Firmware hack sets sail?

by Ken Weeks { Mar 21st 2006 at 3:00AM }

So much for the hacker code of ethics regarding that fabled firmware hack. Modchip maker TeamXecuter says they (or someone else) will release what those landlubbers in the Netherlands won't:

We have made some progress with a new read/patch/write app and no doubt you will all be plugging in your drives to your PC and having some fun shortly - all for free too as no modchips required (and yes we still want to play!)

Here is what we envisage...

Connect Xbox 360 DVD-ROM to PC
App to update firmware with magic code
Connect DVD-ROM back to 360 - and away you go

...Obviousley the only use for this is piracy - hence you wont see any modchips (not from us at least - however they wouldn't be needed anyway - however we do have a few cheap tools to make life much easier - more on that soon) Still a long long way off from unsigned code - but it's a start....

Thanks to The Specialist for reviving the scene! We understand he doesn't want to release anything due to possible backlash - but there are many of us who would - and will.

Keep your eyes on our 360 forums for updates.....

Arrrrrr, score one for shivered timbers and moral relativism. TeamXecuter is directing people toward something that looks an awful lot like a DVD drive hacking tutorial, if you're clever enough to understand all the ones and zeros.

Update: From the comments: Curry from Xboxic notes that firmware hacker Robinsod (not from the Netherlands) laughed at TeamXecuter's "wildly inaccurate" claims during his interview and said this is going to lead to alot of amateurs with bricked 360s. TeamXecuter says they're not trying to take credit for anybody's work and and that "flamers and bitchers should stfu."

Tags: modchips, piracy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Curry @ Mar 21st 2006 3:45AM

Actually TeamXecuter released some new information right while I was interviewing Robinsod, and he laughed at their wildly inaccurate claims. He gave me good reason to believe they haven't had any time to really study the firmware yet.

As for the Kev.nu link (it's SeventhSon's homepage btw), I didn't post a link to it myself because I consider it too risky info to spread to novice users, but it's the site I referred to in this part of the interview:

Xboxic: You have seen the sites on the internet though that more or less provide a step-by-step guide to recreate this hack. People will try.
Robinsod: I have seen some compilations of the many posts made by many talented people on XBH over the last few months. They should not be considered a guide, but a great set of notes containing useful stuff about interfacing to the drive. Trying to use that info without knowing every little detail will probably destroy your 360.
(from: http://www.xboxic.com/news/501)

So if TeamXecuter 'releases this hack', or better to say capitalizes on the other guys' hard work without doing anything themselves, they'll probably be responsible for a lot of 400 dollar paperweights. And don't forget TeamXecuter was also at the very least 'linked' to the PSP Brick firmware.

And on a final note, not all the hackers are from the Netherlands. At least Robinsod didn't seem to understand much of my Dutch when I accidentally spoke the wrong language.

Edwin @ Mar 21st 2006 7:00AM

well this is great and proves all the skeptics wrong

Edwin @ Mar 21st 2006 7:24AM

i'll probably buy a second xbox360 to modify and keep the first one for xboxlive
it'll be cheap too cause i can just buy the core version without the harddrive since it's not required to play games and i won't go on xboxlive with it anyway
perfect

Edwin @ Mar 21st 2006 7:39AM

"Xecuter
post Today, 12:19 PM
Post #147

Xecuter Staff
*

Group: Moderator
Posts: 129
Joined: 27-August 02
From: USA
Member No.: 3125
Xbox Version: v1.6b

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

A hack is available and do-able (or done-able). We say we are going to help as i'm tired of thousands of emails every day asking us to lol. It's all free and no profiting. We get hundreds of thousands of hits a week on the website anyway so promotion isn't required - we are Xecuter thats the promotion right there.

We have been bored and went back to real life jobs and didn't really bother too much with the 360 as first analysis showed it was way too much work with probably no good results. Now this comes to light - it's no work of our own and we don't claim it to be but if we can help make it better / easier / more accessible - why not ?

