Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [video]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by terramex on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:56AM (#21332974)

> This is the first time in history that game consoles have lasted this long without being cracked to enable piracy.

> In this talk, we will discuss how we achieved this for the Xbox One.

While Xbox' technical security measures are very interesting, I dare to say that most effective measure was allowing to install homebrew apps by end users[0]. The only use for cracking Xbox One would be to enable piracy and exploit creators are almost universally against that.

Also, PS4 has been jailbroken up to firmware 5.07 (patched in March 2018), and it is known that exploits for newer firmwares exist but are not (yet?) publicly available.

  [0] https://github.com/wiired24/ProjectPegasus/blob/master/binaries/Installing APPX Packages.pdf

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by naner on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:33AM (#21334424)

The only use for cracking Xbox One would be to enable piracy

That's not strictly true, cracking could also allow alternative os loading.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by qplex on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:03AM (#21334709)

As far as I know the Xbox One needs to dial home before you're allowed to run a game.

So when the DRM servers are shut down, these devices will become just useless paperweights (if nobody manages to crack them).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by terramex on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:21AM (#21334892)

Xbox One connects to MS server only once, on initial setup and then it can run disc games offline. Not sure about digital downloads.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by rkangel on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:11PM (#21336046)

In the video he talks specifically about the following use case:

"User goes to Walmart, buys console and game. Drives to cabin with no internet. Sets up console and plays game".

Clearly the original design goal didn't require an initial phone home. That may have changed.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by reificator on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:42AM (#21335763)

I don't buy disc games and I was playing games offline during the weird lull in the middle of a vacation.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by jsight on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:57AM (#21334664)

That is a good point... I bet there is nothing else as powerful at the price point either. It would make an excellent Linux media server.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by wlesieutre on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:08AM (#21334750)

Sony advertised this as a feature of the PS3 called "OtherOS" and then got sued when they turned around and removed it with a software update.

Settlement was supposedly $65 but it looks like affected people got a whole $10 for their trouble: https://www.reddit.com/r/PS3/comments/9izcpm/has_anyone_rece...

There were some clusters made out of PS3s, presumably the operators kept these from updating, but they wouldn't be able to replace failed units with new ones anymore: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/05/how-removing-ps3-linu...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by jsight on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:51AM (#21335861)

I remember that. It seems like there were some restrictions that held back performance in OtherOS mode, though. It was too bad that they didn't keep it up.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by selectodude on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:39PM (#21336935)

You couldn't get GPU access. You had full access to the Cell BE though.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by snagglegaggle on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @01:58PM (#21337111)

Piracy is not always piracy, you are allowed to circumvent copy protection for use of items you already own, but under the DMCA and according to common sense. This is probably going to become more important as time goes on.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story [vi... by reggintoggaf on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:39PM (#21336347)

Along that, also Microsoft's commitment to dual-releasing xbox games for Windoes games too. That is an easier venue for cracking so crackers dont bother with xbox.

[ Parent | on HN ]