360 Hacked To Play Backups 157
xorkid writes "Microsoft Corps '
unhackable' Xbox 360 console has been hacked. It is now possible to play copied games from recordable DVD DL discs without any soldering or hardware modification. The ingenious hack involves replacing the original 360 DVD firmware with a modified version that authenticates recorded DVD DL discs as original game discs. The hack does not require any modification devices but it requires a 1:1 copy of an original signed disc from the same region as the console. So it does not allow booting of unsigned code, yet. No Linux on the 360 for now, but its a start. There are rumours that there is an as-of-yet unreleased version that allows booting of unsigned code."
Interesting.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I know many people that didn't own an original Xbox till they found out how easy it was to hack it, then ran out to get one. I am sure that MS will shut down Live for any systems that are running this hack just as they did for the Xbox running the softmod hack, but could this be something that MS planned on to sell more systems?
Per-Xbox (Score:3, Interesting)
How is this different from the earlier "hack"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Once again... (Score:3, Interesting)
I attended a Microsoft presentation last year before the 360's release. The engineers there said that the console wouldn't be totally immune to hacking, they just want (a) to make sure that it's very hard/costly/complex to hack it and (b) to keep hacked 360s off of Live. From the linked article about the hack:
"Can Microsoft detect it via Xbox LIVE? They probably can
At what point was it unhackable? (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course, I realize it is cool to take things Microsoft says out of context the company is not made up by idiots (again, despite what many want to believe). They know it is going to be hacked. They're going to make every effort to make it as difficult as possible. But they aren't going to claim the ship is unsinkable.
Although, if I simply missed that article where the "unhackable" claim was made I look forward to a chuckle at Microsoft's expense. Perhaps someone could link that article though, since it isn't in the article summary.
Re:It's done that before (Score:2, Interesting)