Hello World! Hacked homebrew on 360
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Mar 2nd 2007 at 12:15PM }
Looks like the Hypervisor vulnerability we reported earlier this week has led to the first real homebrew code running on an Xbox 360. It's nothing to write home about just yet. Created by a hacker known only as Crawler360, all the code does is display the words "Hello World" on the screen. Still, this is the first unsigned code running on an Xbox 360 not utilizing XNA. As usual, the hacking language eludes us, but essentially the "Hypervisor vulnerability" was "exploited" using a "shader hack" found in the game "King Kong". Users will need the game and one of two specific kernels. Chances are, if you've been connected to Live, your kernel has already been updated.So, what the hell does this mean? It means somebody managed to run code on an Xbox 360 that ain't supposed to be running on an Xbox 360. Hackers, it would seem, have their proverbial foot in the door. Let the PSP-like cycle of new-hack-firmware-update-new-hack begin.
[Via Engadget]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Happy @ Mar 2nd 2007 12:33PM
Fucking hackers.. don't they have anything better to do?
lobato @ Mar 2nd 2007 12:41PM
Yes, they do. And it's coming now after this "hello world".
Daryl @ Mar 2nd 2007 12:50PM
My thoughts too. Get something better to do with your life. I think the law should get tough on hackers. I guess the hard part is finding out who is doing it.
AoE @ Mar 2nd 2007 1:47PM
@ Happy & Daryl
Why are you so worked up over this? Do you guys sit on MS's board, own stock? If not, please explain to me in little words why you're so vehemently against a little console modding? It doesn't impact you in any way; unless you decide to get involved in the scene... then the impact is pretty much net positive.
Don't let media bias make up your minds for you, take some time to investigate the scene a bit before you hate. Hell, the Xbox 1 modding/homebrew scene inspired some of the innovation we currently enjoy as 360 owners. Classic arcade games, streaming media playback, etc... where do you think MS learned of people's strong desire for these things? Hint: not from the drones that are happy to genuflect at the foot of MS and lap up whatever they're given... I'm sorry my friends but they looked to the modding scene, to the people that enjoy extending the capability of their hardware, and the popularity of emulators, xbox media center, and the myriad of dashboards that were developed. They looked at all of the innovation (there, I said it) from the homebrew scene, and figured out a way to monetize it.
The Modding/Homebrew scene isn't about piracy; that segment exists, sure; But guess what? This hack doesn't enable piracy; that happened months (a year now?) ago; this hack enables homebrew code, which in turn means things like xbox 360 media center no doubt. Don't hate until you at least understand what you're hating, it just makes you look ignorant.
Richard, thank you for reporting on the goings-on of the scene, and thank you for being relatively bias-free about it. :)
Grindstone @ Mar 2nd 2007 1:47PM
My beef is that it will eventually lead up to hacked 360s on Live manipulating gameplay and wrecking it for the rest of us, just like Halo 2.
AoE @ Mar 2nd 2007 1:55PM
@Grindstone, you think people don't cheat on live NOW?!?!?!?!?! Sorry dude, you don't need homebrew capabilities to cheat, just buggy code. Just last night people were discussing some kind of exploit in Lost Planet in one of the matches I was playing in.
Also, most (if not all) of the Halo 2 cheaters don't use modded consoles to cheat either, soooo.... come up with a better one, please.
mike @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:12PM
um, the cheating now on live is fully defendable. All cheating is in the form of in game glitches, which can be patched easily, and even if not patched, you can do the glitch to and stop the people doing it.
Modding a console is completely different. When I start up a game of halo 2 online and a player is running with super speed and jumping 100 feet in the air, theres really nothing I can do unless I had a modded console myself.
Mods completely ruin games. As Im all for modded to get a media center type dealy like with the first xbox, and to pirate games for free (doesent bother me). I dont want to have my halo 3 online experience ruined by fucking modders. I played halo 2 for 8 months when the mods became so rampant that 1 in 3 games had a super human modder on the team. I was forced to stop playing it. It really sucks and I cant understand how people still play it to date when there is even more modding then before.
Im hoping to get a good year of gameplay out of halo 3 before the modders come in and ruin the game. Thats why I was dissapointed that halo 3 was not a launch title, because it gives modders the time to mod the system. Luckaly It has not been modded yet (well theres that firmware hack thing to play copied games but that doesent harm anyone)
Richard Mitchell @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:42PM
AoE,
Thanks. I do what I can. :)
Keith Hodo @ Mar 4th 2007 4:43PM
AoE is right. The things that are interesting about this hack are how people are going to be able to inject code which will allow for more functionality on the box itself. There will always be backdoors on systems, even embedded systems (which is essentially what 360 is).
The things that you are talking about, modding your 360 so you can cheat at multiplayer will most likely be done by fringe groups (although once done these hacks will spread like wildfire). Though I wouldn't worry too much about people porting the original Xbox Halo 2 hack to the 360. I would worry about hacks coming up for GoW and better yet, Pimps At Sea (er, Halo 3). Oh yeah, and Crackdown.
But alas, don't be against the hack quite yet. This is a good innovation for the overall community as AoE pointed out before. Nothing negative has happened, and probably won't for a good while yet.