We also agree with the fact that it's not good for live - live on the 360 is awesome - that needs looking at also.

Flamers and bitchers need to stfu happy.gif"

from a forum

dsub @ Mar 21st 2006 11:38AM

is it possible for MS to simply make this impossible through a dashboard update of some kind? I realize that 360's not on live! could still do it, at least until MS starts packaging 360's with updated drives or dashboard software.

I guarantee there already on a solution to this like flies on rice. Which sucks, because I would rather see MS using there time to come up with improved features for the dashboard, rather than having to waste there time fighting piracy with every update. I realize the original hacker didn't intend on releasing the info, but you know someone else who will is gonna figure it out sooner or later.

Dwayne @ Mar 21st 2006 12:28PM

First of all, people would not even be interested in this if they could afford to buy the games. 10 games cost 640 dollars. 100 games will cost you 6,400 dollars. people will buy more games if the price is lower. i quit buying new games and so have many other people. I have not played GRAW yet and will not untill I can get it for 30 bucks on ebay.

big ice d @ Mar 21st 2006 1:18PM

Dwayne...if you have a 360 and not Ghost recon you are missing out on the best game (so far) for the 360. Sell COD2 if you have it.

I can see alot of people bricking their 360 b/c of this hack. Updating to a different firmware on a dvd drive is no easy task. And it's way too early to brick a 360. I modded my xbox 1 w/ XBMC but that was late in the game after many hacks/exploits had been tested and my xbox had lost it's luster.

And if you think games are expensive and you want the prices to drop...you better pray that this hack doesn't get watered down to a CLICK CLICK CLICK type of exploit.

Dwayne @ Mar 21st 2006 1:45PM

I am not missing out on anything, I used to think that. But I will enjoy it just the same in a few months as I would now. I will let someone else pay 64$ for it and then sell it to me for half price in a few months.

When the price on the 360 drops I will buy a second one and put the hack on it, after it is well tested. it didn't hurt sony when I modded the ps1 and it won't hurt MS.

After I modded the PS1 I continued to buy some games. And i would rent the games that i did not think were worth the money and i burned copies of them.

I never modded the xbox I bought $5,000 worth of games and i refuse to do that again. I have already spent well over $1,000 on the 360.

BklynKid @ Mar 21st 2006 2:35PM

This is why I love the scene. You can make comments like "flamers and bitchers should stfu" and not have to worry about your stock price falling.

JCarm @ Mar 22nd 2006 4:03AM

Bunch of crooks if you ask me. There is nothing to be gained from any of this other than ripping off microsoft and all the developers that have put in so much hardwork into all the software they release.

Thespecialist... or whatever he wants to call himself and everyone else involved with it and the initial firmware hack, all the people even interested in exploiting this to pirate games, or even intend to teach people how to take advantage of it are all petty theives. To claim they did it for the LOVE of hacking and have only good intentions with no plans of releasing it yet they leave a bunch of notes so others can continue on with what they did and illegally pirate software. Don't give people this noble hacker code of ethics rubbish you WANTED people to use it for piracy and for it to be accomplished through your notes just so you can say to yourself "yes this is because of me"

Well news flash.. just because you were the first pack of idiots to publicly show that you've done this, its been well known about for sometime now except others have a sense of class and ethics to not publicly release such a thing. Then you have one of the jokers that feels good enough about himself to go get interviewed as if he feels he's accomplished something great. You are not special mr "robinsod" or whatever alias you idiots like to go by. Some people just make me sick to my stomach.

schnoid @ Mar 22nd 2006 5:38PM

Why does everyone assume these exploits will be used to pirate games!? Last I checked, making games for backups isn't immoral. DVDs get scratched easily, and over time its likely the disks will skip and crash. It happened with the xbox and it'll happen with the 360. I know plenty of people that modded their xboxs cause their LEGAL copies of games wouldn't work well in the DVD drive. Instead they copied the games to the hard drive and worked flawlessly! Stop making stupid assumptions about people that mod systems!