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Hackers Leak Xbox One SDK Claiming Advancement In Openness and Homebrew

Posted by samzenpus on from the open-it-up dept.

MojoKid writes Microsoft, it seems, just can't catch a break. Days after a major hack took its servers offline on Christmas day, and after being lambasted in multiple stories for shipping games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection in nigh-unplayable condition, the company's Xbox One SDK has been leaked to the public by a group calling itself H4LT. H4LT, which apparently objects to being called a hacker group, offered this explanation when asked why it was distributing the SDK. The group claims that "the SDK will basically allow the community to reverse and open doors towards homebrew applications being present on the Xbox One." To be clear, what H4LT has done is a far cry from groups like Lizard Squad. The SDK for any given product is typically available behind some degree of registration, but they don't necessarily cost anything. The SDK is one small component of creating the ecosystem that would be necessary to get homebrew up and running on the platform. Whether or not users will ever pull it off is another question.

12 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Zero shits given. By anyone.

  2. I stopped reading ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I stopped reading after it labelled the Christmas DDoS as a "major hack". As for the "leaking": I assume you can already get most stuff just by registering as an indipendent developer (I think it's even free http://www.xbox.com/developers/id) and all stuff by registering as a professional developer.

  3. Translation by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Microsoft, it seems, just can't catch a break."

    Translation: Microsoft is poorly managed.

    1. Re:Translation by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Every time I read Sith I have to wonder whether it's intentional or due to dyslexia...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Does it really matter by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does it really matter if the SDK is available so long as there's no way to run that code? I'm not really up on the latest consoles and how close they are to finding exploits to allow code execution, but it would seem rather premature to claim that this is some great victory. If nothing else it's better that people are spending their time on things like this rather than Launching DDOS attacks against the companies online services.

    1. Re:Does it really matter by marcansoft · · Score: 2

      SDKs are useful to investigate and develop homebrew exploits (they provide information on the system architecture), but they are not useful for actually developing homebrew unless you want to end up with a situation like the Xbox 1 (the original) where all homebrew (except for Linux) was basically illegal because compiling it meant using the SDK and the resulting binaries were not legally redistributable. As a counterexample, the Wii has a fully open source homebrew SDK (though some bits have a questionable history and are arguably non-cleanroom reverse-engineered SDK code from games, but that's a much finer point than outright using the official SDK).

      Given what I've heard of the Xbox One security architecture, it's going to be a tough nut to crack, SDK or not.

  5. Ramifications by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So someone gave a disposable email address, downloaded an Xbox SDK, and then reposted the SDK somewhere else?

    Is this what we're talking about here? Or is there actually more to the story?

    1. Re:Ramifications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, that's not what we're talking about here. It was either leaked by a Microsoft insider / licensed developer or it was obtained by hacking into some system that had the files on it.

      You can't get the major native-code console SDKs simply by registering. The way it's typically set up is that you have to formally apply to become a licensed developer, which generally involves having a corporate entity (Nintendo used to also require that the entity have its own dedicated commercial-grade office space, i.e. no "garage startups") with some demonstrable track record of publishing commercial-quality games and substantiation of sufficient funding to actually complete development on commercial-quality games. Then you have to drop a decent chunk of money on a short list of approved test/debug hardware in order to actually develop games. There are several levels of security and contracts/NDAs involved that require manual review and execution.

  6. "Leaker" is a shill by linebackn · · Score: 2

    Why bother trying to create an open home brew environment around a closed platform?

    I suspect the so-called leaker is really working for Microsoft.

    BTW, "leaking" is something you do in to a toilet. :P

    1. Re:"Leaker" is a shill by hydrofix · · Score: 2

      Why bother trying to create an open home brew environment around a closed platform?

      Cost and availability of hardware? While the original platform/OS might be closed, it might be possible to root it and get raw access to the underlying hardware. With original Xbox this was super easy, since it was essentially a cheap Intel PC in a console box. There was a very lively hobbyist culture around the original Xbox with many people installing Linux on it to convert it to an affordable HTPC.

  7. Nigh unplayable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    My son downloaded the Master Chief Collection the day it came out. He has gotten many hours of play out of it. Hasn't had one problem with it. A week ago I asked him about it specifically because of all the online ranting about problems. He knew about the rants, but dismissed them - apparently it was just one part of online matchmaking or something. He had no problems and could not understand what the fuss was. Nigh unplayable? Obviously written by someone who never even tried...

  8. Original tweet by eulernet · · Score: 2

    The original tweet is not even mentioned, here it is:
    https://twitter.com/notHALT/st...