A vulnerability in Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console was recently discovered allowing the use of alternative operating systems on the console, and giving gamers much hope for homebrew applications. Microsoft was aware of this problem, and has managed to ‘pull a fast one’ on hackers and enthusiasts alike.

The term ‘homebrew’ is used to define a home-developed game or application that is created and used on a proprietary gaming console; such applications are commonly used on Sony’s PSP.

The recent vulnerability used a method to inject data into a non-privileged memory area, and was seen by the gaming community to be the savior of modding and homebrew methods.

Microsoft made this issue official on Friday. “Microsoft has worked with the party that reported this issue and has already distributed a fix across our distribution methods, both online and offline,” a Microsoft representative said.

The update corrects a problem with the tamper-protection mechanism on the console, and was quietly released as an update on Xbox Live; although, details on the fix were unknown at the time. Instead, Microsoft listed the patch as an “operating system update” which will be furthermore available (and probably mandatory) on all games released in the future.

So why would Microsoft want to circumvent this recently discovered flaw? First, Microsoft only encourages homebrew apps through XNA; but don’t bother unless you’re ready to shell out $99 for the service. Second, Microsoft is clearly trying to prevent ‘modding’ to their console which would surely lead to the use of pirated games.

The Xbox 360 has always been a popular target for hackers; however, many months of hard work can often come without success. For Microsoft, it’s their greatest interest to protect their console from the use of pirated software; as for hackers, it’s back to the beginning.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 6:08 am under Piracy.

Read more entries by George Gardner.
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