Hacking the Xbox

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136 Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering There is an upside, however. The next chapter introduces the findings of my colleagues, many of which include the discovery of back doors in the Xbox initialization sequence. These backdoors enable you to run your own code on the Xbox without enabling access to Microsoft’s copyrighted works, and without enabling the copying of games. The next chapter will also introduce Xbox security version 1.1, which was cracked in just a few days by Andy Green in the UK.
CHAPTER 9 Sneaking in the Back Door The full range of viable attacks on the Xbox are too numerous to describe in this book. The Xbox is based on the PC architecture, a complex, evolved architecture originally designed with no thought for security. Many of the classic hardware security holes exploited by smart card hackers, such as power supply modulation, sideband attacks, and clock glitching have not even been touched on the Xbox, to the best of my knowledge. (You can find more information on these security weaknesses in the proceedings of the Cryptographic Hardware in Embedded Systems (CHES) conference, in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (Springer-Verlag). Unfortunately, console and secure PC manufacturers are not concerned about hardware security weaknesses, because hardware attacks are “too difficult for the average consumer to execute” and therefore of little threat. While it is true that researching an attack requires a skilled hacker with the correct tools, implementing an attack can be very cheap and easy. I’m reminded of the parable where a mechanic, called in to fix an important piece of broken machinery, spends an hour looking at the situation and repairs the machine by tapping on it at just the right spot. Upon receiving a bill for $1,000, the machine’s owners demand to know why a tap costs so much. The mechanic responds with, “The tap costs a dime. Knowing where to tap costs $999.90.” The corollary to this parable is that anyone could have executed the tap to repair the machine, given specific instructions. Security attacks are often the same: difficult to figure out; easy to share and implement. Secure hardware manufacturers should also be concerned about adopting mainly reactive policies to hacker intrusions. Many hackers work in secret, and keep their methods and results quiet so that vendors cannot develop proper countermeasures. These hackers also maintain a library of known attacks and back doors, disclosing only one at a time, so that vendors with reactive hardware security policies are always playing catchup.
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The US government is far and away t
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In memory of Aaron Swartz
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Acknowledgments I would like to tha
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CHAPTER 4 Building a USB Adapter Ca
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Strategy Chapter 4 - Building a USB
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Chapter 4 - Building a USB Adapter
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CHAPTER 5 Replacing a Broken Power
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Chapter 5 - Replacing a Broken Powe
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Strategy Chapter 5 - Replacing a Br
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Figure 5-6: The final cable assembl
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APPENDIX D Getting Started with FPG
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Appendix D - Getting Started with F
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APPENDIX F Xbox Hardware Reference
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Appendix F - Xbox Hardware Referenc
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Appendix F - Xbox Hardware Referenc
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DVD-ROM Power Connector Appendix F
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Fan Connector Appendix F - Xbox Har
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268 continuity mode, in DMMs 19 Cop
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270 Molex 76 Moore’s Law 5 Mosis
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272 Virtex-II FPGA 123 Visor 139, 1
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Hacking the Xbox

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