Article Detail - Xbox 360 News

Xbox 360 Hacked! - Backup Discs Now Playable!

Posted Mar 18, 2006 at 10:51PM by Mike S. Listed in: Hacks & Exploits, How-To, Mods, News, Site News Tags:

PSP homebrew developer Nytrix, from our forums, has confirmed an earth shattering breakthrough in the Xbox 360 hacking scene today. As you know, we earlier, reported on the issue of backup games being playable on the Xbox 360. The author of the video was unwilling to give out the technique that he used to accomplish this feat. However, Nytrix has gone above and beyond and determined the methods used and claims to have duplicated the procedure, along with providing more information on exactly how and why this is possible. Apparently this is only applicable (at this time) on the Hitachi drives that come with the Xbox 360, however we expect to see breakthroughs in all drives very soon. Here is a quote from our forums from Nytrix.

I have figured out how it was done in the video. (the video of the guy playing the PGR3 backup) here's the instructions, I am currently playing Full Auto (Backed up).

It's a modified firmware of the Xbox 360 DVD-ROM drive. As you (should) know, all Xbox 360 executables (XEX files) are signed by Microsoft (with a private key only MS has). This means that if you try to change anything to the XEX file, the signature will be wrong and the file will not boot.

Now ... to protect from booting an exact 1:1 copy of a game from a DVD-+R, microsoft gave each XEX file a 'mediaflag'. This mediaflag tells the Xbox 360 from which media (cd-r, dvd-r, dvd+r, dvd-rw, hdd, dvdxbox, dvdxbox360, ...). Changing this mediaflag in XEX is not an option as it'll break the signature (see above), so ... what's done in this firmware hack is breaking the detection of the disc.

As you can see, he has found the flaw in Microsoft's self professed "bullet proof security" by simply modifying the firmware of the DVD drive to allow backup copies of official games to boot. Now as simple as this may sound, it does require some advanced soldering skills, and will probaby not be within the means of the average person. However, with this astonishing breakthrough, we do fully expect to see Xbox 360 DVD ROM's for sale on ebay with the hacked firmware soon.

Check out our previous coverage of this topic with a video of it in action [here].

[While we do not support piracy here at QJ.NET, we will always cover the news. Reporting on something is not the same as encouraging it - just like reporting a murder on the 10 o'clock news does not encourage you to kill people. A member of our forums has confirmed what was shown in the previously released video and shared the resources he used to do duplicate it - without giving an indepth "how-to" that might be construed as encouraging the piracy of Xbox games. It is our belief that this breakthrough is the first step in getting unsigned code and homebrew programs to be executed on the Xbox 360 and is a valuable piece of information that could positively benefit the Xbox 360 Community.]

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64 Comments

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by jOeCooL - 2006-03-18

» LOL

Xbox wasn't thatt easy to hack.

by corporate trash - 2006-03-18

cool but this site is supposed to be for psp

by prominator - 2006-03-18

» by when

when will this be release to the public

by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-18

» psp > xbox360

they just cant accept that so they try to steal psp fans by posting bs 360 msges.

by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-18

» cool

running to find a 360

by Billy Talent - 2006-03-18

» Why?

And this is in PSPUpdates why?

by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-18

» I love *****

Only 5 days to Xbox360 release in Australia, and now i don't have to buy any real games, cool.
Edited by QJ. NET Staff, because:
off topic / x rated

by evilgrug - 2006-03-19

» Uh, so?

Uh, so what is the point of this news post, and what is the "earth shattering discovery"?

We KNOW that the TheSpecialist booted backups by changing the firmware, and we KNOW that it works by changing the media code flag....he did the same thing on the Xbox 1 a few months ago.

Unless "Nytrix" has come up with the replacement firmware (link plz) I fail to see what earth shattering breaktthrough he has actually made.

Congratulations, Nytrix, for determining what we already knew!

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by cory1492 - 2006-03-19

» ??

Was there even an actual thread by Nytrix describing what he had to go through to do this, or is this a fake news post?

"here's the instructions" - here being in some guys head I guess.