Image: Ghislaine BRAS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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At first, Xcellerator tried several approaches that did not end up working, but he still documented them in detail in his blog post. Finally, after a lot of tinkering, he found a vulnerability he could exploit in the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal, which he exploited via the mobile adapter.Sign up for Motherboard’s daily newsletter for a regular dose of our original reporting, plus behind-the-scenes content about our biggest stories.
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In practice, Xcellerator explained that this means he now has full control of his opponent’s Game Boy, and “the sky's the limit really,” as he put it. In other words, this is a Remote Code Execution exploit, the cybersecurity lingo for a hack that lets the hacker run whatever code they want on the target machine or device. Xcellerator said he could also cheat and beat opponents by making the game jump to the “out of health” mechanism when a Pokémon faints. The Mobile Adapter GB adapter also came with a “Mobile Trainer GB” cartridge, which was used to configure dial-up username and password, and even provided a browser and email client. While analyzing how the adapter interacts with the game, Xcellerator found out that the email functionality was used to allow players to trade Pokémons online.“The whole concept of sending a Pokemon trade in an email in 2001 is just wild to me,” he said.Subscribe to our podcast, CYBER. Subscribe to our new Twitch channel.“The Game Boy on the other end of the phone line is now under my control as it will execute the code I smuggled in.”