The Nintendo Switch has been out for little over a week and it appears that a proof-of-concept exploit that could, in theory, be used of a Jailbreak is already doing the rounds. A hacker known as qwertyoruiopz posted a photo on Twitter after successfully running a modified version of the Pangu jailbreak tool on the device --- the same software used to Jailbreak iPhones running iOS 9.

As it turns out the exploit is possible because console uses an outdated version of WebKit that was patched by Apple over a year ago. While the Switch doesn't have a user-facing browser, it does have a hidden WebKit browser that is used when you connect to Wi-Fi using a captive portal --- those authentication websites that you often encounter when connecting to a public Wi-Fi. This is used to send code to the device that will let you overwrite anything in memory and access some very basic functions.

Fellow hacker LiveOverflow has posted a video that explains the exploit and how it works.

It should be noted that this doesn't mean that you're going to be playing pirated games or running emulators on your Switch any time soon. Qwertyoruiop is keen to explain that he has not jailbroken the Switch but merely suggested that it might be a possibility: "I simply demonstrated a proof of concept exploit that gives me code exec in the browser"

Nintendo will probably push an update soon but it'll be interesting to see if the hacking community follows up with other ways to open up the Switch to unofficial content and features.