Xbox 360 fall dashboard hacked: could lead to piracy
Ah yes, the much highly anticipated fall dashboard update that will bring us avatars and a new spiffy looking 3D interface has been leaked onto the Internet. I have to ask who in the world is leaking this stuff? I can only assume its all internal code as of right now making it virtually impossible for the public to get their hands on it.
The dashboard seems to have penetrated the usual places such as bittorrent seeds, modder and hacker sites. There are even some such as XHavok87 who claims to have hacked the dashboard update. We checked out XHavok87’s site and indeed we found videos on how to hack the update to be executed. There is no way for us to know the extent of the supposed hack.
Judging from the video the dashboard update seems to be an early beta version with bugs still present in the software such as font and feature issues. Doesn’t seem like a big deal right?
Well that’s where your absolutely wrong. This is how hackers find loopholes in firmware and software updates so that pirated games can be made playable on the Xbox 360. Software and video game piracy is a growing problem and has plagued the PC as well as the PS2 for many years now.
There has been more resistance in the next gen consoles but smart hackers see that as just a challenge. According to CNet the Xbox 360’s firmware was hacked four months after it’s launch allowing homebrew and pirated games to be played on the system.
However despite Microsoft’s efforts to quickly act and release updates to fix the loopholes, determined hackers continued to hack future updates.
The Wii is another console to be fully hacked allowing pirated games to be played on the system.
Apparently according to hacker site Hack5, there is an interesting article that talks about this phenomenon. The article also discusses the Xbox 360 and Wii hacks, as well as why the PS3 have yet to be hacked despite hackers targeting the system as number one enemy. Apparently there have been some minor “Hello World” type exploits but nothing close to even cracking the firmware.
I’m not too surprised Sony would be the expert at keeping their system locked up after seeing and experiencing what happened to the PSP and the PS2 (hack galore).
I truly hope Microsoft has a more iron clad security in place when the official fall dashboard update launches. Lets be fair folks video game piracy is like stealing just buy it, we all do.
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20 Responses to “Xbox 360 fall dashboard hacked: could lead to piracy”
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July 29th, 2008
actually, i dont give a crap if someone hacks a psp…..thats a good thing…..you can do more things on a psp than you can imagine
July 29th, 2008
Yeah…um…360’s been a hackers dream for awhile…this isn’t anything new… Have a friend who’s got every 360 game there is…and he only bought one
Morne
July 29th, 2008
No wonder the 360 attach rate is so high!LOl
July 29th, 2008
Could lead to piracy? hahaha
All you do right now is connect the DVD rom to your PC and flash the firmware on the drive. It is not hard to do if you have a Torx 10 & compatable chipset.
July 29th, 2008
You’re all a bunch filthy bootleggers…
-Arvis
July 29th, 2008
Wow, MS makes such great software thought right? They’re a software company right? Oh yeah, they make windows. Yuck.
July 29th, 2008
Arvis, would it be pirates? Doesn’t bootlegging involve some kind of transportation
July 29th, 2008
I hope someone releases a virus or trojan or something, god i’d have a laugh.
July 29th, 2008
why isnt kevvo or CAD defending MS here??
hmm weird… having played pirated games on the 360 for the last year… and owning more than 50 PS2 games (but only paying like 50 dollars for them all)… I would have to say…
Piracy aint that big a deal…
July 29th, 2008
You little P$3 kids are just looking for something, anything, to put the 360 down. Talk about insecurity. Wow.
July 29th, 2008
“why isnt kevvo or CAD defending MS here??”
Because there is nothing to defend
Source code gets leaked all the time.
“You little P$3 kids… blah blah”
Who is exactly? Wylie was obviously joking around and Pfreak is right, MS makes dodgy software. And with the 360, dodgy hardware too.
Ill give you Bourne but that’s one PS3 owner, not like a whole bunch are going after your precious 360 (still dry hump that thing?).
July 30th, 2008
Thanks SW, means a lot coming from a guy who has never met me before, i guess i should feel bothered?
July 30th, 2008
I don’t need to have met to you have read what you wrote…
But hey maybe I read it wrong and I am sorry if I did. But then maybe you didn’t type it clearly?
Oh and the last paragraph was meant for Harry, not saying you ‘love’ your PS3 that much
So I wasn’t actually attacking you but rather agreeing with harry that you were sniping at the 360.
So no don’t feel bothered, not for little old me.
July 30th, 2008
SW,
Ach, you got me. But I love the word “bootleggers.” So I seized the opportunity.
-Arvis
July 30th, 2008
SW – making assumptions can lead you to the status of either Kev or Hairy, aside from the personal attacks.
July 30th, 2008
Well I guess bootlegging is more fun
Bourne – To be fair man, I have 15 words to form an opinion of where you post was going.
i guess it was the wrong one, but its hardly anywhere near Harry. Call me Kev all you like tho, he can troublesome
but hes like a breath of fresh air when compared to Harry 
July 30th, 2008
SW- true so true. However Harry is 360’s version to IvanPsp so what do you do?
July 30th, 2008
Bourne- Looks like you’ve been in Cananda too long. You are getting defensive. Better go home early. It’s OK, I know Canada will do that to a person!LOL
July 30th, 2008
agreed, Hairy is a dick.
Wylie – yes i’m being infected by 360 land? I need my PS3 bad
i hope its not got dust in its vents, although i put it on its side to reduce that, god i miss MGS4O. Im turning into CAD eh?
July 31st, 2008
Bourne- nice Canadian touch with the “eh”!