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The Hacker Behind "Hacking the Xbox"
chromatic writes "ONLamp has just published an interview with Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, author of Hacking the Xbox. Bunnie discusses the effect of the DMCA on his work and the state of Xbox hacking as he sees it."
1) install modchip in xbox
2) borrow/rent games and copy them
3) play copies of games
oh, and alternately
4) install linux
: p
In case you haven't seen it yet, they have low-end machines that are comparable, already running Linux, for about $200.
IANAFETG (I Am Not A Fry's Employee, Thank Goodness)
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Andrew Huang hacked the x-box over a year ago, and managed to find the key to sign software to run on the xbox isn't this the key that the linux for xbox community has been looking for? Even though Huang has said he wouldn't share the key with anyone, presumably people can reproduce Huang's method for extracting the key. please someone clarify... I'm confused.
I don't know when this interview was actually published, but I think it must have been a while ago-- "Hacking the Xbox" was picked up by No Starch Press, and it appears to be still published by them...
Part for part. No variation between XBoxes.
Erm, MS has made Xboxes v1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. Read about the differences.
If you want a cheap home server build a small, fanless (silent), low power consumption (cheap in the long run) VIA mini-itx (small and quite cheap) box.
It's actualy cheaper to mod the xbox than build a mini-itx pc. Sounds like a pretty good reason to me. Plus, your xbox is already there sitting in the living room so it reduces the device count in the living room.
Yeah, I am. It works pretty good considering the hardware. I heard of a guy that constructed one for the college he was attending. I think it was in Kansas, but I am not entirely sure. The XBOX is a great thing to be using under linux.
Support Israeli punk bands. Man Alive.
MS uses a layered crypto scheme...
1. At CPU reset a hidden ROM image inside the chipset decrypts the main BIOS flash image. This is the key Bunnie found.
2. The BIOS image then decompresses and decrypts the extended BIOS image using a key different from the one used in step 1.
3. This extended BIOS then loads the kernel from disk and validates it using yet another different key.
4. The kernel then uses yet another key to validate the games loaded off DVD-ROM. This would be the key everybody is after.
--Rob
A note for anyone who doesn't already know - the upgraded dashboard (which has cool features and is a mandatory upgrade) has the bert & ernie font buffer overflow bugs fixed.
If you've software modded your Xbox, the code you used isn't the stealth code (which I don't think is public), and you are taking it online with Live, it'll de-mod your Xbox (at the very least), or possibly ban your Gamertag, credit card for future Gamertags, and MAC address.
Of course, while the Xbox you purchased belongs to you (goods), and the Xbox Communicator you (might have) purchased (might) belong to you (goods), you're morally (though not legally, but who gives a damn?) in the clear modding your own Xbox, no problem.
Take it online with Live though, and you're connecting to the Xbox Live service, a closed network created specifically to provide a secure homogeneous multi-player gaming platform so that all players could compete on a level playing field, no funny tricks. While I'm very heavily anti-DRM (i.e., I'm a cracker: no, not biscuit/kiddie, but deprotectionist) on public platforms (interoperability and all), this kind of closed gaming network is an interesting special use I'm quite happy with. Really the only people signing their modded Xbox onto Live are doing it because either (A) they want to cheat, or (B) they want to play copied games online. I have zero sympathy for either of these uses.
The Terms of Service, which definitely are enforceable, state very very clearly Xbox + Mod + Live = Ban.
If you want to mod your Xbox to make a cool media player, or because your kid sister scratches your game DVDs, bully for you - but play fair - buy another Xbox, and leave it unmodded, if you want to play on Live, please. Your kid sister shouldn't be on there anyway and remember that MS still lose money for every Xbox sold...
This one goes out to Stefan Esser, who really should know better. (See Full-Disclosure for background.)