No, there won't be a Switch 2 exploit

[Ondrashek06]

I constantly see stuff like "the Switch 2 will be wide open within a year", "when the Switch 2 gets a hack..." or other posts that base themselves on Switch 2 getting an exploit.

But let's just face it. The Switch 2 won't have an exploit, at least not during its lifespan. Why?

Well, let's see the software side of things. The Switch 2 is using HorizonOS, just like its predecessor, with some modifications here and there. Game-based exploits, like Ninjhax, are ruled out because games are sandboxed away from the underlying OS.

In addition to this, the people working on exploits that are much smarter than me have said that HorizonOS past version 9 or so is effectively impossible to exploit without Nintendo's signing keys getting leaked somehow.

And let's see the hardware side. All the different chips (SX Core, HWFly, Picofly, etc.) essentially do one thing - replicate a bug present in the older nVIDIA Tegra chips. It worked on patched units and the different Switch 1 revisions because the hardware was mostly similar. Nintendo said that the Switch 2's "redesigned from the ground up", which probably means that this bug won't be able to be replicated there.

Can the people who've been always saying "there will be an exploit" please tell me which attack vector would it use, considering the circumstances?

P.S. "All consoles got hacked, so this one will too" isn't a valid argument, as there are zero exploits for Xbox One or Series X/S and a softmod for the 360 got released just very recently despite the thing being over a decade old.

 

[SylverReZ]

There's a huge demand for modding Nintendo consoles, so the possibility for an upcoming Switch 2 modchip is very likely. We recently found that the MIG Switch supports the Switch 2. It's not a modchip per se, but it shows actual progress being done.

 

[Delerious]

Funny when people say stuff when we don't even have our hands on the system, yet, too. The opposite could also be true, an exploit could be discovered early in its life, but it would most certainly be different from the Switch 1's. It all depends on how badly someone at Nintendo or NVIDIA screwed up. I'm not getting my hopes up, though. And as for emulation, my hopes aren't very high for that, either, since prod keys are even required for Switch emulation to work. And you can bet that with Nintendo's litigious nature, they'll shut down ANY emulation project that uses their keys, which could additionally slow down development of any Switch 2 emulator, assuming anyone is able find a way to get the keys to begin with.

There's a huge demand for modding Nintendo consoles, so the possibility for an upcoming Switch 2 modchip is very likely. We recently found that the MIG Switch supports the Switch 2. It's not a modchip per se, but it shows actual progress being done.

That's only confirmed with Switch 1 games though, isn't it?

 

[SylverReZ]

That's only confirmed with Switch 1 games though, isn't it?

Correct. That's only for Switch 1 compatibility and not for Switch 2, since it still replicates the same ASIC used in the first carts. It goes to show that Nintendo hasn't blocked the MIG from working in its current state as of writing, but there should hopefully one day be a way to play Switch 2 games on a modded system, yet it's not released currently.

The MIG can be updated so in the event that Nintendo does block the card from working, then they can push an update just like the later DSI-compatible R4 cards to bypass the cart blacklist, or perhaps allow booting Switch 2 games from the microSD. We'll have to see what the community brings us, though.

 

[linuxares]

Yeesh.... can you let it be released first?