Last year, Nintendo debutted its HackerOne program that involved giving a bounty of range of $100 - $20,000 to hackers that disclose their system exploits and vulnerabilities for the 3DS. Everyone thought it wouldn't work out for Nintendo, but just around last month the program was extended to include the Nintendo Switch too.

Just recently as you can see in the picture, three people were rewarded so far, however the amounts paid will not be made public. It seems as if a few hackers wouldn't mind giving out their newfound exploits for some easy cash, hopefully for the sake of the Switch hacking scene, it isn't the same with our own resident hackers.

A few examples of what information Nintendo is interested in receiving:

• System vulnerabilities regarding Nintendo Switch
  • Privilege escalation from userland
  • Kernel takeover
  • ARM® TrustZone® takeover
• Vulnerabilities regarding Nintendo-published applications for Nintendo Switch
  • Userland takeover
• System vulnerabilities regarding the Nintendo 3DS family of systems
  • Privilege escalation on ARM® ARM11™ userland
  • ARM11 kernel takeover
  • ARM® ARM9™ userland takeover
  • ARM9 kernel takeover

Source

 

[Deleted User]

The hack of Valve was kind of cool how they manage to get access to it. I actually knew one of the people that helped get access to the system.

It was when Valve had awful security, now it's almost impossible to access their database.

 

[linuxares]

It was when Valve had awful security, now it's almost impossible to access their database.

Ap ap ap, nothing is impossible, it's just a matter of time.

 

[Deleted User]

Ap ap ap, nothing is impossible, it's just a matter of time.

But hacking into Valve servers = big trouble.
You would have to fly off to mars to escape Gabe xD

 

[GerbilSoft]

Maybe they think Homebrew Devs hacked into Nintendo's systems and got Super Mario Odyssey early too. Who the fuck knows how they think, its too one dimensional.

Reminds me of this thread: http://gbatemp.net/threads/why-im-banned-immediately-after-asking-for-rom-download-link.461192/

(Read the whole thing, not just the "download link" part. It gets more hilarious each page in.)

 

[linuxares]

But hacking into Valve servers = big trouble.
You would have to fly off to mars to escape Gabe xD

I think Gabe have good connections with Elon Musk so you would be screwed anyway

I'm still curious how much each of these people got paid. If anything since the contract is so oddly written.

 

[Deleted User]

Reminds me of this thread: http://gbatemp.net/threads/why-im-banned-immediately-after-asking-for-rom-download-link.461192/

(Read the whole thing, not just the "download link" thing. It gets more hilarious each page in.)

I'm in tears

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Reminds me of this thread: http://gbatemp.net/threads/why-im-banned-immediately-after-asking-for-rom-download-link.461192/

(Read the whole thing, not just the "download link" part. It gets more hilarious each page in.)

Wow he keeps trying to justify why he should post and ask for warez, maybe a 2nd banning will be a wake up call. Thanks for the read.

 

[Deleted User]

Wow he keeps trying to justify why he should post and ask for warez, maybe a 2nd banning will be a wake up call. Thanks for the read.

He also goes "I will SQL hack Nintendo servers", I just can't. Thanks for sharing this Gerbil

 

[LuxerWap]

To be honest, I would trade it up for money. Money is much more important for food, shelter and all that jazz.

I wouldn't mind being called a traitor and a disgrace to the GBAtemp community. Plus, it's my system and I can do whatever the hell I want with it.

So yeah, some of you guys are being immature to this. Like I said before, it's their system, and they chose to do it. Calm y'all selves.

 

[linuxares]

To be honest, I would trade it up for money. Money is much more important for food, shelter and all that jazz.

I wouldn't mind being called a traitor and a disgrace to the GBAtemp community. Plus, it's my system and I can do whatever the hell I want with it.

So yeah, some of you guys are being immature to this. Like I said before, it's their system, and they chose to do it. Calm y'all selves.

But my precious warez! /s

 

[Reyn_the_Insane]

20K big ones or a few people on GBA temp hacking their Switch? $20K

 

[Deleted-355425]

shower of cunts.

 

[gamesquest1]

One word "Traitors". Nah, but if there is money on the table, it's easy to take the bait.

Personally, if I was a dev, I wouldn't disclose my findings, etc, as I would be doing it for fun and a hobby like I do with exploiting and modding consoles, as a end user with what the scene provides.

Just goes to show Nintendo are not confident in their own technical department and have to rely on the public for help.

well they have a nice history of messing up, so if they were confident they would also be stupid, that said, these payout may have been UDSploit and the safehax-v2 that were released after they were blocked with 11.4, gotta say smea was acting pretty sure a update was incoming

but yeah, look at it this way, Nintendo offers money to find exploit, devs are inspired to find exploits, exploits get patched and people can see exactly what was patched.....at this point the people who don't run into every update 2 minutes after release might have a new "in"

so try see this as Nintendo encouraging people to develop exploits and that potentially paying off for you if you hold back on updating

 

[Haloman800]

Those aren't snitches.
Their white hats who hack to expose security problems which will later benefit everyone.

You wouldn't mind your bank getting hacked by a white hat if it means your money would be stored more securely do you now?

Wouldn't they be gray hat hackers? I.e. exposing vulnerabilities for a fee.

 

[DinohScene]

Wouldn't they be gray hat hackers? I.e. exposing vulnerabilities for a fee.

Technically, they would be grey hats indeed.
This explains it a bit more.

 

[gamesquest1]

well technically Nintendo are allowing them to hack their system by doing the hackerone program, so they really are still whitehats (well according to those definitions) really I don't see getting paid as a bad thing, people should be paid for their time and effort, it would be cheeky of Nintendo to expect people to use their own time/money/effort to fix their security for free

 

[grossaffe]

Who cares what color their hat is? What I wanna know is what kind of hat? Fedora? Trilby? Bowler?

 

[amback]

Hacker- let me submmit this monumental hack to nintendo

Nintendo- yeah, this is nothing.... here is 100$

Hacker- sol

This payout that nintendo did is to pretend they payout but believe me, they will shorthand you

 

[DoJo_Master]

Im sure I'm not the first to think of this but what if we had a charity pool for anyone to add money too and the person who finds a real legit exploit would get the reward...

 

[Wiisel]

Who cares what color their hat is? What I wanna know is what kind of hat? Fedora? Trilby? Bowler?

We can rule out the trusty Tricorn and bandanas as this is unsavoury attire for honest folks whom do not sail under the black.
Fedora signifies adventure but I doubt these folk get out much rather preferring the indoors.
Bowler is just too formal for this occasion whilst the Trilby is a little cloak n dagger but would be a fitting wear for the exchange of funds, I would put my money on the greyman approach and a unbranded well worn baseball cap or a custom aluminium foil number.