New team close to boot backups...

[source: TheSpecialist @ xboxhacker.net]

Word on the street is that some smart people of this board combined their forces, formed an underground team and are very, VERY close to getting the first 360 backup booting...MS did a very good job on the 360 itself this time. However, they made a big mistake by forgetting about the firmware. :) They even didn't remove the debug routines from the FW, quite amazing ... :) The 360 has a little bit more advanced protection in its FW than the original xbox, but still, they did some stupid things (like forgetting about the debug routines, that were very helpful to us, hehe, and most importantly: not signing the firmware). I'm betting they'll develop the MPU in the drive from scratch for their next gen consoles and sign the code in the FW. :)

Quote from: Mjrweed

Specialist, great news indeed, but a question i know alot of ppl are wondering about is:

1. Will MS be able to patch this security hole via those pesty live updates? Or will that be impossible for them until next revisited version of 360`s hit the street?

2. Will this hack be possible to execute for the "average" dork, who hasnt any experience in soldering or advanced electronics?

3. Will it be awesome?

Quote from: TheSpecialist

1. Yes. However, every patch they come up with can be hacked (very fast) again. So it might become some sort of cat/mouse game ... But the hacker will always win because the hardware is designed in the 'wrong' way for MS to win that game :)

2. You'll have to be able to flash you firmware. Currently there's no method to do it via software, so you'll need a hardware programmer. However, it's possible to do it via software, it only has to be researched :)

3. Yes and No. Yes, it will work, but the problem is that I highly doubt that the team will release a hacked 'ready to go' firmware ... I think a lot of hackers (including me) are reluctant to do this. The threat from MS and its lawyers is real. Even though it might be legal in some countries, if you visit the US they can arrest you there (like they arrested that Russian guy when he visited the US) ... Well, maybe a text document with bytes differing from original and hacked FW is possible - it's not a 'device' to circumvent copy protection' and it will only serve eductional purposes of course :) That way only the person that is going to use that information to create such a 'device' (software) is the one that is doing something illegal and not the hacker I suppose ... But again, I'm not a lawyer and it is a VERY slippery slope we're on here ... :) You'll have to understand that a FW hack differs in 2 ways from what bunnie did:

1. Bunnie could hide behind the fact that his intention was only to boot Linux

2. Bunnie could hide behind his academic paper he was writing. This was some kind of 'safeguard' for him, since MS would be more reluctant to have an academic researcher arrested (although that russian guy was also an academic researcher, even speaking at a conference the moment they arrested him, hehe)

So, we'll see what happens... At least, there's is very good progress being made and the team is probably going to show soon that it IS possible, hehe... And I suspect sooner or later somebody will probably take his chances and upload a hack something somewhere :) But again ... I doubt that there'll be anything else than a 'we did it' statement in the beginning ... I think if you're hoping on a ready-to-go firmware hack, others would have to follow in the team's footsteps, that are not as much in the 'limelight' as the hackers on this board.