Xbox 360 Hacks - News, Hacks, Cracks, Mods.

A forensics toolkit for the Xbox gaming console is described by US researchers in the latest issue of the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. The toolkit could allow law enforcement agencies to scour the inbuilt hard disk of such devices and find illicit hidden materials easily. Computer scientist David Collins has probably spent more time messing around with the Microsoft XBox, other gaming consoles, and PDAs in the name of forensic science than anyone else. He is a digital forensics expert at Sam Houston State University, and is working hard to replicate “mods” – both hardware and software for the Xbox and other devices.

Criminals often hide illicit data on the XBox in the hope that a gaming console will not be seen as a likely evidence target especially when conventional personal computers are present in the same premises, for instance. The toolkit developed by Collins will allow police and other investigators the chance to lay bare the contents of XBox hard disks.

Collins’ XFT utility can mount an image of the FATX file system used by the XBox, allowing the user to explore in detail the directory structure. Collins points out that unlike the standard FAT32, NTFS, and similar systems used by the hard disks in personal computers, there is little documentation on the proprietary FATX system. However, it is possible nevertheless to acquire an image of a FATX hard disk and to mount it on another device.

Major Nelson:

As you know, we are committed to keeping Xbox LIVE a safe and fair place to play for the more than 17 million active members. As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack. Deliberate cheats like these are in direct violation of the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use and will not be tolerated. As I post this, we’ve begun taking steps to reset the Gamerscores of the offending players. As I have mentioned in the past, this is something we do occasionally to keep the service free of cheating in order to maintain a fair and level playing field for everyone. If you play fair and earn your achievements without glitching or cheating, you have nothing to worry about. Read my original post that shows what a cheater looks like and head over to Xbox.com to read the Gamerscore correction FAQ that may answer some of your questions.

A LIVE player who obtained their gamerscore in this abnormal way will

* Find their gamerscore reset to zero, and
* Be unable to regain all previously earned achievements, and
* Be labeled as a “cheater” for the community to view.

FORUM DISCUSSION

Here is the original xboxhacker thread where commodore4eva first made himself a very well known public figure. It was the initial 1.0 release for iXtreme xbox360 firmwares. To celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the first release, we will be releasing Liteon, BenQ, and Samsung versions of xbox360 iXtreme firmware replacement. As usual, Hitachi always comes last. Incase you are all wondering why Hitachi comes last, it is because that drive takes roughly 10 times longer to create the firmware for, due to so many different versions of the drive.

For those who wont or did not read the xboxhacker thread above, the official release date is set for May 14th, 2009.

Features will include:
-Strict Wave 3 compliance! hybrid (modified disks) will not boot!
-Strict drive speed compliance – 12x only for game discs!
-Support for SS V2!
-Integrated 0800 for game dumping including SS v2!
-Full support for all known game exceptions! eg ddr etc!
-One shot boot mode! – allows a one off boot of gamedisc without -stealth/partition checks (will still use stealth), use activate.iso disk -to activate each time!
-Support for easy drive key/version info cmd, same as liteon!
-Strict stealth/wave checking, one shot boot mode will boot wave(x)!

When FIFA’09 for Xbox360 is patched with the latest update, the flags that specify what media the game is allowed to run from have changed. Originally it was allowed to boot from a standard original Xbox360 disc, however now it is only allowed to boot from a new media type which is basically an updated version of the original Xbox360 disc type.

Those who have ever looked into the depths of the Xbox360 disc authentication scheme know that a “new” type of disc authentication has been in the works since the Xbox360 was released. It is known as the AntiPiracy v2.5 checks, or AP2.5. Is the FIFA’09 patch a sign that AP2.5 is finally going to see the light of day? If so then the ban hammer is going to come down hard.
The original Xbox360 game disc was reffered to as DVD-X GD2, which is presumed, stands for Xbox Game Disc version 2 (with version 1 being the discs used on Xbox1). This new Xbox360 game disc just seems to be referred to as an “updated DVD-XGD2″ , however to avoid confusion we will call this new disc type “DVD-XGD2.5″.

Based on what what  was looked into for disc authentication, there may be three possibilities. In order of likeliness they are:

1) Possibly the XGD2.5 disc is actually physically the same as the XGD2 disc but has support for extra unknown challenge/response checks.

XGD2 discs are authenticated by a series of challenge response pairs. The Xbox360 sends challenges to the dvd-drive and then the drive sends back responses to these challenges based on information on the disc in the dvd drive. If the Xbox360 deems the responses to be correct, the disc is authenticated.

Current Xbox360 dvd-drive hacks work since the challenge/response pairs are stored in the security sector on the disc, meaning that all possible challenge/responses are known in advance. The best way for MS to solve this problem is to use challenge/response pairs that are not known in advance to the dvd-drive. So if a hacked dvd-drive receives an unknown challenge it will not have the correct repsonse to send back, therefore the authentication will fail and the copied game will not boot.

