Earlier this year, known scene member and exploit creator "Grimdoomer" released the BadUpdate hypervisor exploit for the Xbox 360, while also revealing his retirement from console hacking. It looks like he couldn't stay away from digging into how the 360 ticks, however, because Grimdoomer is back, and has a massive announcement: there's an Xbox 360 softmod method on the horizon. In the past, Grimdoomer himself has claimed that there would never be anything more elaborate than the proof-of-concept hypervisor exploit, but he's one-upped himself, with a video that teases a 360 softmod method.

There is no ETA on any release, and Grimdoomer explains that the process will take time.

I know I said I retired from console hacking but I got one more in me. An Xbox 360 softmod is coming, no eta yet, THIS WILL TAKE TIME to finish. I still can't believe this exploit chain works, and I also can't believe I spent 20 hours a day for the last 3 weeks straight working on this. I'm so tired but seeing that coffee cup on screen was worth it

Source

 

[Armadillo]

... 'like' being keyword. Console disassembly and motherboard probing, I would still consider technical skills. I'm sure someone of your caliber would be surprised to know there's many would-be backyard unethical hackers that haven't opened a console ever, let alone use probe tools but I digress... the just of my previous reply was to merely state that there's hope for the many looking for less technical solutions for their Xbox 360.

Completely different thing anyway.

Drive flashing=signed code only and all the limitations that come with it.
Softmod=unsigned code.

Completely different beasts.

Based on what it allows, current softmods are comparable to Jtag/RGH, not a simple drive flash.

 

[lightwo]

Shutterbug released an exploit that has to do with loading avatars in login menu, which only takes about 1 minute to load the payload and happens right at boot:

https://github.com/shutterbug2000/ABadAvatar



This makes the Winchester look relevant again

 

[nmagod]

"bro why would you do it in software, just buy these 40 things and do it in a harder way that requires extra tools"

log. out.

 

[Ondrashek06]

360 softmod exploit? How come I didn't see this post until now? That's seriously fucking amazing!

 

[Reecey]

... 'like' being keyword. Console disassembly and motherboard probing, I would still consider technical skills. I'm sure someone of your caliber would be surprised to know there's many would-be backyard unethical hackers that haven't opened a console ever, let alone use probe tools but I digress... the just of my previous reply was to merely state that there's hope for the many looking for less technical solutions for their Xbox 360.

Ok I get you I was only trying to help. I haven’t been active on gbatemp for a while, now I have come back everyone has suddenly inherited an attitude problem and gone all gangster what happened to the good old days when someone in the know tried helping out and the usual response was positive

 

[Afeohtan]

How is it even possible to run unsigned code from the HDD on startup without bypassing the hypervisor?

 

[FR0ZN]

How is it even possible to run unsigned code from the HDD on startup without bypassing the hypervisor?

It's not running code from the HDD in the sense that you copy something to the filesystem and the 360 executes that upon boot.
The exploit here is that the HDD firmware has been modified to exploit a bug in the 360 that on the other hand chainloads another exploit and so on.
My guess is that the HFS+ driver in the kernel gets exploited (which was suspected in the past to have bugs) and from there triggers a HV exploit (probably BadUpdate).
OR he found another bug, which gives you HV code exectuion upon coldboot, because the video shows a rather fast exploit, which either means that OR he had a lucky (for the show) BadUpdate run.

 

[Afeohtan]

OR he found another bug, which gives you HV code exectuion upon coldboot, because the video shows a rather fast exploit, which either means that OR he had a lucky (for the show) BadUpdate run.

If so, it would be great if he would release that to use and the exploit would trigger nearly instantaneously.

 

[MrQQ]

If you can’t grasp the concept of simply hacking the xbox360 Hard Drive then I suggest log out… permanently

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2025

There’s no soldering involved all you need is a copy of the iXtreme lt+3.0 a laptop, jungleflasher, CK3i and a probe for the Hard Drive to extract the bios file and a special tool to unlock the xbox360 which is cheap as chips that’s it

Here you go these are the tools you need in the photo. I’m sure if you go on AliExpress you can probably buy them all very cheap now

I will admit you do need a special disc drive and an xboxusbpro tool and the exploit file to be able to burn the games at over the 8GB capacity and you need to buy verbatim dual-layer discs but it’s worth the trouble

Edit: before anyone asks I do not provide any sort of hacking service I never have done. I’m completely legit these are only old personal hacking memories

Yeah so you are wrong. Its not for the hdd its for the dvd...dont know? dont speak. Ixtreme is for the dvd drive

 

[Reecey]

Yeah so you are wrong. Its not for the hdd its for the dvd...dont know? dont speak. Ixtreme is for the dvd drive

Don’t be a dick it was obviously a misspelt! The attitude thing is floating about again, you obviously knew I meant disc drive everyone else knew that but you had to bring it up and have your sad pathetic 3 seconds of fame.. that time is now up!

It’s Disc Drive not dvd or dvd drive…

 

[MrQQ]

Don’t be a dick it was obviously a misspelt! The attitude thing is floating about again, you obviously knew I meant disc drive everyone else knew that but you had to bring it up and have your sad pathetic 3 seconds of fame.. that time is now up!

It’s Disc Drive not dvd or dvd drive…

Its the dvd drive. My time is not up - its something you do not get to decide

 

[nmagod]

well, the 360 can also read CDs, so it's a disc drive

unlike the HD-DVD external drive, and VERY unlike the PS5's BluRay Drive which I believe can't read CDs at all because Sony, despite pushing CDs for decades, decided to drop support for them in their consoles when they developed the PS4