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Summary
- The Switch 2 has been jailbroken using OpenAI's Codex and SmileBASIC 4 on firmware version 23.0.1.
- The jailbreak's creator used the tethered exploit to add Peter Griffin, Hatsune Miku, and Cinnamoroll to Mario Kart World.
- Nintendo will likely pull the SmileBASIC 4 tool and push out a firmware patch.
Following the recent release of a PlayStation 5 jailbreak, Nintendo's Switch 2 has officially been cracked open, thanks to a hefty dose of help from OpenAI's Codex coding agent.
Twitter user Sammy Hajhamid (Pepsipu) recently posted that they "jailbroke" the Switch 2, allowing them to add Family Guy's Peter Griffin, Hatsune Miku, Sanrio's Cinnamoroll, and of course, an Angry Bird, to Mario Kart World — because, of course, that's the first thing anyone would do as soon as they've opened up a notoriously locked-down console. Their post also includes a video of the game in action, indicating the exploit is legitimate.
In a bold move given Nintendo's rather aggressive legal history, Pepsipu outlines exactly how they accomplished the jailbreak in a detailed blog post (I'm not linking directly to the exploit, but it's pretty easy to find). In the blog post, Pepsipu explains that the jailbreak was built with help from OpenAI's Codex and exploits SmileBASIC 4, a $25 eShop app that's a game-building tool. It also runs on the Switch 2's latest 23.0.1 firmware.
"The very first thing I did was set up a harness around the Switch 1 and 2 so Codex could, ideally, jailbreak the Switch 2 without me," writes Pepsipu in the blog post. They add that the jailbreak still took "substantial effort" and that development lasted two weeks. Pepsipu also mentions that the Mario Kart World mods were vibe-coded in a day.
"The JetKVMs allow Codex to send controller inputs to the Switches over USB and receive video output over HDMI. We also need a way to press the power button — when the Switch 2 crashes, it needs a button press to restart." To do this, they used a physical "Bluetooth light switch flicker" from Amazon, effectively letting Codex physically control the console.
Codex initially explored exploiting the Switch 2's WebKit-based browser, but that approach ultimately proved unsuccessful, according to the blog post. Instead, Pepsipu turned to SmileBASIC 4, where Codex found an integer overflow that provided the foothold needed to exploit the Switch 2's filesystem services. It seems like Codex targeted SmileBASIC 4 because it's been used in other exploits in the past.
The Switch 2 jailbreak is already publicly available
This likely won't be around for long
Over the next few hours, I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo pulled SmileBASIC 4 from the eShop if this jailbreak grows in popularity. Nintendo could also quickly patch the exploit with a hastily pulled-together firmware update.
It's important to note that this is a tethered jailbreak, which means that whenever the console is shut down, you'll lose it. While still significant, it also isn't a full kernel-level jailbreak, though it should allow homebrew applications, game modding (which we've already seen), and further reverse engineering. On a side note, I don't think I've heard the term "tethered jailbreak" since the heyday of iPhone jailbreaking. Remember Redsn0w and the Cydia package manager?
This Switch 2 jailbreak arrived just after the PS5 was cracked wide open, allowing it to run PS2 emulators with support for original discs.