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Microsoft foils Xbox hackers with new Config
randomizer9 writes was among several readers who noted that Microsoft has changed the configs on the XBox and really messed up the hackers who have been trying to coax the box into being divx players, linux boxes, microwave ovens, white noise generators and so on. Kinda doubt the conspiracy angle, but it certainly is annoying.
Let's see... MS updates their bios and changes some of their chips. Now the boxes can't be hacked. The next thing you know someone will post a story about how the new boxes can be hacked which will be followed by the horror that the next updates will defeat those hacks. Oh the humanity.
- adam
I really don't like the way the word "security" is being used to mean "preventing the owner of the system from using it as he sees fit."
In my mind security means only letting the owner use the system as he sees fit.
-Peter
What the "hackers" really need to do is make use of undocumented features in ways that every home user will want to use. Then Microsoft wouldn't dare remove them -- I remember this happening several times in the old days of the Palm Pilot (Remember all those *Hack programs?)
Could the X-Box be a prototype for Palladium/DRM-secure hardware?
... enough of conspiracy theories for one day...
They release a product that they consider secure(the v1.0 X-Box), let the public pry away at it for a while, knowing the hacking consoles(especially with one as tasty as the X-Box) is an already established industry.
Then, once it is hacked to a reasonable level, they revise the hardware to be more secure...
Shake well, repeat...
Basically, MS gets a free hacking team to test (fanatically) their security systems... The only negative point is that some of the hackers release how they did it to the public.
All of the knowledge/experience that they gain from this security cycle will go directly into their security model for DRM "secure" PC hardware...
Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but copyright will always protect me.
where there's a damn about to burst, and it keeps springing leaks. All they do is stick their fingers in the leaks... eventually, they run out of fingers, and start using toes. Then the toes run out.
Eventually Microsoft will run out of digits (as in the fingers & toes). If you want to keep a system secure, you can't be reactionary. You can't wait for a leak to spring up, and then stick a finger in it.
And that's part of the whole problem with the MS culture - it's not a problem until it's exploited. Then you fix it. This is the best reason I can give you as to why not to use MS products. 'Cause they don't give a fuck until something's seriously broken. And then, it's too damn late.
-- james
I think I can find one reason.
Most set top boxes today are sold near or even, at times, below cost. Face it: you can buy an XBox for the price of a cheap DVD player.
How they can get off with this is by charging a license fee to developers based on the number of units (games) those developer sell. This is common in this industry.
Now, if MS (or any other set top box manufacturer) lets anyone hack their machine so they run software for which they DO NOT receive royalties, then it makes THEM lose considerable amount of money and impairs them to sell the boxes at these low prices when a significant number of end users buy XBoxes just to run it as a cheap terminal or computer.
Not likely. The changes are mostly on the hardware backend, the developers will probably never know the difference. MS may be evil but they are not stupid. The changes will only affect the 'chippers.
Now, one might say that the 'chippers will just come out with a new chip everytime MS updates. But wait, lack of customer confidence that the chip will actually work in their box, and the cost of developing and more importantly (and costly) producing the new chips will quickly drive the 'chippers out of business.
So, the question is: is it worse to sue the 'chippers, or just beat them at their own game?
Now don't get me wrong, I despise Microsoft for it's shady practices as much as the next guy, but really, is this one of those "shady" practices? If you think about it, Microsoft has every right to do this.
/. I just don't see where all the "illegal" and "this aint right" voices are coming from. There goes my Karma....
The XBox is thier creation. They put many hours into the design and building of the machine. Okay, how convenient that it runs on x86 hardware. The rest of the programming is thier own.
I understand that most OSS programmers would likely be willing to let others mess around with thier creations, but look at it from the other point of view.
Microsoft has clearly, from the beginning, shown that they are in in for the money, and not to let others mess around with their products. As much as many of us do not like the idea of that, It is perfectly legal, and valid. Car makers void warranties if you modify them past a certain point. (besides that is could be unsafe) It is becasue they don't want you messing with their products, and spending money with other after-market compaies.
When you hack an XBox, and put linux on it, you are now using the box as a computer. You likely won't be playing XBox games on it anymore. Thus, Microsoft is loosing business becasue you are not buying games. True, they are still making money from the box itself, but they still want more, which i guess is thier perogative(sp).
If you were also in it for the money, and created a very good system, would you want others hacking into it, and possibly loosing business becasue of it. Okay, you are still making money from selling your product, but you want more. That is your choice, and your a FREE (yes, Freedome still exsists in America) to do that.
Microsoft is simply trying to protect thier products, and business. Yes, we have the right to critisize them for it, and maybe we can make a difference, but by saying "this is illegal, MS can't do this, etc.." I dont think we that the right to say THAT.
Now, great, I am all for hacking or moding the XBox, but if something goes wrong, it's your fault, and MS has nothing to do with it. Don't blame them for putting DRM in the box, or anything like that. Blame you for not listening to thier warnings about what could happen if you mod it.
Again, dont get me wrong, I am far from MS's #1 fan, and I dont agree with most of thier practices. They are free to do that. It is one of the great ideals of capitalism. Now, Monopolies are not, but is the XBox really a Monopoly? With the sales of GameCube and PS2 what they are, I would say not. If you really want to have a game system running on x86 hardware that is free for everyone to hack, then be innovative and create one, and sell it.
I'm not trying to Troll here, and this whole thing is probibly redundant from the last ten Articles on
Is this thing on?
And you can do whatever you want to it... Just don't ask Microsoft (or sony, or nintendo) to give you support in doing it.
If you buy an xBox just so you can hack it and use it for some purpose other than what Microsoft intended, and then you discover that recent changes to the hardware of said xBox prevent you from doing so, who's the idiot?
As an (xBox | ps2 | gamecube) hacker, (Microsoft | Sony | Nintendo) owes you one thing only: a machine that will play fully licensed copies of the games for that particular platform.
If memory serves, Sony made iterative changes to the PS1 over the course of its run, which negated mod chips that worked in earlier 'generations'. I believe the same is true with the PS2, but someone can confirm or deny that for me. Anyway, hey it's within their rights as the developers of the hardware to discourage what they perceive is hacking. It's also within our rights as consumers to be able to work around anything they do. :)
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
By the same token, Microsoft should be able to do anything with the hardware before you've bought it. If, for whatever reason, that prevents you from "hacking" it after you've bought it, then don't buy it!
Whats good for the gander, is good for the goose.
With everything that they know now, the X-Box hackers won't take long to figure out a way to do this. It's always been this way with all consoles. Someone always finds a way.
Microsoft may have a lot of money, but they aren't going to keep modifying their manufacturing facilities unless it means saving money on production. I doubt that they are going to churn out a drastically different X-Box every month in order to thwart hacks...
The PS2 and XBox aren't that tightly integrated and have a bigger parts count. (Nintendo makes money on game console hardware while Sony and Microsoft don't. That's why.) But in the next generation, we should expect to see machines that are basically one big chip inside. This will be the end of modchips.
Yes, it's possible to open up an IC and modify it. The ATI/Nvidia article shows the millions of dollars of equipment needed. But even that doesn't help much. Now that everybody uses boot-time public/private key authentication, even opening up the chip won't get you the private key you'd need to make content that will load on an unmodified box. So far, no one has been able to get an unapproved program to load on an unmodified XBox.
There won't be backdoors. Read the license agreement for DVD decoder manufacturers.