Codex-driven jailbreak cracks the Nintendo Switch 2 — the first one ever

#What happened

Security researcher Sammy "pepsipu" Hajhamid, a Caltech undergraduate, demonstrated the first tethered jailbreak for the Nintendo Switch 2, built with help from OpenAI's Codex. Hajhamid announced the exploit on their blog on October 22, 2026 (reported by The Daily Game News).

#How it worked

Hajhamid built a hardware-and-software harness that let Codex send controller inputs to the console and receive video output, with the stated goal to "ideally, jailbreak the Switch 2 without me." Codex then chained four exploits: a WebKit browser-engine foothold (execute-only memory), a counting mistake in the original Switch game SmileBASIC (read/write memory access), a buffer overflow triggered by overfilling a file path (bypassing the console's software-legitimacy checks), and a weakness in how the Switch validates programs before running them (custom code modifying system software at runtime).

#What it can and can't do

The jailbreak enables reverse engineering and modding of Switch 2 games, backing up save files outside the console, and access to most peripherals. It does NOT support custom firmware or game piracy. Because it is tethered, it vanishes on reboot. As a demo, Hajhamid posted a five-second clip of a Codex-built Mario Kart World mod adding custom characters, including an Angry Bird.

#Why it matters

It is the furthest anyone has publicly gotten toward opening up Nintendo's new hardware, and the exploit method is documented in enough detail for other researchers to study. It shows agentic coding tools are becoming capable of chaining real vulnerability discovery end to end. The affected firmware version, Nintendo's response, and whether a public release or full toolchain will be published are all still unknown.

Source: The Daily Game News (full link attached below). Verified October 23, 2026.