Hacking the Xbox

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196 Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering Profile: Dan Johnson (continued) allow easy operation via the touchpad. The whole Gateway experience made for a neat summer project between my Junior and Senior years of high school. How did the XboxHacker BBS come about? It was during this time period that I got the idea for XboxHacker.Net. To me, the Xbox seemed to have the potential to be the ideal computing device for under the TV . . . as soon as it could be programmed. The hardware was most impressive for the time, and more than adequate for what I hoped would be accomplished on the device. Unlike other consoles, the Xbox also was to have a hard drive and ethernet port built in. Once hacked, the Xbox could be used to emulate old consoles such as NES, SNES, N64, and even PSX, to conveniently play back any type of media file, such as mp3s or DivXs, on your home entertainment system, to play streamed media from a home network, or even to double as a basic PC. Some argued that the cost of the device at $299 made it out of range to bother hacking, as a PC with similar specs could be constructed without the need for hacking for not much more in cost. However, the Xbox had the advantage that it could also play Xbox games and was already designed to sit with your TV. The hacks would just be added value. After my short foray into the world of electronics hacking, I thought that hacking the Xbox could be an interesting project to help organize as I was intrigued by the possibility of having a convenient box for my TV to perform the tasks mentioned above. It was not until many months later that I would actually acquire the XboxHacker.Net domains. How was your experience growing and running the XboxHacker BBS? From the beginning, XboxHacker.Net focused on a few primary goals: providing and spreading technical information about the Xbox, and providing a place for fellow hackers to discuss technical information related to hacking the Xbox. Though due to my limited technical knowledge and experience I could do little in the way of actual hacking to contribute to the effort, I knew plenty enough to help facilitate the effort by collecting and distributing relevant information and moderating a discussion board. Not long after the site launched, we were fortunate enough to receive some links from such high-profile websites as Mike Magee’s The Inquirer and Van Smith’s Van’s Hardware. The XboxHacker.Net BBS quickly became one of the primary places on the Internet to discuss any material related to hacking the Xbox and the XboxHacker.Net news page had the most upto-date news on the status of the Xbox. A few weeks after the site came online, it received mention in an article on CNET, and from then on the activity level steadily increased. It wasn’t long before XboxHacker.Net had outgrown the small shared server we were on, so the site moved to a much larger account which was also outgrown in a matter of weeks. Traffic (continued on page 198)
Chapter 13 - Onward! 197 able executing. You will know when your time has arrived: the project will just shout your name, and you will naturally be compelled to hack. Trusted Computing Trust is the cornerstone of security, and in order to have faith in your security system, you need to have faith in the hardware and software you are running. The trusted computer is a machine that has been architected to be resistant to attacks that could compromise the trustability of the machine. There are many approaches to building a trustable computer, from the Automated Teller Machine model of physical security and tamper-resistance, to less hardware intensive solutions such as those used in the Xbox. The Xbox fits into the broader picture of trusted computing since it is one of the first high-profile, widely-deployed trusted PC implementations. In a way, the Xbox gives us a hint of what we might expect down the road for trusted computing, Trusted computing is a potentially disruptive emerging technology. The rise of trusted clients in an ad-hoc network like the Internet harbors the promise of enabling safe and private on-line financial transactions, of reducing or eliminating the occurrence of computer viruses, and of reducing or eliminating spam email. Trusted PCs can also be used to securely store sensitive data, such as your medical and financial records and your naughty or embarrassing secrets. Another application of trusted PCs is to reliably enforce digital content access rights and management policies upon users. The digital rights management (DRM) aspect of trusted computing could fundamentally change the way we use computers today; many of us enjoy the benefits of pseudo-free content and flexible copyright implementations. The fundamental problem is not the existence of content management policies — indeed, content management policy can be beneficial for consumers. The real problem is when the policies which govern your rights can be set unilaterally by content providers. In the current trusted PC proposals, the user is not trusted to have control over certain key secrets inside their machines. Instead, the attestation information (information required to establish trustability) of a user’s machine is partially maintained by a third party. Can we rely on a non-elected, unregulated third party with business interests to determine who can do business, send email, and otherwise be recognized as a trustable entity? Trusted computing is like a gun. It’s great to have one as long as you’re the one controlling the trigger. Unfortunately, many trusted PC opponents fear that in practice, systems will be deployed with preset rights, policies and third-party trust affirmation resources pointed in the wrong direction for consumers. A company, during good times, may set the privacy and security policy in favor of users to attract a larger customer base, but once Chapter 11 comes knocking, or the company is sold or otherwise changes hands, these policies can and will shift. What is to prevent businessmen from promoting trusted computing initially with user-friendly policies, and then suddenly shifting into a wallet-squeezing DRM mode? Ethics?
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In memory of Aaron Swartz
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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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CHAPTER 8 Reverse Engineering Xbox
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Chapter 8 - Reverse Engineering Xbo
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clearance for motherboard component
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CHAPTER 9 Sneaking in the Back Door
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Chapter 9 - Sneaking in the Back Do
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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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