A young boy from San Diego discovered a way to log into Xbox Live accounts without using the proper password, but instead of using this knowledge for evil, Kristoffer Von Hassel turned his exploit over to Microsoft.

According to a report from local ABC affiliate KGTV, the 5-year-old Von Hassel discovered a mind-numbingly simple trick to get around the Xbox Live password verification service. Von Hassel claims that he simply failed the first password check, then was able to trick the second password verification screen by filling its text entry field with blank spaces. Fear of punishment drove Von Hassel to explain to his father what he'd done, but instead of being angry, his father, who works in computer security, was impressed and contacted Microsoft to share the boy's ingenious findings.

In a statement following the precocious breach of Xbox Live security, Microsoft issued the following statement, "We're always listening to our customers and thank them for bringing issues to our attention. We take security seriously at Xbox and fixed the issue as soon as we learned about it." According to KGTV, Microsoft has awarded Kristoffer Von Hassel a one-year Xbox Live Gold membership as well as four games for his efforts. [Image: Microsoft]