“A 10-year-old hacker who goes by the name CyFi uncovered a new exploit in iOS and Android games,” Kelly Hodgkins reports for TUAW.
“The time-based exploit lets you advance in a game by adjusting the clock on your phone or tablet,” Hodgkins reports. “The California girl discovered the flaw while playing an unnamed farming game.”
Hodgkins reports, “CyFi presented this information to DefCon Kids, a part of the popular DefCon hacking conference dedicated to the budding, young hacker.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
And since when did a “cheat” for a game become an operating system EXPLOIT?? Come on… this is what sickens me about today’s journalism. Everyone sensationalizes…
I’m thinking that the ability to grow corn faster is not making Steve Jobs lose sleep at night!!
10 year old hacker girls.
I blame a complete lack of parental control.
When I was a 10 year old, half a century ago, kids didn’t hack computers.
Yeah, we hacked around on sticks, trees and small rodents.
That’s only because there weren’t any computers available 50 years ago!! LOL
Oh yes there were.
No they weren’t. Not to your average 10-year old, they weren’t. They existed, but were most definitely not available. Quit being so literal and use your powers of reason to understand the intent of what was said.
… to your average 10 year old, but some 10 year olds could have wangled limited access. Universities, military bases, larger enterprises … these all had “mainframes”, some as smart as my dumb-phone. I was ~15, my dad had access to one, none of my peers ever SAW one.
Geez, Captain Obvious… That WAS the joke… Thank you…
Forty years ago I could hack answer-only phones with no dials if I wanted to make a call, and it still works. (No disassembly required.)
Thirty-five years ago I hacked command-line computers from any of its dumb terminals to expand the computer’s capabilities — with my workplace bosses’ permission.
Isn’t she precious!
Somebody tell me this is a joke. 10 year old “hacker”?
It’s a joke…..NOT!
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
… hehe, I don’t see this story as being much different.
Good point.
Dude… 30 Lives?!?
That’s a l337 hack. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Allow me to correct your cheat code I believe the code was… Up up down Down left right left right b a b a select start now take your 100 lives and give them to this 10 year old prodigy…. Sure she didn’t hack into Microsoft and hit the kill switch but the fact that she is 10 and already finding exploits on smartphones! Y’all said it yourself when you were 10 kids didn’t do this… So instead of bashing her shouldn’t we be saying “wow that’s actually kinda cool” and also ” little girl you better stay the hell away from the playstation network” someone complained about journalism now I’m gonna complain about today’s society… Were all to quick to negatively judge people but get irate if people do it to us… Enough said
Adjusting the clocks on “farming” type games, including Farmville and tiny towers, etc. is common knowledge. So I’m not sure how it qualifies as being presentation worthy. These days, if you mess with the system in any way they call it a hack. Standards are constantly being lowered, ya know?
What I look forward to is the day that I walk into a room and there is little Tommy with his tablet, just pecking away, and when I ask what he’s doing he hands it to me and all I see is rows of cttaggcttgagaatcgattcattaagatcctatta… and when I ask what it’s for, he says, “I’m growing Fluffy a new tail cause the other one got run over by Mom’s car.” Now that’s hacking.
Open source life… it’s coming.
Love the username!
Sorry to burst your bubble but even if that was possible it wouldn’t be in our or our great great great great great greatx10 grandkids lifetime so you won’t b able to walk in and see little Tommy tinkering away on a tablet unless he is creating a tail for a virtual pet he has downloaded from the app store
Don’t kids go outside anymore? BTW, I was still eating boogers when I was 10.
Whatta baller
I can’t remember most of what I learned in college, but I could rattle off that “up down, up down” cheat code for the original Nintendo Entertainment System in my sleep!
The big question is tho… What game was that code for?
Well dang – I always have the clocks in my bathroom and car set a few minutes fast, to inspire me to hurry up in the morning. Guess that makes me a “hacker” too! After all, I’m “exploiting” these clocks to change my behavior…
Wow, I did this on the Commodore 64 in 1987. I must be uber l337. This is the worst piece of reporting ever.
lol…contra!
This isn’t an exploit nor did she “uncover” it. This has been done on computers for decades.
CyFi = the geek corollary for Hit Girl.
THis isn’t a hack, it is the result of a poorly designed game.
hacking is misrepresented by the media by and large today.
in my opinion she is hacking in this case as she is changing system parameters around and exploring the resaults of those changes. Sure its elementary but that isn’t the point. She is 10 and already presenting her reaearch at one of the premiere hacking conventions ever created.
GOOD FOR HER! You go girl and kudos to your parents for not smacking your hands and trying to convince you that hacking is “wrong”. knowledge is power so soak it up!
Love the douche responses chock full of I’m better than a 10 year old girl resentment.
Good for her. I hope she kills it as she gets older.
Btw… Love that MDN tagged Cy-Fi.
“Shall we play a game?”
….
“Wouldn’t you prefer a nice game of chess?”
so can I call myself a hacker too if I set my clock date back a week so I can continue to run a demo program for free? Or maybe I install a demo app in windows in parallels and take a snapshot.. then when it runs out I can revert back and keep using it… anyone remember collect calls? saying my message as my name must be hacking too.
I’d like to see what her tweaks were to adjust the issue… does she provide code or just suggestions. “I believe if the programmer sets its own timer then it wont go based on the device clock.. or if its a game on device requiring internet connection.. then it just connects to a world clock based on your location…. but hey then you can just change your time zone!!
I am soooo 1337.
I am not bashing the girl, props to her for reporting this and getting some recognition for it. Hope she soaks up all the fame she can get while it lasts.
Lol this so obvious… Millions of people do this everyday, she didnt figure out shit…
This girl wins ‘The BIGGEST DUH FACTOR IN HISTORY’ award.
Imagine becoming a celebrity for showing off one of the oldest gaming cheats known to computer geeks. TechTards abound. DefCon is getting desperate for attention. 😯
If hacking instructions are great.