Xbox 360 Hacked for Good Reasons

The Xbox360 has been around for over a year, and for over a year the security of Microsoft's second gaming console has been compromised. However, it was not until this week that the console's security holes were used for anything besides piracy. This week, a fellow going by the name of Cpasjuste, released a version of linux running on a retail Xbox360. This is a very important release as it could open up the console for user generated software much like the original Xbox.

When the Xbox360 was first released, hackers quickly found a flaw in Microsoft's protection and cheap skates were soon off to copying games instead of buying them. While reverse engineering Microsoft's hard work to come up with a way around their security is an amazing feat, the original DVD firmware hack did nothing more than to promote the piracy of software. If a user implemented the hack, he would be able to copy Xbox360 games, and play them over and over again without paying for the game. This is all the hack could be used for, and although it was labeled as a major breakthrough in Xbox360 hacking, there was still a long way to go before a true hack would be released.

A true hack would be some kind of exploit such that a user could write software and have it running on an actual Xbox360 without the use of any official Microsoft Development Kit. In early March of 2007, a hacker by the name of Anonymous Hacker released details of how a person could use a King Kong game to achieve the goal of getting unsigned code to run on a retail Xbox360. A Hacker by the name of "Crawler 360" quickly released a document explaining how he made his Xbox360 display the familiar phrase "Hello World". Although only displaying two words, it was a large leap for the Xbox360 hacking scene. This was the first time someone wrote his own code and had it running on an Xbox360 without Microsoft's Development Kit.

With the simple programming running on the Xbox360, it was only a matter of time until someone worked out a way to run a full blown application. This past Sunday, March 25^th 2007, that goal was achieved. Cpasjuste showed the world that hacking the Xbox360 had matured to a point of getting real world applications running on the console. He made Ubunto, which is a community developed linux based operating system, run on the Xbox360. This demo used the same King Kong hack as the Hello World application, however this contained standard personal computer applications such as instant messaging, spreadsheets, a web browser, and many other common applications.

It has now been proven that software can be developed for the Xbox360 without any help from Microsoft themselves. Only time will tell what applications will be developed next, but if the history of the original Xbox hacking serves as a roadmap, we can expect to see emulators, media players, and others in the near future.