Piracy in the 360?

[nintenho]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30329

A FLAW in the Xbox 360 DVD firmware could allow the forces of darkness in the hacking world to install custom firmware in the machine.
According to Xboxic, here, the hack has been found by a bloke who goes by the handle ‘TheSpecialist’ and has found a few firmware hacks before.

Mr TheSpecialist said that the hack enables a person to gain full control of what the DVD will accept and would mean that the drive could gain the capability to boot backups of original game DVDs.

The goal is getting a 360 to do a backup booting and according to Mr TheSpecialist a dark and sinister hacker Illuminati is close to doing this.

He said Vole made a big mistake by forgetting about the firmware. It even forgot to remove the debug routines, he claims.

Although the 360 has a little bit more advanced protection, Vole also forgot to sign the firmware and this allows the hacker to gain full control of the drive.

ooooohhhh! This'll be nice.

 

[pipo]

Cue X360 Rev. 2...

 

[Platon]

Yep, wouldn't just a simple revision fix that? So the first few millions that bought the xbox360 might be lucky...

 

[nintenho]

Well, hopefully they won't do a revision for a couple months so that I can finally find a premium pack.

 

[Qroach]

That inquirer posting was already debunked at as false at gaming age by someone connected to people trying to mod the system.

 

[nintenho]

That inquirer posting was already debunked at as false at gaming age by someone connected to people trying to mod the system.

*tentatively pessimistic*

Edit: That's a hell of a way to start a new page.

 

[Guden Oden]

Nintendo is using a proprietary format.

No, it's still DVD. Perhaps the filing system is proprietary, but that doesn't change the way data is read from the disc. Even gamecube used plain ol DVD tech, only on a small diameter disc...

 

[Mendel]

http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=33&topic=400.msg4215#msg4215

Well as you can see, not everybody wants to release the FW and a lot of people have good reasons not to release it. So it's just a rough guess when a hack will hit the street, but again, i would be VERY surprised if you'd have to wait more than a month ...

 

[assen]

This time around, I think it would be folly to give up on Xbox Live and XBLA - they are a major part of the attractiveness of the system.

 

[Nicked]

No, it's still DVD. Perhaps the filing system is proprietary, but that doesn't change the way data is read from the disc. Even gamecube used plain ol DVD tech, only on a small diameter disc...

Wouldn't know too much about that...

Backward compatible. Plays both GameCube optical discs and proprietary 12cm discs, the latter of which may be dual-layered for upward of 8GBs storage capacity

http://cube.ign.com/articles/618/618832p1.html

 

[Guden Oden]

It's too expensive to develop and employ an entirely new type of optical disc. All that's "proprietary" is the way data is formatted on the physical DVD disc.

Heck, you plop an xbox(360) disc in your optical drive on a windows PC you get some folders with files on them. Most likely, a revolution disc wouldn't show anything at all.

 

[expletive]

This time around, I think it would be folly to give up on Xbox Live and XBLA - they are a major part of the attractiveness of the system.

Agreed for all the consoles. The online component will be the primary deterrent modifying hardware/firmware/etc.

I dont think the PS3 is safe from hacking just becuase theyre putting the software on BR discs. I think we have to be careful to confuse the fact that the PS3 games will be ON blu-ray discs with whether or not they'll USE bluray discs. I'm thinking a vast majority of PS3 games would have been able to fit comfortably on DVD-9s. Filling up those BR discs costs money, those gigs and gigs of content don't just spring out of thin air.

 

[AW0L]

i beleive that the ps3 will be hacked before the xbox 360. remember the xbox was hacked not becuase of a hacker but becuase of a mistake in some games that alowed a buffer overflow which is more of a circustancial issue. ps3 is might be running linux and a 60g hdd will be perfect for dowloaded games. ps2 was hacked using a pressed disk or hard drive only a few months after release its just you can do so much more with the xbox. and the psp was hacked before it even got to the US you just need a duo stik to store the games.

with microsoft is more of a hacking the software with sony its more of getting around the hardware.

 

[lentoPastel]

sorry for the newbie question, but could someone give a little hint about how the xbox360 copy protection works?

I mean, if I can make an exact copy of the DVD using Nero, how can the Xbox tell the difference between original and copy?

sorry for ask such a basic question

 

[scooby_dooby]

all executables must be digitally signed before they can be run. when you modify the file you lose that signature, so if you copy to a DVD your xbe's will no longer run.

 

[drpepper]

sorry for the newbie question, but could someone give a little hint about how the xbox360 copy protection works?

I mean, if I can make an exact copy of the DVD using Nero, how can the Xbox tell the difference between original and copy?

sorry for ask such a basic question

I remember reading on these forums a while ago that the security measures are hard wired into the metal. The CPU having the correct key to properly read certified discs. Nero being ignorant of that would not be able to burn a disc that satisfies those conditions. Here's an example of the level of security placed in each 360.

I remebered in the old days I think it was the PS1 that intentionally an error bit was pressed on the CD and the PS new what to look for. This was long ago and the info eludes me.

 

[lentoPastel]

all executables must be digitally signed before they can be run. when you modify the file you lose that signature, so if you copy to a DVD your xbe's will no longer run.

Exactly, there is where I am lost. If I copy an original Xbox game to a DVDR, the executable should be unchanged so it is still signed... I know I am missing something but not sure what.

 

[booomups]

somehow they get some information on the disk that your pc program does not/ doesnt know how/ can not read, so it can not copy it perfectly.

thats all there is to it.

 

[AW0L]

like the xbox. theirs info thats ment to be read backwards. pcs drives dont

 

[AzBat]

There's a media check when running the executables. If it recognizes that the media is not original or on a writable disk, then it will not run it. It seems the latest hack for the Xbox 360 re-writes the DVD-ROM firmware to report back to the OS that the discs are in fact original and not writable. What I've read seems to indicate it's a real hack, but hasn't been released for legality reasons.

Tommy McClain