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Xbox 360 File System Decoded
slurpster writes "The register reports that Pi group has decoded the file system used in the Xbox 360. They write "Once you get past the protections and down to the raw bits on the disc, its just the standard xboxdvdfs, however the offset and layer breakpoint are different.""
The article notes that this in an of itself is only a step in the long march towards all those crazy things people have done with the original Xbox.
An important step, but only a step.
Don't get too excited, it will be a few months yet before any underworld homebrew applications are running.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
There will be always more clever people out there then those employed in various corporations...
:-)
:-)
The motivation is the key. Salary is a motivation but the fun is bigger motivation.
The word "unbreakable" should not be used anymore. (Only liars from marketing departments use it
Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
Well, you know the contents of the files as well as their names, right? So you can use a simple text search to figure out where on the disk the contents are placed. Then you look for structures on the disk that appear to point to these contents.
You can for example figure out the size of a directory entry by looking for the amount of characters between successive file names. After that, things like file size and other metadata can usually be readily detected.
There's admittedly some guesswork involved. That's why official documentation is always preferrable to something that's reverse engineered.
Error: password can't contain reverse spelling of ancient Chinese emperor
How would selling something at a loss help to offset investment? They sell it at a loss in order to spur sales, so they can sell the games. The money is made from the games, and that profit is what recoups the investment.
Sure, I guess you could say 'Well if they gave it away for free they'd recoup that much less', but the point is that they do not sell them at a loss in order to recoup anything. It is to drive sales, plain and simple.
And if MS have learnt anything from the likes of the PSP (as they undoubtedly have). Any exploit will be quickly patched, either when you install a new game or next go online.
That was true for the original XBox which was based on PC-ish and off-the-shelf hardware. For the 360, it would be more like a souped-up Mac/(whatever else uses PPC chips).
Since the custom PPC and chipset/GPU for the 360 were tweaked specifically for M$ from the very start instead of quick hacks of off-the-shelf designs to make them less interoperable, chances are that the 360 will be much harder to crack.
Remember that the MS engineers have a near impossible task. They have to design a DRM system to ensure only official games work, but at the same time,
A. The DRM is implemented into a consumer device that the "enemy" has complete access too.
B. The DRM can not be complex as to hinder third party companies making licensed games.
C. The DRM can not signifigantly impact the performance of the device (ie no CPU intensive encryption).
D. The Xbox itself has to be able to un-drm the code to play the game.
E. Because old games can not be updated on a console, the DRM can not be changed or updated after release.
F. The DRM system can not signifigantly add to the cost of production of the consoles or games.
Basically DRM on consoles is a losing battle. All the odds are stacked against the developers. Add in the fact that the number of people trying to break it probably greatly exceeds the number of people responsible for it's development in the first place, and it becomes a fight MS can't hope to win. However, the tougher the DRM is, the more complicated the workarounds will be. Consider how massive dreamcast piracy (Dreamcast games could be copied with no mod chip and a cd burner) was compared to playstation piracy (required a mod chip with lots of soldering at first, later would require just a swap disk trick). The dreamcast sold a lot less then the playstation, but the piracy scene was enormous in comparison because it was so easy.