The tools and exact methods have not been released yet

Jan 17, 2018 07:21 GMT  ·  By

Nintendo Switch is the next in line to be opened to crackers and homebrew software, and it looks that’s going to happen in 2018.

There is no doubt that Nintendo Switch is a fantastic success for the company, but that also means that a lot of people with the right skills are now looking to open it up to homebrew software. Pretty much all of the consoles have been exploited at one point or another, even if they were later patched.

Many users, developers, and cracking enthusiasts consider that once you get a piece of hardware, you can do pretty much what you want with it. In many countries, this is considered legal, especially if you don’t use that method to do illegal stuff, like running pirated games for example.

 Nintendo Switch is a tough nut to crack

Nintendo never really seemed to put all that much effort into protecting its consoles, but they have been slouches either. In any case, a console such as the Nintendo Switch is proving to be a tough nut to crack.

During the 34th Chaos Communication Congress (34C3) that was held in Leipzig, Germany, a group of hackers named 34C3 had a fascinating presentation, and they explained that they managed to get full access to the console, including binaries and kernel. It’s an important feat, and it proves that it can be done.

Of course, the group didn’t release the tools and the full details of the exploit, but it’s likely that some of the information will become available in the coming months. In any case, it’s most likely won’t be something available to anyone at home.

And, to be fair, the ability to run homebrew applications to get pirated games running on the console is no longer appealing. Let’s not forget that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was already playable on the PC, via emulation and high resolution, just weeks after the official launch.

You can check out the video presentation below from 34C3 if you want to get an idea of how it was done.