Posted on 04/05/2014 3:45:39 AM PDT by markomalley
A young Ocean Beach boy is in the spotlight after he discovered a back door in to one of the most popular gaming systems in the world.
When 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel is playing his Xbox, his feet don't touch the ground. But something he did has made the smartest guys at Microsoft pay attention.
“I was like yea!” said Kristoffer.
Just after Christmas, Kristoffer's parents noticed he was logging into his father's Xbox Live account and playing games he wasn't supposed to be.
“I got nervous. I thought he was going to find out,” said Kristoffer.
In video shot soon after, his father, Robert Davies, is heard asking Kristoffer how he was doing it.
A suddenly excited Kristoffer showed Dad that when he typed in a wrong password for his father’s account, it clicked to a password verification screen. By typing in space keys, then hitting enter, Kristoffer was able to get in through a back door.
Kristoffers' father, who works in computer security, was one proud papa. His first reaction? "How awesome is that!" Davies said. “Just being 5 years old and being able to find a vulnerability and latch onto that. I thought that was pretty cool.”
It's not the first time Kristoffer has flashed his tech skills.
“He’s figured out vulnerabilities 3 or 4 times,” said Davies.
At age 1, Kristoffer got past the toddler lock screen on a cell phone by holding down the home key.
Four years later, he took aim at the Xbox One.
Father and son reported the bug to Microsoft.
“I thought someone was going to steal the Xbox,” said Kristoffer.
Microsoft has come up with a fix and acknowledged Kristopher on their website in a list of security researchers that have helped make Microsoft online services more secure.
In a statement, Microsoft said, "We're always listening to our customers and thank them for bringing issues to our attention. We take security seriously at Xbox and fixed the issue as soon as we learned about it."
Kristoffer will receive four games, $50 and a year-long subscription to Xbox Live from Microsoft. He also knows what he now wants to be when he grows up: a gamer. His dad is leaning toward something in computer security.
Some of those MS guys should be hiding their faces for a while
Just wait until this kid figures out how to buy stuff with his parents credit cards
My 6 year old grandson is hooked on mine craft, a virtual lego game, he plays on his kindle.
I was worried about gaming but I’ve noticed he had learned how to read by age 4 and his math skills are top notch. He has built some pretty amazing cities. I had a problem with his killing of the pigs, cows, and chickens but he says “I’ve got to eat Gram”. A player must combine items to make things . The only problem I have is the constant killing of googlies when it gets dark.
My 6 year old grandson is hooked on mine craft, a virtual lego game, he plays on his kindle.
I was worried about gaming but I’ve noticed he had learned how to read by age 4 and his math skills are top notch. He has built some pretty amazing cities. I had a problem with his killing of the pigs, cows, and chickens but he says “I’ve got to eat Gram”. A player must combine items to make things . The only problem I have is the constant killing of googlies when it gets dark.
haha Just chalk that up to training for the inevitable Zombiepocalypse...
My 2 Sons are the same way. Minecraft, Garry’s Mod and other building games. And they both rock at math.
My kids love minecraft. We went to DC a few years ago and took the metro back to our hotel. It was a short walk. at night, and a little spooky. My middle child said, “The googlies come out at night.” We still remind them now that they’re older.
Not the same reaction my father had when he found out I knew how to 'hot wire' a car.
“Kristoffer will receive four games, $50 and a year-long subscription to Xbox Live from Microsoft.”
Gollie, gee. Can you guys spare it? The kid virtually saves this company millions of dollars, and he gets a couple games....
Yeah, cheap bastards could have at least given given the kid a lifetime subscription to X-Box Live and a million Microsoft Points.
Not buying it.
He is NOT allowed to play Grand Theft Auto.
When my niece was a toddler she was able to get past her mom’s iphone password. Now at five that niece has an ipad(1st gen) & password entry too...
I’m guessing your father wasn’t a professional car thief?
As a child of the 80s I say that it comes down to the game you play. I think Minecraft is a great game for kids and what you say does not surprise me in the least.
As much as I cringe watching my kid on a tablet, wondering if she’s too young to have one, I’ve seen the same results you have.
Another thing I’ve noticed, my child likes animal documentaries on Netflix. So did I, when I was young. Unlike me, she doesn’t have to wait a week for the next episode to come on, or the 5 commercial breaks of garbage to go into her head. She can watch a series of episodes back to back to back. Some look at me crazy when I mention this, but I think this new dynamic really is a benefit. She is always asking me what this or that word means because of shows like that.
How sad that no one even questions why a 5 year old is playing video games on a regular basis, instead of digging for woms and terrorizing the local bird population with a slingshot. Sad.
The kid probably just stumbled onto the exploits the coders put in for themselves...lol
Random brute force backdoor access. Not a real hack.
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