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Security XBox (Games)

New Xbox Live Security Update Bans Cheaters 48

Posted by Zonk from the off-with-their-heads! dept.
NiteStar writes "Major Nelson, the Xbox Live Director of Programming, has released a statement stating they have initiated additional security measures on the Xbox Live service. These measures are aimed to block out cheaters who used modifications to gain an unfair advantage over other players, such as faster cars in Project Gotham Racing 2. He also says "Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again." Thanks also to BlueMoon who wrote in to mention that "The Xbox enjoyed 53% market share among consoles in the UK last week."
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New Xbox Live Security Update Bans Cheaters More

New Xbox Live Security Update Bans Cheaters

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  • So? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ASkGNet ( 695262 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @04:40PM (#10603761) Homepage
    Certainly, one could follow common sense and don't connect with his modded XBox to Live.

    Alternatively, one could modify the Live component to always return Good, regardless of actual status
    • one could successively mod one's X-box to look like the entire X-Box population, getting it completely banned.
      • What I meant was - since the XBox 'validity' check (for mods as an example) is based on data sent to their servers by YOUR XBox, it is possible to modify said data (by reverse-engineering the Live adapter, finding any and all public keys they use to encrypt the data, et cetera). The fact that the XBox is at the house of the customer is Microsoft's weakest link. Remember the Blizzard games, where the Battle.net servers performed a CRC check on the executable and cut you off when the exe did not match one of

  • xbox cd-key? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ziak ( 807893 ) * on Friday October 22, 2004 @04:43PM (#10603797)
    Anyone who has installed linux on there xbox knows that you have to back up your x-box key... before you do any HD changes just incase you lose it.... so how easy is it to just get a generator.... if you get banned just changed the xbox key

    • Re:xbox cd-key? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by wolfmanXUG ( 747138 )
      Actually you would have to get a new eprom as that is or at least was the way each xbox was banned, but the actual xbox live account was not banned. Now if you did not replace the HDD with a larger one, and boot without the mod chip on I do not see how they can detect if you have one installed.
    • I expect that if people evading bans becomes a problem, they'll simply start banning by gamertag. That will cost you real money to replace, since you'd need a new subscription code.

  • Hacking the real issue? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by (SM) Spacemonkey ( 812689 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @04:48PM (#10603860)
    The article seems to suggest the justifcation for these bans is hacking. However they are blanket banning everyone with a modified console. People don't mod their xbox so they can hack. They mod their xbox, so they can play copied games, or a media centre. I think, the issue is, microsoft loses a large chunk of money on each xbox sold, and tries to make up for it with volume on games sold. If people are buying their xbox to mod, and not buying the games to cover it, microsoft loses money. If it was merely about hacking, they could just ban by instance of hacking, not potential to hack. I support your right to mod your xbox, it is, after all, yours. But it also seems logical that microsoft has the right to only offer the live service for the equipment they choose.
    • Exactly. They are just using cheaters as the scapegoat.

      There's nothing wrong with a company, even Microsoft, to want to turn up a profit on a product. This is there little way of helping keep the profit margins on the Xbox in the black, or away from deep red.

      Just another reason not to mod my Xbox...
    • I dunno about the money issue. The thought process I would go through would run something like this:

      You can't cheat unless you have a modded xbox. So if all modded xboxes are blocked, there can be no cheaters.

      Otherwise, how would you detect cheating? Each game would have to have logic built in for that. Logic which could, of course, be hacked. They really seem to want to have a fun experience with Live, and cheating seriously harms that. They get money when people buy games because their friends say 'Dude
      • You can cheat without a modded X-Box. Run it through a proxy and have the proxy do the cheating. Some networked PC games act like this, you can run the proxy on the same box or on another.
    • Hacking isn't the issue, its what potential follow-ups that come along with it. Turn your Xbox into a media center? Chances are Microsoft says, 'Fine whatever, but we're gonna parade you around with the millions of others saying "hey look at how many systems we sold! We have a huge market share!"'

      What Microsoft doesn't like its the possibility of you creating a cheating program and taking it onto Xbox Live. You cannot ban someone 'by instance of hacking, not potential to hack' because it sets up a bad examp

    • If it was merely about hacking, they could just ban by instance of hacking, not potential to hack.

      Yeah, let's hire several dozen full-time technicians to continually ban and re-ban individual players who are cheating, rather than just taking care of the problem in one fell swoop by banning modified XBoxes.
    • I'm certain when someone hacks their XBox they've broken some terms & conditions that they've signed away when they purchase the hardware.

      If not, I'm sure, they've signed it away when they sign up XBL.

      Either way, Hacked XB = !XBL

  • damn! (Score:4, Funny)

    by maddh ( 608481 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @05:28PM (#10604312)
    I had that 'Naked Master Chief' hack all ready for Halo 2 online.

  • Ooo, suckers (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Zareste ( 761710 )
    Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again.

    Heh, "Oh, just this once, I'll buy a game system from the world's most psychotic computer company. What's the worst that could happen?"

    'Course I'm not one to complain, I actually bought a PS2. It doesn't read disks now. The ONE time I steer away from Nintendo and it bites me in the ass...

