Ten-Year-Old Hacker Reveals Mobile Gaming Exploit at Defcon

[tk1989]

Is it just me or is a big deal being made out of this? I mean, yeah, she is 10, but specific flaw had been common in time trial software etc for years. If your time trial on something was up you would just wind back the clock and voila, its working again.

My 12 year old brother got this working on his RTM version of Windows 7. He still uses it even though its years old and its fully functional. Why isnt he at defcon...?

 

[winter2]

This girl clearly needs to watch more My Little Pony.

 

[Olrod]

Sure, changing the system cock to cheat at games is a really old trick.

But this 10-year old girl came up with the trick independently of anyone else. That's gotta be worth some kudos and shows she's a smart kid with some good potential.

 

[notimeforlulz]

I know this system. It's UNIX!

 

[JonnyC]

the fact that they even call this "hacking" is hilarious. I'm in network security, and the definition of hacking has become so broad at this point, its like anyone can hack. That is besides all the tools available on the internet to preform basic DoS attacks and things like that. Its just... Funny

 

[Sylocat]

Yep, the singularity is here, ladies and gentlemen...

 

[Andy Chalk]

Wow, some of you guys sure are douchebags.

So the kid didn't break into CENTCOM. She figured out how to exploit games on iOS and Android that were supposedly designed not to allow such exploits. That's the point, not the exploit itself: here's a ten-year-old girl who learned how to take advantage of a flaw in several games written for the most popular mobile gaming platforms on the planet. And the best you can do is say, Oh ho, she's not a REAL hacker?

Nice. Real classy.

 

[bob1052]

I did the same thing with Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and that came out when I was 7. Since when is changing your system's clock to trick a game make you a "Hacker"?

 

[ScrubberDucky]

Blimey. I thought the headline meant a person who had been hacking for 10 years, not a 10-year-old hacker.

 

[synobal]

I should congratulate her on being the youngest (in all likely hood) on several government agencies 'watch lists' either for future recruitment or possible arrest depending on what direction she goes.

 

[Grayjack]

What she did isn't the most comprehensive thing ever, but it's still pretty impressive. On the other hand,

Dude she is 10. And she gave a presentation at Defcon. What amazing thing did you do when you were 10 besides probably having to be warned multiple times to not stick utensils in electric sockets and repeatedly consoled with the statement "its ok, lots of kids still have accidents at this age".

quotes like these aren't necessary.

 

[Realitycrash]

100 bucks!? Are you shitting fucking me? Kids spend hours working hard on finding exploits, things that normally take a lot of time and money, and Sony passes it out as a contest to kids where the reward is a meager 100 bucks?
Cheapskates.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Wow, some of you guys sure are douchebags.

So the kid didn't break into CENTCOM. She figured out how to exploit games on iOS and Android that were supposedly designed not to allow such exploits. That's the point, not the exploit itself: here's a ten-year-old girl who learned how to take advantage of a flaw in several games written for the most popular mobile gaming platforms on the planet. And the best you can do is say, Oh ho, she's not a REAL hacker?

Nice. Real classy.

Thank you. You'd think that DefCon Kids taking notice, and winning a award for executing this on a new platform would be validation enough that this isn't just changing the time on your pc, but that there is an actual logical method behind it... And it was figured out by a 10 year old girl.

 

[robert01]

Although this is nothing new a 10 year old girl figuring out to disconnect from the cell network in order for this exploit to work kind of impresses me.

CyFi's mother said that following her daughter's presentation, identity protection company AllClear ID [the folks contracted by Sony to provide a year of free identity theft protection to PSN customers] would offer a $100 reward to the "young hacker" who discovered the most games vulnerable to the exploit in a 24-hour period. Isn't that just the sweetest thing ever?

That is another exploit all in itself.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Next thing you know, someone will mention that you could probably kill off an old guy in a game by going ahead a year and he will get tired of waiting for you and die..

Oh wait...This is...the end...

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Boss was The End. You only had to jump ahead a week, though. And there were three other ways to kill him besides.

If you do just let him die like that though, you get bitched at by mission control.

OT: Anywho...I don't get why everyone is like 'Amazing! A GIRL pulled this off!'

What does her gender have to do with it? If a boy did it, would you be going 'Wow! A BOY managed that?'

It just makes the gender in question sound stupid. Or at least incompetent.

 

[justnotcricket]

On the one hand I'm like: You go girl! I hope she continues on and uses her obvious ingenuity to make the technological world a better place.

On the other hand, I'm like: what is it with kids and instant gratification? Just *wait* for your damn pumpkins! =P

 

[Ddgafd]

Guys, calm down. She found out how to do THAT KIND OF exploit on iOS and Android games. The concept of the exploit itself isn't anything new, but figuring out how to do it on a relatively new platform is pretty impressive.

 

[Revolutionary]

What a total champ..look she's even wearing sunglasses indoors like a boss. (It's hard to do that without looking like a tool.)

 

[Vhite]

That's an exploit...? I don't mean to rain on her parade or anything but... lots of games have that same kind of "exploit" in them. Any console OR computer game that bases itself off your set clock could easily be manipulated doing that. Sure I guess circumventing a minor security trick is nice and all... but still...

Can't you see she wears sunglasses? She must be a hacker!

 

[intothenet]

script kiddies at it again..