Kristoffer would go to his dad's account and type in an incorrect password. That would take him to a password verifications screen, where he would simply tap the space bar repeatedly and then press "enter."
"How awesome is that?" asked Davies, who works in online security himself. "Just being 5 years old and being able to find a vulnerability and latch on to that. I thought that was pretty cool." He told KGTV that Kristoffer has figured out three or four other "hacks," including getting past the lock on a smartphone by holding down the "home" key for long enough.
Dad reported the vulnerability to Microsoft. And Microsoft acted, issuing a fix for the vulnerability.
"We're always listening to our customers and thank them for bringing issues to our attention," the company said in a written statement. "We take security seriously at Xbox and fixed the issue as soon as we learned about it."
The company has even included Kristoffer's name on a list of security researchers who have helped make online Microsoft products safer.
For his discovery (or, more accurately, for reporting it with his father's help), Kristoffer will receive four games, $50 and a year's subscription to Xbox Live from Microsoft.Whether a career in computer security awaits remains to be seen.The post Hacking your Xbox: So easy, even a 5-year-old could do it appeared first on Aphroden.