Thanks to the efforts of a few hackers and the support of generative AI models, the first jailbreak for the Nintendo Switch 2 was recently found. Utilizing a copy of the now-delisted Switch app SmileBASIC, a limited exploit allowed for users to mod games, install homebrew with the potential to then pirate new games, and download and back up save files. Still, this discovery was limited in the extent to which it could be used to compromise the console’s security. Now, however, hackers have broken beyond these limits using new exploits to further compromise the system security.

These new exploits not only allow for modding to occur beyond the limitations of the SmileBASIC software where jailbreaking was first discovered, but have allowed hackers to fully dump and back up the system’s firmware to PC. This new exploit involves hackers gaining access to the Nintendo Switch 2 file system. According to hexkyz as shared by x65943 on the GBAtemp forums, this is done by accessing the file system and overloading the console’s file system and memory. While hackers had previously known how to access the Nintendo Switch file system, it appeared impossible to find a useful exploit for this discovery. However, by using large language models from AI, they were able to find a specific set of actions that could allow the console to read aspects of memory that granted the hackers access to the operations that power the console.

This discovery allows hackers to access “any below-KIP-level binary,” essentially allowing for games and apps to be directly dumped to PC for further modding, as well as the extraction of in-game files.

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