the rage these days, but can your Switch do *this*? 😉 #switchnix pic.twitter.com/NMnBq61tOM
— fail0verflow (@fail0verflow) February 17, 2018
fail0verflow has pointed out (in its replies on Twitter) that they managed to exploit the bug on the Nintendo Switch, simply because it cannot be patched on currently released hardware, and also didn’t require the use of a modchip.
Nintendo first launched the Switch back in March 2017 last year, and was generally a bare bones tablet without support for even the most popular apps. From the very start, Nintendo wanted its new portable console to be a ‘strictly come gaming’ device first, rather than a typical, generic tablet that one could just get off the shelf.
That said, the group’s success at hacking the console seems to have spurred other hackers in the community, with some saying that they’re already working on their own exploitation of the machine.
(Source: USGamer, The Verge, Twitter)
