A developer who goes by pepsipu says he has jailbroken a Nintendo Switch 2 on the latest system software, version 23.0.1, meaning he can make it run code Nintendo has not approved. He says he did it without opening the console or installing any extra hardware. He calls the method ns2jb, and to show it off he modded Mario Kart World to add racers Nintendo never put in the game, including Hatsune Miku, Peter Griffin and Cinnamoroll. Nintendo Life says the console has "supposedly" been jailbroken and reports that Nintendo has not commented.
Because the hole is entirely in software, Nintendo can close it with a system update. That was impossible with the best-known flaw in the original Switch, which was burned into the processor itself. As of October 23, 2026, Nintendo has not released a fix.
What ns2jb does, according to its author
pepsipu, whom Nintendo Life identifies as Sammy Hajhamid, published a technical write-up on his blog and announced it on X on October 22. He says ns2jb lets him run homebrew, meaning software Nintendo has not approved, take apart and mod games, back up save files and reach most of the console's hardware. To his knowledge, it is the first exploit of its kind on Switch 2.
The jailbreak is tethered, so it disappears when the console restarts and has to be run again after every boot. It also stops short of the kernel, the core of the operating system that hands out memory and permissions to everything else. ns2jb runs with the privileges of an ordinary system module and of the module that handles files, so it is not custom firmware, a full replacement for Nintendo's system software.
pepsipu says he is looking forward to Switch 2 homebrew, emulation and mods. Running code is only where that work starts, and getting from one to the other can take a long time, as the PS5 emulators that can boot Astro Bot but not play it show.
How much of it has been checked
So far the main evidence comes from the author. Gezine, a developer who recently disclosed a separate flaw affecting both Switch models, says he spoke with pepsipu and that the work "seems legit," Notebookcheck reports. The Mario Kart World footage spread on X, and VICE says it could not verify it and that the demo does not show the console's protections have fallen completely. None of the three outlets says it reproduced the exploit on its own hardware.
pepsipu also says he spent about two weeks on the jailbreak with OpenAI's Codex, running several AI agents, programs that carry out chains of tasks without a person approving each step. The Mario Kart World mod, he says, took a single day.
Why a software exploit can be patched
An exploit is a way to abuse a bug so a machine does something its maker does not allow. Here the way in is SmileBASIC 4, a programming app for the original Switch that runs on Switch 2 through backward compatibility. The author says it contains a memory bug that lets him write data outside the space set aside for it and slip in his own instructions. From there he chains further bugs until he reaches system modules. All of that code belongs to Nintendo and can be rewritten with an update. Version 23.0.1, the one he targets, arrived on September 30.
On the original Switch, the best-known flaw sat somewhere else. In 2018, researcher Kate Temkin released Fusée Gelée, a bug in the boot ROM of Nvidia's Tegra X1 chip, as The Hacker News reported at the time. That boot code is written into the chip at the factory and cannot be changed, so no update could fix consoles already sold. Nintendo could only correct it in units built later.
With ns2jb, Nintendo has two options. It can fix the system modules in its next update, and it can remove the way in. Nintendo Life says SmileBASIC 4 appears to have been removed from the eShop, and on October 23 its US store page on Nintendo's site returned an error. With no listing, nobody new can buy it.
What you risk
Nintendo has punished Switch 2 modding before. In June 2025 it cut off online services for consoles that had used the MIG Switch, a cartridge that loads copies of games, Nintendo Life reported. Affected players saw error 2124-4508, and the ban hit the console rather than the Nintendo Account. Some said it happened even with copies of cartridges they owned. No bans tied to ns2jb have been reported so far.
Nintendo's US user agreement, updated in May 2025, says the company may make a device "permanently unusable in whole or in part" if owners break its rules, according to TechRadar.
A jailbreak that vanishes on reboot is not necessarily invisible. Nobody has tested whether Nintendo can detect it while the console is online, and there is no way to know how Nintendo would handle a warranty repair if something breaks while unofficial code is in control.
The law depends on where you live. In Spain, where INSERT FUTURE is based, article 270.6 of the Criminal Code sets six months to three years in prison for making, importing, distributing or commercially holding tools designed to defeat software protections. Its wording targets people who produce or trade in those tools, not an owner testing code on a console. Downloading or sharing games without a license remains copyright infringement in Spain and in most other countries.
Should you update?
If you use your Switch 2 to play games, keep installing updates as usual. ns2jb depends on an app that appears to have been pulled from sale, does nothing for normal play and puts online access at risk. New system versions also close holes that other people could use with worse intentions.
Staying on 23.0.1 only makes sense for someone who wants to research on a console they will keep offline, knowing Nintendo may block it. Nintendo has not announced its next system update yet.
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