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.
Minecraft is an amazing game and truly is a modern version of Legos! I’ve seen normally withdrawn, below average children become sociable, intelligent kids in the course of just a few years after playing Minecraft almost every day. I believe it helps kids to understand mathematics, physics, architecture, increase spatial awareness, and on multiplayer servers, learn social skills.
I run a Minecraft server on my home network, and I get friends, mostly adults, who spend a lot of time building mammoth structures. It’s great for people of all ages!
Is that the Ocean Beach that is a part of the city of San Diego?
Yours too?
I met the woodshed that day...
I was not let out for a while.
kgtv channel 10 is from san diego..so yes it probably is the Ocean Beach in San Diego
They never said he didn’t do that as well. We are moving toward a tech economy. Brick and mortars are going the way of buggy whips. This kid is using and honing his special skills. Not all kids are meant to be outdoorsy. Mine are, but they also like the tech stuff. Kudos to this kid for finding his calling so early so that he can really excel in his future tech carreer!
*career
Just guessing this family need not bother with parental locks on the tv or internet...LMAO
Nice work kid!
“haha Just chalk that up to training for the inevitable Zombiepocalypse...”
Though, Xbox has more vulnerabilities than just that one. And if you know how to solder...
If you pee on it, it can crap out!
I hear ya...I just don’t like it.
What is that generation going to do, once our infrastructure is completely compromised? They’re going to have to go back and learn how to use a tool or fish or hunt later, once they are adverse to those things. I believe it would be easier to learn the tech skills later versus the opposite.
It’s kids like him perfecting his skills that are fine. It’s the lumps of goo gaming all day and night without any original thought that worry me.
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