Xbox hacked with $50-worth of hardware

A student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has managed to hack the security on Microsoft's Xbox, theoretically allowing him to write his own code for the machine.

But because of copyright restrictions he will not be able to share the full worth of his discoveries

Andrew "bunnie" Huang recently released a paper describing how he hacked the Xbox to get the security keys that allow original code to run on the machine.

These keys would allow someone to write code for applications such as web browsers or MP3 players to run on the Xbox. They could even allow Linux to run on the machine.

In three weeks, using just $50-worth of hardware and a lot of know-how, Huang managed to create a circuit board which he soldered between two of the key chips on the Xbox's motherboard.

His circuit board managed to intercept key traffic flowing through the hardware and gave Huang the keys, as well as the unique serial number, of his machine.

Apparently the task was comparatively easy because Microsoft did not use encryption to protect the sensitive data and instead assumed that speed alone would be enough for security.

Super-fast HyperTransport links shift data around the board and for security, dummy chips are put in to throw hackers off.

Huang also said that Microsoft claims to have implemented other security measures "to foil hackers that try to run a different OS on the Xbox... something about desoldering three chips. One is most likely the Flash," he said.

But although the hacker has published a highly detailed report concerning his Xbox discoveries on his web site, here, he has not released enough information to allow copycats to join the dots and make similar discoveries.

He said he is in constant contact with Microsoft to make sure he stays on the right side of the law.

But for Xbox users still intent on running illegitimate code on the machine, there's always a number of black market mod chips which hit the streets last week at the $80 mark.