Xbox 360 hackers cheat at Hexic, make inroads into hacking the 360 [Update1]

by Vladimir Cole { Jan 1st 2006 at 5:30PM }

The hacking community has been very busy this weekend. Accomplishments include:

Successfully ripping Hexic off of a kiosk disc and executing it in a PC browser (it runs very slowly)
Successfully modifying Hexic and running it on an Xbox 360 connected to Xbox Live
Hacking Hexic to earn several of the achievements without doing any of the work
Successfully running simple Flash applications that were never on the Xbox 360 (such as a clock application)
Modifying certain aspects of the King Kong kiosk demo to create the simple program pictured here

Speculation:

Could this third item be behind the reset of the Xbox Live leaderboards? We hear people were earning some sick scores in Hexic before the reset (according to a blog post by Xbox Live's Larry Hyrb, the reset is a technical glitch having nothing to do with security issues.)
These findings might make it possible to run a flash-based browser, flash-based media players, or even other flash games not available on Xbox Live Arcade
There are many avenues of research that the hacking community is exploring. Given the history of past efforts by Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft to prevent modification (all to no avail), it seems inevitable that one or more of these seeds of opportunity will yield fruit
How far away are we from a gamer points reset, given that some gamers have been able to cheat to obtain them?
Will it become possible to cheat at other games? That's the surest way to sap the enjoyment from any game, as Halo players on Xbox Live who have been the victims of cheaters can attest.

[Update1: linked to statement from Microsoft's Larry Hyrb regarding the leaderboard reset.]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Axl @ Jan 1st 2006 5:49PM

Not only Hexic got sick scores, check this Zuma scores out, the screen was captures this afternoon, AFTER the leaderboards reset:

http://www.todojuegos.com/article2657.html

Could this mean that someone can get scores or achievements from Hexic to another game?? Or maybe they have modified the real Zuma SWF ??

Nick @ Jan 1st 2006 5:58PM

Unlike ranks on Halo 2, Gamerscore isn't used to match you up with other players with about the same score. As far as I know, it's merely a bragging rights piece to say "look how much time I spend on my Xbox 360!" Beyond the rank, the main issue with Halo 2 modding for _CHEATING_ on Live was that people were being cheated out of a fun experience - that's not possible in Hexic since there is no multiplayer. People may get upset at leaderboard scores, but that's trivial by comparison.

Also, I believe Hexic is the only game so far that has been modified to grant achievements to a player unrightfully. At worst, I believe Microsoft would only reset the achievement points for Hexic instead of all games; though, again, I doubt they have any reason to reset them for something like this. Also remember that Hexic was a free game - though arguably included in the cost of the hard drive - so that's even more of a reason for Microsoft to not care about the achievement points gained from it.

Don't forget that Hexic is a Flash game; that means it's quite easy to modify the code. A loader executable loads a standard .swf file from the disc and that's the game. Every other game, unless it is also a Flash game loaded this way, is currently "unhackable". You're not going to see cheats stemming from executable changes for a while. This should be FAR from causing a public panic about the security of games on Live 360; but there�s no doubt news sites will totally over state and exacerbate the issue and garble the facts.

Microsoft could easily update the executable via Live (before allowing new scores / achievements to be unlocked) to check that the Hexic .swf is unmodified before executing it. I'm not sure why they didn't do that in the first place, but I suspect it was either a result of rushing the title out in time or over confidence in their security system. Either way, it will probably be patched as it is an exploit-prone loading scheme; that won�t matter much for exploration though, since it is loadable on the handy disc reported earlier.

Nick

MasterofDVD @ Jan 1st 2006 6:28PM

I can't imagine resetting the Gamerscore over this. It's a big deal but resetting numbers can only serve to tick off a huge number of folks. With hardware shortages and glitch issues the last thing MS needs is to upset more people.

Hackers sure can really ruin things for folks while doing some very impressive things. I can applaud them one moment and then want to smack the hell out of them the next.

Dt7 @ Jan 1st 2006 6:29PM

I really don't see why people bother to do this.

jason @ Jan 1st 2006 8:02PM

man, if its due to hackers that really bites. I hate pissheads like this who ruin it for everyone else.

Nick @ Jan 1st 2006 8:38PM

Before you start pointing fingers, you may want to read the note at the bottom of this post (marked 'Edit:'): http://www.majornelson.com/2006/01/01/xbox-live-leader-boards-stats/ - so there's your answer. I'm sure somebody will be the conspiracy theorist and mark this as a cover-up; being paranoid is your right so exercise it, I suppose.

vc, you may want to update the news post to point out that the leaderboard reset wasn't the result of any hacking or cheating.

