Xbox Hypervisor Security Protection Hacked

ACTRAiSER writes "A recent Post on Bugtraq claims the hack of the Xbox 360 Security Protection Hypervisor. It includes sample code as well." From Bugtraq "We have discovered a vulnerability in the Xbox 360 hypervisor that allows privilege escalation into hypervisor mode. Together with a method to inject data into non-privileged memory areas, this vulnerability allows an attacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access."

Attacker??

[Anonymous Coward]

this vulnerability allows an attacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access.

Wait. Don't you mean this allows an Xbox 360 user to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access on the machine they rightfully own ?

How is this an attack, except in the eyes of MS?

Re:Attacker??

[Overly Critical Guy]

It's just security flaw terminology. You're taking something personally that's not meant to be read that way.

Re:How Useless.

[Anonymous Coward]

They need content providers to trust the platform.

Re:Timelines for Vulnerability Fixes

[Ent]

I imagine the quick response had more to do with a smaller test/compatibility matrix than anything else.

It's a joke. LAUGH!

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Wait. Don't you mean this allows an Xbox 360 user to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access on the machine they rightfully own ?

It's a joke!

The guy who caught the bug is using techie humor in perfect hacker tradition. He's pretending to take things utterly literally and following them to a redicuilous extreme.

In this case he's doing it by publishing a report of how to crack an Xbox and run an arbitrary OS on it - with complete details on how to replicate it - as a bug report. And he went through the entire procedure:
  - Identify and diagnose the problem.
  - Build a proof-of-concept test.
  - Check it against the latest release (and find the bug still there).
  - Notify the vendor (who ignores the report, as usual).
  - Give him time to respond (which he doesn't).
  - Give a public demonstration.
  - Respond in friendly fashion to the vendor-initiated contact (after the public demo lights a fire), giving him the details of the proof-of-concept.
  - Give the vendor some time to generate and publish a patch.
  - Publish the complete details of the exploit.
He did this just as if it were a bug, rather than a "feature".

Now there is "improved" firmware that fixes the hole. And the complete details are out there. If anybody who actually owns an Xbox who doesn't want to "fix" the "bug" and leaves his firmware backdated, so he can "be exploited by himself" by loading Linux, *BSD, or whatever on his own Xbox, well, that's what he gets for not staying up to date on patch levels.

ROTFLMAO!

Meanwhile the "anonymous hacker" has published (on Bugtraq no less) complete details of how to crack the Xbox (with a backdated firmware load) and run an arbitrary OS on it with full privileges. Yet when it comes to the DMCA he's squeaky-clean. The MAFIAAs and Microsoft have absolutely no claim against him if anybody out there happens to "exploit himself" and use this "bug" to break their "trusted" computing platform.

But there's one thing I don't understand:

Why didn't samzenpus use "The Foot" when he approved this article? B-)

Re:Longer than I thought

[Anonymous Coward]

The video hardware on the Xbox is HD capable. The main problem with a CPU upgrade is that many games were programmed assuming that all Xboxes run at the same speed. Some of those games go wacky with faster CPUs.

Isn't it all a bit self defeating?

[cliffski]

Forgive my ignorance, but as I understand it, consoles have all this security stuff on them to stop this, because they do not *want* to be used as general purpose computers, partly because the things are subsidised on sale, and the shortfall recouped by games sales?
If that's true, then an all-out war to hack the things will eventually ,lead to console maufacturers giving up.
At which point the price of the next gen of consoles will probably double, as they will be sold at true cost.
Who wants that?

Re:Isn't it all a bit self defeating?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone with an interest in ensuring open interoperable systems are the future wants exactly that. A stupid business model shouldn't trump users rights to use hardware, tell me how you'd like the EULAs for hammers and screwdrivers to restrict you if you disagree.

Re:Blue Pill time.

[hjf]

you don't have to go the MSFT route.

So you don't like to buy products from a monopoly, but you do like to support a corporation that install rootkits, abuses copyright, etc? You, sir, are an idiot.

Re:oblig

[jedidiah]

This thing is small, quiet and not-ugly. This is something you won't get in a $400 that you just slapped together. Every component in a PC is priced such that you get quickly diminishing returns for any component that doesn't need to be state of the art. So, you end up wasting money on parts that are bigger or more powerful than you may need.

Then you're stuck cooling it all and trying to keep the result quiet.

Then there's the whole "ugly" thing.