10-year-old girl discovers security flaw in Apple, Android games

A 10-year-old hacker has left experts amazed by finding an age-old security flaw in many mobile games.

Going by the handle CyFi, she found that advancing the clock on a tablet or phone could, in many games, open a loophole that can be exploited, reports the BBC.

CyFi discovered the bug after getting bored with the pace of farming games and seeking ways to speed them up.

Many farm-based games force players to wait hours before they can harvest a crop grown from virtual seeds. As a result CyFi, who has not revealed her real name, started fiddling with the clock on her handset to see if she could produce crops more quickly.

While many games detect and block clock-based cheating, CyFi found ways round these security measures. Disconnecting a phone from wi-fi and only advancing a clock by small amounts helped to open up the loophole as it forced the game into a state not tested by its original creators.

CyFi's discovery has since been verified by independent security researchers.

The exploit has been found to work in versions of games for both Apple and Android gadgets.

The hacker presented her findings at the DefCon hacker conference held in Las Vegas.