    • Re:Ooo, suckers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Babbster ( 107076 ) <aaronbabb@NOspaM.gmail.com> on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:29PM (#10604981) Homepage
      There isn't one psychotic thing about keeping modded consoles off Xbox Live. The bottom line is that if cheating becomes rampant, as it is with other hardware, then Xbox Live as a service is worthless. As it is, with Microsoft aggressively trying to keep cheaters off the system, it's worth the $4-5 a month (at least by the yearly fee) to subscribe for a stable, cheat-free environment.
      • I know they have to keep cheaters out, but they said modified consoles are banned. Whether or not it modded to cheat looks like it couldn't matter less. Sounds like yet another excuse to screw anyone who doesn't leave their console alone like good little kids.
        • Yes, exactly. Why should Microsoft be expected to keep track of specific modifications made and the intentions of said modifications? Anyone who mods their console, or buys a modded console, KNOWS, RIGHT UP FRONT, that unless they have a switch to turn off the modification and use the native Xbox BIOS they may be banned if they attempt to use Xbox Live. Note that Microsoft doesn't send some evil virus/trojan down the line to destroy the modded console, nor have they sent police to the door of someone who
    • [i]Heh, "Oh, just this once, I'll buy a game system from the world's most psychotic computer company. What's the worst that could happen?"[/i]

      "I could be prevented from using my XBox online just because I've installed hardware that allows to cheat."

      Cry me a river. If they said, "We will disable the use, both online and offline, of XBoxes that are modded", or "We will send people to your house to fine you for EULA infractions", you might have a case. Instead, they're saying, "We're not going to allow peo
    • You can probably get your PS2 fixed for free (minus shipping), assuming you live in the US. Sony lost a class action lawsuit because of their crappy drives, so they fix them for free as a punishment. Check out the Disc Read Error Sony Repair FAQ here [gamefaqs.com] (no direct linking allowed).

      And like others noted, you are pretty wrong on your Xbox complaint. This is to prevent cheating, which 95% of Live users are very, very happy to support!

  • Action Replay (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Araxen ( 561411 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:22PM (#10604922)
    Does this mean they'll ban people who use this device? If they do there will not be many people left on Xbox live.

  • I'm pretty sure that (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Geoffreyerffoeg ( 729040 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @07:06PM (#10605325)
    there's no way to detect the physical presence of a modchip per se; they're looking for a modded BIOS and/or a modded game. If you install a modchip with multiple BIOS banks and switch to the original (MS) BIOS before going to Live, I'm pretty sure that they won't notice. That should save the people who use XBMC, Cromwell (Linux boot only), alternative BIOSes like EvoX solely for the emulators, etc.

    Besides, there's no reason to ban non-modded boxes with a third-party BIOS chip (it isn't really a modchip now, is it?).

    • They can detect HD size differences ... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Viewsonic ( 584922 ) on Saturday October 23, 2004 @03:45AM (#10607571)
      Which is usually the first thing anyone mods on their XBox .. More than likely anyone who dumped a larger drive in their system will be banned right along with those whose BIOS doesn't match up correctly, or those whose dashboard isn't the correct checksum either. There are so many ways they can run checks against a system being modded it isn't funny.
    • They can and will ban Xboxes that don't match the default configuration from the factory. A software mod is still an alteration.
      • Yes, but an Xbox that's running the original BIOS through a modchip, provided there are no other mods (bigger HD, etc), is indistinguishable from an unaltered Xbox. If you run the original BIOS when you play online, there is no software mod, and it is on the default configuration. My point was that if you've got a multiple-bank modchip, make sure one of the banks is the original BIOS, and provided you haven't changed anything else, yours is, to the servers, an unmodded Xbox.

        Just use XBMC for media, Cromwel

  • Banning modded consoles (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Chuq ( 8564 ) on Saturday October 23, 2004 @06:03AM (#10607892) Journal
    "Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again."

    I've always wondered how this was supposed to be a threat? I'm not a heavy online gamer, in fact I hardly play online, and haven't done it since I had my xbox modded a month ago, so it doesn't mean a huge amount to me. But when they deal out threats like the above line, it means there are two options:

    * They don't ban me, I continue paying A$8.95 a month, and can play my occasional online game and run XBMC
    * They ban me, they don't get my $8.95 a month. I continue playing games (though not online) and continue running XBMC.

    (Not to mention, the fact that copied games can be played offline, but not online, means that people like me may be more likely to just copy games if they aren't allowed to play online.)

    So they are threatening to not take my $8.95 a month? And that disadvantages me.. how?

    XBMC is a far greater benefit than XBL.

    • It's not really intended to disadvantage you (unless, of course, you like playing on Live) so much as to instill confidence.

      One of Xbox Live's draws is that they're really really tough on cheaters, and that you can be pretty much assured of having a 'fair' playing field.

      By taking this sort of action, they hope to draw more people in; the people who are tired of playing SOCOM or Phantasy Star or whatever, with the rampant cheating and what not.

    • If you really want XBMC and XBL in the same house you can always buy a used Xbox, or wait until they come down to $99 new (only a matter of time) and buy one then. Personally I could give a fuck about XBL, there hasn't been a console game yet that I felt a need to play online. (I don't play FPS games without kb+mouse, although lik-sang does have that new widget to let you do that on Xbox. However, I don't feel like spending $40 for the privilege.)
  • Um, just because ways might exist to get around the Xbox mod checks does not mean its "futile". Anything that reduces the amount of cheaters is a good thing.

    Free Flat Screen HERE! [freeflatscreens.com]

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