In December last year, Nintendo released a remastering update for its outdated 3DS messaging app Swapnote.
Many fans were wondering what was really going on at the time, as it didn’t look like much of a remaster. The Nintendo patch notes provided with this software update state that it “fixed some problems”, but as usual, did not provide details.
It turns out that the story goes a little deeper, with the dataminer ‘OatmealDome’ relaying how the note-sharing service actually had a vulnerability in the message parser that could be exploited in StreetPass – in turn, allowing an “attacker” to run whatever code you searched for.
The individual behind this discovery ‘mrnbayoh‘ Received $ 1,682 USD from Nintendo (via HackerOne) as a reward. So there you have it – this “probably” explains why Nintendo released an update years after disabling the app’s main feature.
In case you don’t remember, this free service was effectively discontinued in 2013, when Nintendo discovered that users were exchanging offensive material. Then, he disabled online functionality, limiting it to the local wireless network.