Xbox360-Hacks.com is reporting on a list of features that may be part of the Xbox 360's anti-hacking technology. The list comes from the Free60 Project: which has the aim of porting GNU/Linux and Darwin to the Xbox 360.
Apparently the following techie information will be useful to any budding 360 hackers:
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The flash is encrypted with a per-box key
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The key is stored inside the CPU
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The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU
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Also inside the CPU is a hypervisor that verifies the running state of the kernel, making sure there is no modification (RAM checksums), else the Xbox 360 panics and blows up!
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The CPU contains RAM inside of it to store the checksums
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All interrupt/exception handling is done by the hypervisor
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All code runs in kernel mode
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The emulator for first generation games can be updated via an official Microsoft download burned to CD by the user, though the CDs' content will be encrypted and signed with public key cryptography. The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU.
The list certainly sounds daunting!
[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]



















(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Can the Mod Please remove that Stupid Post or atleast ban him from here.
So back on topic, if I open it up does that mean my 360 will really fry for trying to tamper with it?
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Anyway I think this is more of a list of what must be overcome to produce a viable mod-chip rather than just linux. If all you wanna do is run Linux, the original Xbox is still a cheap decent computer. The fact that it was really just a Pentium3/GeForce4 PC made it easily hackable, and it seems Microsoft learned its lesson this time around.
As there are still so many current generation games I've yet to play, I am in no rush to get a 360. I'll buy it in 2 years when its half-price and there are enough platinum-edition games at $20, just like I did with the original.
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Back on topic, looks like Microsoft putting the boot code/key into the processor will make it pretty difficult to crack... they sure are serious :)
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By the way, I hate saying "original xbox" and "xbox 360". PS2 and PS3 is shorter but technically its PlayStation 2 & 3. Everyone complains about how many game sequels there are but we forget the system sequels. At least Nintendo calls each system a distinct name. Except for the GameBoys. Damn.
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I hope 360 technology keeps these fools at bay. I pay $60 a year for Xbox Live because I want a cheater / modder free environment to play games online.
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I hope 360 technology keeps these fools at bay. I pay $60 a year for Xbox Live because I want a cheater / modder free environment to play games online.
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http://benheck.com/Articles/Alternate_Console_names.htm
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you are fooling yourself. You may not want to screw with games, but there are 10 other joes waiting in line that will use modding to take advantage of any exploit they can and mod a game for cheating.
This is a direct effect of modding that I won't let you ignore or dismiss so easily. The work of modders / hackers will ruin the quality of online gaming! Reguardless of your intent.
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MS and Sony pour gobs of money into RnD and prodcution, and sell systems at a loss.
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You seem confused. Sony and Microsoft do not make profit on their consoles because they sell them for less than the wholesale of the package to reatilers. This is in service of maximizing the base for software sales, where all of the profit resides. Nintendo claims never to have sold for below cost on hardware but that is little help to the GameCube since it trails badly in software sales and the highly lucrative due to manufacturing royalties third party publishing. The great majority of Nintendo's profits in recent years have been driven by their portable platforms. The GameCube's software sales have been disappointing at best with just a few bright spots like Super Smash Brothers Melee generating excellent numbers.
The GameCube was not especially difficult to mod. The disc format was inconvenient but Chinese pirate factories had that covered in a few months. It just attracted the least interest. The PS2 was the most attractive due to piracy of its massive library while the Xbox offered a lot of potential for added applications on top of piracy. For all too many the GameCube had only a handful of exclusive items of interest that easily obtained for low price either used or as Player's Choice with a bit of patience. Sometimes honesty is just less of a hassle even for those inclined to steal.
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i hope they never hack it, it just spoils the experience for ither but anyway now ther is a feedback system you can give the negative feedback and that will give you less chance of being matched with them again using the trueskill system :-)
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It is impossible to say what the exact numbers are but I'm sure Microsoft believes a lot of Xbox units got sold for use as PCs and never resulted in any software sales. This could account for a big chunk of their failure to achieve profits for most quarters since launch. If every Xbox sold had a software attach rate sufficient to break even on the unit than it would be an acceptable sacrifice that not every machine became a profit center. But with many units sold at an unrecouped loss it doomed the business model. They are understandably doing what they can to sharply limit that factor this time around.
Despite the desires of homebrew hackers, the world does not owe them cheap high powered machines. They should follow the tradition of learning to do the most with what they can afford. That is what produces highly valuable skill sets applicable to serious work. Getting Linux running on a game console that is obviously more than capable of the task is just wanking rather than an accomplishment. Open hardware platforms are readily available. So you ran an OS on a closed system. So what? This makes the world better how exactly?
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And yet I'd give it a year at most before they have SOME sort of unsigned code running. Maybe not a straight up mod chip or functional Linux, but they'll get something. That list probably has hackers slobering all over themselves for a chance to be the guy who cracks this.
I would think printing each chip uniquely would be prohibitively expensive but I guess not.
It's going to be a while before we get homebrew as good as the XBMC running on this thing, though.
It's too bad that the Xbox only streams stuff from Windows Media Center boxes. That software is CRAP. You have to hack it 5 ways to sunday to get it to play simple things like oggs and MKV's. Not to mention quicktime files.
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