Nick

Mike @ Jan 1st 2006 9:08PM

Well, J. Allard was right...Xbox 360 is about the people that play the system, and what they turn the system into. Apparently we want to screw up everything. I understand trying to enhance the experience with homebrew applications, and trying to unlock features that SHOULD have been included with the Xbox system software (like the ability to stream video from Windows XP, and not just the Media Center Edition). But, then you have to go too far and create cheats that really just ruin the whole experience for everyone. My favorite game of last generation was Rallisport Challenge 2 for the xbox. I played that game night and day until the scoreboards were wiped off of Xbox Live due to cheaters. I haven't played the game since. It really just ruined the whole experience for me. If stuff like this becomes more commonplace on Live, I guess I'll just have to go back to playing my old-faithful...Starcraft.

Nick @ Jan 2nd 2006 12:47AM

The backbone of ignorance: generalizations and stereotypes.

Nick

SolidSquirrel @ Jan 2nd 2006 12:48AM

Aww, my Geometry Wars high score was deleted :( .

Jon @ Jan 2nd 2006 12:49AM

I'm tired of these fools. They always say they are doing this for the good of everybody only to end up ruining xbox live gameplay. when a new game comes out, you better get the best of XboxLive play that you can before someone ruins it with a cheat a few weeks or months after it is launched.

If you don't like the system, don't buy it. But don't justify hacking and ruining the experience for everyone else with your petty dissatisfaction with an amazing system.

Cole @ Jan 2nd 2006 1:34AM

Well Jon. Go play on the PC and tell me how the cheating is.

oh wait....

CompFreak07 @ Jan 2nd 2006 1:50AM

First of all I would like to say that I completly agree that cheating on Xbox Live is wrong and ruines the experience for everybody. But I also agree with what people are doing and hacking the xbox to make it a better expreince for the rest of us that do not use live. There are people who would like to hack the xbox just to allow some of the things that should of been on there to begin with. Also homebrew applications and backups are what some people would like to see. Not everyone wants to hack it to cheat on live. I am tottaly against that.

Dt7 @ Jan 2nd 2006 6:31AM

I still don't understand the point, people spent years hacking the first Xbox to get what? Some crap Doom port running on it? If you have a PC, USE THE PC TO PLAY DOOM.

Whether you like it or not, they're enabling people to pirate games, and that's where this'll end up, with the people who did it initially shrugging and saying it wasn't there fault.

Jesse @ Jan 2nd 2006 11:20AM

Well, I myself mod xboxs. As for the 360, I feel its good enough so I dont plan to bother hacking it. With the first xbox, i only hacked to use Xbox Media Center. It makes ur xbox basicly a media center PC. all ur moveis, MP3s, and pics. And it supported every format u can imagine. I am hoping sumthin will happen with the 360 where thsi wont be required. The 360 is already off to a GREAT start, so im content as of now. Also as far as these people hacking now, its making way for future developments, so eveyrone back off. Be happy.

Colonel Panic @ Jan 2nd 2006 5:14PM

Jesse(14) -- a good start, I'll agree with you there, but not allowing divx/xvid/mpeg/avi formats to be played -- only their WMV bs -- is crap. Especially confounding is the fact that if you have WMC 2005 and you browse through your video files with the X360, it will actually display a thumbnail of the first frame of the video. So tell me how that works, if it doesn't support that video type yet still can decode it to see the first frame...

cyrus @ Jan 3rd 2006 3:33AM

As a PC gamer, I haven't yet justified the expense of an Xbox 360. That being said, if I had the technical expertise and resources (and money) necessary for hacking or exploiting the "unhackable" 360, I'd snatch one in a heartbeat.

To all you people getting your panties in a wad about a few reset high scores, I offer this: Most console hackers/modders are not doing this to mess with peoples' scores or to cheat on Xbox Live games. Those are cheaters. Most console hackers do so just to see if they can do it or to explore the full capabilities of the system (what good is a system toted as a multimedia center if it doesn't even support MPEG or AVI files?). Those are hackers.

A hacker couldn't care less about a false high score being posted on Xbox Live, he knows only that he can do it. A hacker doesn't give a rat's ass about the fact that he can modify his character to jump higher or increase ammo capacity, he only cares that he knows more about the game and the console now.

So, to all you pansies crying about high scores being reset because of a few hackers: Get over it. They paid the same price for their 360 as you did, they have every legal right to modify their own machine. Bitch and moan all you like, it won't keep them from looking for "a way around it."

DM @ Jan 3rd 2006 10:21AM

Cyrus, you're an idiot. Honestly. Yeah, they paid the same price as everyone else, and yeah they can do whatever they want with their system. However, when what they do ends up affecting everyone else's hardwork, that's when the line needs to be drawn. How about if you spent years and thousands of dollars fixing up a car, and I decided to use a homemade bomb to blow it up "just because I could". Is that anyway fair? Don't say that "the car doesn't belong to you" because neither does the X-Box Live leaderboards. And last time I checked, you purchased a subscription to X-Box Live, not the right to hack it as you please.

oddjob @ Jan 3rd 2006 2:17PM

Hackers and their ilk will come up with any stupid justification for their actions because deep down they know they are borderline sociopaths trying to act like they have a concience. If it was really about exploration like they say they wouldn't release all that crap they do to the masses so that every moron can cheat. Common, petty criminals no better than a guy stealing your wallet.