The Xbox 360 Security System and its Weaknesses

Google Tech Talks
August 11, 2008

ABSTRACT

After the disaster of the original Xbox, Microsoft put a lot of effort in designing what is probably the most sophisticated consumer hardware security system to date. We present its design, its implementation, its weaknesses, how it was hacked, and how to do it better next time.

Speaker: Michael Steil
Michael Steil has been involved with various embedded systems hacking projects, like the Xbox, the Xbox 360 and the GameCube. In 2006, he has spoken at Google about the flaws in the security system of the original Xbox.

Speaker: Felix Domke
Felix Domke is the principal author of the Xbox 360 hack and the Linux port. He has also significantly contributed to hacking the dbox2, the GameCube and the Wii, and porting Linux to the respective platforms.

[AllanSavolainen]

And PS3 was hacked after Sony removed the Other OS support, just shows that one must not anger the homebrew community

[FA]

That bit about the PS3 at the end was quite prophetic.

[Nekkx]

It's really impressing how great the security system of the Xbox360 is. Yes, it has been cracked already, but it's still a very good system. And think of the PS3...we finally got the private keys for that...but we never managed to get the private keys for the original Xbox.

[thedrunkfrg]

having a good security system is great, it's a necessity that every console needs to prevent the unlicensed games, but, modding needs to be supported, not avoided. The great thing about the xbox 1 was that you could mod it and have tons of fun doing that, you need to have a clear difference between the modding and online games, and the effort should be made to keep the two seperate. Having your own modded private lobby would be a great advancement towards gaming.

[KibbloMkII]

for director status look under your edit channel under channel status just go to channel info (at bottom of page

[DavPw]

Frogger Beyond has a savegame exploit?

[KiRaShiKReaTiVe]

@Yarach i think the idea is to point out that even great companies like microsoft have issues with their 'secure platforms' and that we should be allowed to use the hardware we rightfully purchased.

[statusphere]

They forgot to mention the fact that MS used readily available media for their games and the security hole found in the 4352 kernel.

To be honest the only reason I purchased a 360.

Go Ixtreme :)

You can try but you will never stop hackers :)

Homebrew for life!

[cyphaborg]

Cloud saves is the best thing Microsoft has done with the newer systems.
I have said this for years that it's probably the most vulnerable part to inject payloads.

(of course crossplay with PC is kind of destroying that)

[SalithTaydan]

You could 'hack' the original XBox with a softmod, requiring NO extra hardware to override the original chips.

[pinkturtle]

um we watched this video in my high school programming class and we all seemed to be able to understand it. you don't necessarily have to be a genius; i agree that it's deep, advanced stuff, but some people are just curious.

[qwertykeyboard]

16:19 16 byte hash.... Isn't that kinda low?

[statusphere]

No hardcore or entry level modder found this video interesting because it is full of old information. The truth of the matter is Xbox 1 does have a DVD firmware hack and the pioneer 360 hackers anticipated the 360 optical drive hack before the 360 was released. The Xbox1 firmware hack was kept secret for this exact reason.

[bensimner]

@marionetadelplaneta Maybe people who are intrested in computer security and how these things get hacked so as we can protect the system more?

[chives]

I can't find any information about the hypervisor code was initially extracted. Domke says he doesn't want it to disclose the secret, but this video is over 3 years old. Anyone have any information on how they got the code?

[reeshar]

The vid misses out the most common recent Xbox hack: live swapping of the hard drive between the Xbox and a PC.

Here the vulnerability lies in the need for the Xbox to unlock the hard drive to access certain information (eg music) whereupon it can be switched to a PC and modified.

[Itoby]

Funny you say it.. Every computer software would have viruses if they were used just as much as Windows, the only reason why there is SO many things that goes wrong is because there is such a big amount of user for the windows system and as you know when one cracks the system suddenly someone else is gonna do the same..

[gcmsboy]

You had to select film directer as your type of account. But it doesent work anymore

[jcplinux]

No actually Felix Domke is just a Genius. Why do you think MS met with him when he found out the hack for the 360 they wanted to meet the genius who found a bug in the hypervisor.

[lildaveyy]

okay just as an example call of duty 4 USED was 49.99 in bear delaware gamestop so some games just take a litlle longer but i see your point