M$ could do these extra checks when you connect to Xbox Live, and could even save unknown challenge/response pairs to a file on the flash of your Xbox360 in order to do the checks offline. They could also save challenge/responses to your flash when you update your console via Live or an update on a game disc.

2) Maybe the authentication of XGD2.5 is a superset of the XGD2 authentication. Therefore the FIFA’09 game could be pressed on the new XGD2.5 discs and still pass the XGD2 authentication checks. Then when MS is ready to initiate AP2.5 checks they could patch the game to only boot if it’s disc passes the XGD2.5 authentication.

3) Or else it all may just be wrong and there is no new disc type or it is totally separate to AP2.5 :)

C4E gave out some details about the upcoming iXtreme v1.6 firmware some time ago on #fw/EFNET. C4E wrote this prior the news of the possible new security, things might still change. There’s no set release date – they’ll release it when it’s ready.

ix1.6 for benq is complete and in testing, samsung/liteon soon to follow, then there’s hitachi last!
ix1.6 – Strict Wave 3 compliance! hybrid (modified disks) will not boot!
ix1.6 – Strict drive speed compliance – 12x only for game discs!
ix1.6 – Support for SS V2!
ix1.6 – Integrated 0800 for game dumping including SS v2!
ix1.6 – Full support for all known game exceptions! eg ddr etc!
ix1.6 – One shot boot mode! – allows a one off boot of gamedisc without stealth/partition checks (will still use stealth), use activate.iso disk to activate each time!
ix1.6 – Support for easy drive key/version info cmd, same as liteon!
ix1.6 has strict stealth/wave checking, one shot boot mode will boot wave(x)!

The USB Xtractor function is to read the UNIQUE-PER-DRIVE Key of the Liteon Drives, its functionality mimic the original 360 Xtractor Pro version but this model does not incorporate RS232 (AKA DB9) connector, only incorporate USB port, it also combines the original 360 Xtractor Pro Spear functionality all in one simple and portable device. Due to the fact that most modern PC’s do not include a DB9 port, this is fully USB compatible!

EXTRACTOR

USBXtractor Feature List:
* Portable with Full Case Design*
USB Support inside Windows (Liteon Key dumping)
* OnBoard Read Button fully Compatible with Maximus Xtractor Reader Software
* USB Cable Included!
* High Quality and Heavy Duty Parts
* Safe and Tested Design

POWER UNIT

360 Power Unit (Dongle) Feature List:
* Supports all 360 DVD Drive Models (Hitachi, Samsung, Benq, Liteon)
* Minimalistic approach eliminates the need for Power+Eject cable. It plugs directly on the DVD Drive
* Support Manual Mode-B (for Hitachi drives) and Manual Eject
* Power on Led Indicator
* Croc clip cable included
* High Quality and Heavy Duty Parts
* Electronically Safe and Tested Design with its onboard PPTC (resetable) fuses

Official Website: http://www.usbxtractor.com
Download The Manual: HERE
Download Xtractor Reader v2.9: HERE

The verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four was announced. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.

The court said that the four defendants worked as a team, were aware that copyrighted material was being shared using The Pirate Bay and that they made it easy and assisted the infringements. It categorized the infringements as ‘severe’. The judge said that the users of The Pirate Bay committed the first offense by sharing files and the four assisted this.

While the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s exaggerated estimates of losses, it still set the damages at 30 million SEK ($3,620,000). This a hugely significant amount and the court has ordered that the four should pay this amount between them.

The judge also stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal. Rest assured, other torrent sites hosted in Sweden will be keeping a close eye on developments.

FORUM DISCUSSION

More troubles plague the Xbox360, and Microsoft!  They make due though, as they usually do.

M$ Says: While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error that displays “E74″ on their screen. After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console. As a result, we have decided to cover repairs related to the E74 error message under our three-year warranty program for certain general hardware failures that was announced in July 2007. We have already made improvements to the console that will reduce the likelihood of an occurrence of this issue.

Microsoft will refund to customers the amount paid for an out of warranty repair due to a general hardware failure associated with the e74 error message. Those customers should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks, and no additional action by customers should be necessary. However, if a customer has not received a refund by July 1, 2009, the customer should visit www.xbox.com/support before November 1, 2009 for information on how to place a claim. All refund claims must be received on or before November 1, 2009.

What this means: The E74 error is now covered along side the 3LOD warranty; and is retroactive. That means, anyone who paid for their E74 repair while in their 3-Year 3LOD period, will be refunded.

Major Nelson said that their team released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE.  When you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll receive a prompt to accept this mandatory update. This update addresses interruption issues that some Xbox LIVE users may have experienced when playing a limited number of Xbox 360 games.

He indicated that there are no other changes or enhancements in this update.

I know, some will ask it it SAFE, but as usual, no one knows, so you take updates at your own risk.  This update is MANDATORY, so you can’t use live unless you update.