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View Full Version : Xbox 360 Flaw Makes Machine Hackable

Phanto
03-17-2006, 01:48 PM
The The Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/?) is reporting a flaw (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30329) in the Xbox 360 that makes the machine hackable.

Mr TheSpecialist said that the hack enables a person to gain full control of what the DVD will accept and would mean that the drive could gain the capability to boot backups of original game DVDs
Heretic Machine
03-17-2006, 04:41 PM
Neat if true... but I'd never do it. As much as I love homebrew apps, XBOX Live is -the- reason to own a 360 right now, and the two just aren't going to be compatible.
KNOTE
03-17-2006, 04:52 PM
Son of a bitch hackers... If any of you pirate games, I'll come give you a swift kick to the happy sacks.
endrom
03-17-2006, 05:31 PM
lets ruin it for everyone shall we? god forbid they use their talents for good. though it would be cool to have a multiplayer oblivion hack.
DoubleUranium
03-17-2006, 05:37 PM
It's good news as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to get XBMC running on the 360 since it doesn't have all of at the silly limitations of the 360's media capabilities. Forcing people to have Media Center PCs running is weak when XBMC can stream just fine on the original Xbox.
MasterKwan
03-17-2006, 06:40 PM
I think this is great. I'm waiting for the Blue Ray and HD-DVD cracks to become available too. Not because I want to use them but, to prove the futility of trying to lock people out of something they purchase. DRM just isn't going to work(I hope). What's needed is a creativity tax that's collected on every internet connection so, you can download whatever you want and the IP people still get paid. Then they monitor downloads and dole out the money to the artists based on popularity.

Something practical thing needs to be done. People want their files and artists deserve to get paid.
Megalith
03-17-2006, 07:14 PM
Finally.

http://media.ign.com/boardfaces/59.gif
Zeal
03-17-2006, 08:15 PM
I'll do this modification as soon as it hits the net.
Heretic Machine
03-17-2006, 08:25 PM
Son of a bitch hackers... If any of you pirate games, I'll come give you a swift kick to the happy sacks.

First, why do you care? Do you think the execs at EA are going to starve? Second, there are plenty of great uses for hacks like this. For instance, emulation. Running MAME on my 360, with my very favorite console controller of all time, that sounds good to me.

But like I said, I'm a Live fanatic, so I'm not doing it.
Varsity
03-18-2006, 01:05 AM
How long has this taken? I'm very impressed, looks like MS did a good job.
Franjo
03-18-2006, 01:07 AM
Xbox media center made the original xbox for me. I wouldn't of even considered buying one if I couldn't run it. Same rule will still apply for the 360.
Paranoia
03-18-2006, 01:53 AM
Good news for pirates. Bad for MS.
bobmitch
03-18-2006, 02:26 AM
This is very very old news. (From approx Mid-Jan to Jan-31st)
No hack was released for fear of reprisals, but the forum thread itself is enough to guide a hardened hacker to the solution.
easi
03-18-2006, 04:38 AM
That thread is about the firmware hack for the Xbox1. The 360 firmware was hacked last month.

But he hasn't given any proof, so he's lying.
DaedalusFolly
03-18-2006, 06:46 AM
As I recall, the original xbox was bent over backwards and gangbanged by crackers within 3 months.
SynapseLapse
03-18-2006, 07:16 AM
TheSpecialist a dark and sinister hacker Illuminati is close to doing this.
hahaha...
Right, the author obviously isn't terribly familiar with hackers or their lifestyle.
DvdJon certainly isn't a "dark and sinister" hacker illuminati.
CrysDark
03-18-2006, 09:42 AM
The only reason I would like to mod my 360 is for XBMC.

It's sad really, MS included media center because they wanted to give the hackers of the original xbox what they wanted. Then, they neuter it by locking you into mpeg/wmv codecs.

95% of my anime and video's are divx/xvid and I have to use a transcode solution to view them on my 360 sucks ass really.

