Five-year-old boy easily bypasses Xbox Live account password

Microsoft has rewarded a 5-year-old boy for finding a vulnerability in the Xbox Live service. The boy turned out to be childishly easy to get around the password screen by simply pressing space.

Kristoffer Von Hassel from San Diego discovered the vulnerability by chance, various media reported on Friday. He wanted to log into his father’s account, but did not have the correct password.

The boy entered a wrong password and was shown a password verification screen. Then, by holding space until the password screen filled up and pressing enter, the 5-year-old boy was able to log into his father’s Xbox Live account, according to 10News.

The father, who works as a security expert, informed Microsoft about his son’s discovery. The company thanked Kristoffer in a statement, saying “always listen to our customers.” Microsoft has since patched the leak.

The boy’s name is now on the list of people who have ever found a security problem in Microsoft’s online products. Microsoft has given the boy four games, fifty dollars and a year of Xbox Live membership as a reward for finding the vulnerability.