Also, I think that the Xbox Live team has implemented a new security model that is enforced from the server. I'm not going to engage in speculation about how that works, but I'm sure that it's going to be a little more difficult than what we saw on Xbox1.
Laters!
Keith
Vajrasattva @ Mar 2nd 2007 3:53PM
It would be nice if someone would hack a FF/Rev. feature into the Music Player...;-)
Much Peace,
Chris
Phocas @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:59PM
I come from the PC Gaming Scene. The 360 is my first console since I received my first computer at 12. The reason I made the switch from Pro-Style PC Gaming (Former Cal-P Counter-Strike 1.6) to the 360 is because of "modders". You can ruin a perfect game overnight. Allowing unsigned code to run in multiplayer games is a death sentence. I pray to the gaming GODS that MS will be able to protect the 360 from this horrible trend. AoE, don't act like the scene is blameless in the destruction of fair play. Your so called media bias has nothing to do with the fact that this technology will empower people like you, with no gaming skills, to ruin it for everyone. I am all about advancement and homebrew but people don't know when to stop. Once you give them the power they will abuse it and destroy the balance that no other platform can offer. So take your 1337 H4@CK3R vs. Corporate America argument somewhere else because you are the one who sounds like a uneducated fool.
Phocas @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:22PM
Mike has it exactly right. The advancements made in the homebrew scene on the Original XBoX is amazing but is it justified? Is it really worth it? All it does is open up the flood gates and destroy the platforms true purpose which is GAMING!!!!!? What I don't get is if people want a true media extender with emulators just buy a decent pc!!! The argument that glitches somehow compare to a modded box is retarded at best. Glitches get fixed. Compromised code......that is a different story.
Phocas @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:55PM
"Also, most (if not all) of the Halo 2 cheaters don't use modded consoles to cheat either, soooo.... come up with a better one, please."
I never played Halo 2 much because of this crap but I have many many friends that do. Riddle me this!! You can really speed hack Halo 2 through the use of "buggy code" and Bungie has done nothing about it? None of the blatant hacking I have seen was done on modded consoles?? Their is a difference in a map exploit and full out hacking. I hate to keep replying but damn ... I am just trying to understand.
AoE @ Mar 2nd 2007 10:13PM
@Phocas,
Since you're new to the console world, welcome! Please understand that one of the advantages of playing on a closed system like xbox live is that Microsoft CAN and DOES ban modded consoles. They can detect that kind of shit, and when they do, they shut it off. And I wasn't saying the scene is blameless, but rather running unsigned code is not the big break cheaters were waiting for; they cheat already.
Also, thanks for calling me a cheater and implying I have no gaming skills; did you not read my posts? Maybe I'm wrong but I thought I was talking about xbox media center, dashboards like unleashx, and playing emulated games. Sorry bro, I hate cheating as much as you do. And btw, your automatically assuming I am a cheater and suck at games just because I happen to be a modder? Perfect example of the media bias at work. Or did you develop that bit of bigotry entirely on your own? ;)
And how can you say you're all about the homebrew scene when the rest of your post is of the "OMG!! 1337 H4@x0RS! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!" variety?
As for your halo 2 comments; absolutely Bungie has patched known bugs, and new ones have been found, and they patched those, and new ones were found, etc. I assume you don't come from the software development world? Long story short, modern games are so complex that it's nearly impossible to ship a 100% bug-free game and still make a profit, so eventually the call must be made, and when all of the "killer" bugs a squashed, the software is shipped. Add in online play, and you've complicated things that much more... And as far as patches go? Sometimes a patch will introduce a new bug; sometimes they introduce even bigger bugs than the bugs they're designed to patch.
At the end of the day, condemning the entire homebrew/modding community because of a few assholes is just asinine. No matter how you feel about the modding community, cheaters will always cheat, even if there was no modding community to speak of. By your logic, you really shouldn't be playing games online at all, since after all, the there are cheaters in the online gaming community... That makes it an evil community, does it not? It does if we apply the same simplistic "some modder are cheaters, therefore all modders/modding is evil" logic that you've employed.
Me 2 @ Mar 3rd 2007 2:23AM
I love modding when I never used my modded xbox online i just ran evox and played Nes/genesis/snes/mame/psx games. It was never about cheating to me. I just wanted more options. Same thing with the psp. Yea i run ISO but i also buy games and i run all sorts of emulators on it. without those i wouldnt even have looked at a psp.
gregory mitchell @ Mar 3rd 2007 2:23AM
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L Capitan @ Mar 3rd 2007 10:51AM
@ AOE, I understand and agree with most of your views completely, but have you ever actually played Halo 2 online? The rampant cheating that takes place is far mpre than exploits of the developer's code.
These modders use map editing programs on thier PCs to modify maps, they then transfer those editied maps into the appropriate locations via FTP, where the game opens, and runs, these edited files.
I've been runnign a dualBoot on my xbox so I could do exactly what the cheaters are doing, but at a more 'sporting' level, keeping my mods local to play with friends ect.
All that is required to do this is a soft or hard mod, a free editing program, whether it be a hex editior or a more complete map editior, space to save the game to run off the xbox's hardrive, a pc, and ethernet cord. All of which is readily avaiable to countless script kiddies.
These mods go far past faults in the dev code, the sky isn't neccesarily the limit with a few simple supplies and a rudimentary understanding of a computer.