Here is hopping for a hack to x360 extender that allows divx playback... or MS gets off thier asses and clicks the check box that says enable divx.... we know it can play it, the thumbnails are visable in extender....
Bl1nK
03-18-2006, 10:23 AM
This has been proven...see link here...

hxxp://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=33&topic=481.0
bean19
03-18-2006, 10:24 AM
CrysDark - Do you know why they are doing it? Does it have anything to do with regional codecs or is it for anti-piracy?
CrysDark
03-18-2006, 07:14 PM
CrysDark - Do you know why they are doing it? Does it have anything to do with regional codecs or is it for anti-piracy?

According to the article of the guys blog (name excapes me for a moment, one of the designers). It is because divx/xvid is the main encoding choice for pirated movies and supposedly "there is no comercial media that uses that codec" Which is a load of bull...

But you can tell the extender could play divx, not only does it show the thumbnails, but it shows thumbnails from about 15 seconds in... (all my anime thumbnails are shown at various times during the opening.) What I am hopping/thinking is that they are saving divx playback as a trump card, that way if ps3 comes out and only plays the sony codec (psp9 or whatever) then xbox can simply enable divx...
Aries7777
03-19-2006, 08:29 PM
First, why do you care? Do you think the execs at EA are going to starve? Second, there are plenty of great uses for hacks like this. For instance, emulation. Running MAME on my 360, with my very favorite console controller of all time, that sounds good to me.

But like I said, I'm a Live fanatic, so I'm not doing it.
Technically you can already very easily play emu'd games with the 360 controller (only the wired ones though), just hook it up to your pc and play them. :p
Aries7777
03-19-2006, 08:32 PM
I use my original Xbox for XBMC's movie streaming from PC, although I would sell it in a heartbeat if the 360 started supporting movie streaming without the use of Windows Media Center on your PC.
KNOTE
03-19-2006, 09:21 PM
First, why do you care? Do you think the execs at EA are going to starve? Second, there are plenty of great uses for hacks like this. For instance, emulation. Running MAME on my 360, with my very favorite console controller of all time, that sounds good to me.

But like I said, I'm a Live fanatic, so I'm not doing it.

I make my living through people buying games. That's why I care. It's not just the 'fatcats at EA!!!' that suffer from piracy. Try working on a game for 2 years to watch it get ripped and posted on a torrent site before it even hits the stores. Then you can talk to me about why it's fucking awesome.
bean19
03-20-2006, 12:44 AM
I make my living through people buying games. That's why I care. It's not just the 'fatcats at EA!!!' that suffer from piracy. Try working on a game for 2 years to watch it get ripped and posted on a torrent site before it even hits the stores. Then you can talk to me about why it's fucking awesome.

If you are talking about a console game, then aren't you talking about less than 10K sales "lost" in the U.S. as these ripped games only work on systems that had mod-chips installed.

However, if they've found a way to hack the X360 that doesn't require a mod-chip, that really sucks.

While Americans buy most software, people in Europe and Asia get it pirated as often or more often than they pay for it. Such hacks would really cut down on global sales for X360 games.

Or so I am told. . . but I live in the U.S. so I'm still one of those people that think that developers are not smart to focus on copy protection as a method of loss prevention as oppossed to other methods that seem to work better like digital distribution, Stardock's updates and good service system, and multiplayer access only to legitimate software.

The X360 has this really though. . . if you want to play multiplayer than you have to get the mandatory updates to the X360 that will probably continuously patch security holes like this. And Live is awesome.
Aries7777
03-20-2006, 09:45 PM
I make my living through people buying games. That's why I care. It's not just the 'fatcats at EA!!!' that suffer from piracy. Try working on a game for 2 years to watch it get ripped and posted on a torrent site before it even hits the stores. Then you can talk to me about why it's fucking awesome.
Finally, someone who knows what they're talking about!
Zeal
03-20-2006, 10:03 PM
I can't wait until the first mod chips hit the scene. Give it a month.
MasterKwan
03-21-2006, 05:37 AM
Death and taxes are inevitable, piracy of software is just about as inevitable. It should be factored in when you develop it. Every time I do an official release, the crack patch for my software is up in a couple days. There's no way to prevent it other than not releasing your programs to the wild in the first place. Does it suck? Sure. Is it inevitable? Sure. If I let it get to me, I'd have stopped developing software. Enough people buy, that I consider the piracy to be almost advertising these days.

I have many conversions from pirates to purchased copies because my support is really good. There's almost no point to bitching about it. It's just another cost of doing business these days.