New Xbox 360 Hypervisor exploit (software based)

[Jayro]

We could have used this 18 years ago...

 

[tech3475]

We could have used this 18 years ago...

The downside is that it likely would have been quickly patched/blocked and the number of exploitable units much fewer even if they release a patch now.

 

[Ryccardo]

You can use a raspberry pi pico to read/write the nand, which is only like $5.

plus shipping plus tax plus (although much reduced) the scalping associated with the brand...

 

[Marc_LFD]

I see copies of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland are still sold for reasonably high, but I don't get why anymore? If it's for this hack, just use the free demo.

 

[BigOnYa]

@Ryccardo Even in your country, its cheap and easy to find. Here is a few links for you. (Knock offs/ non branded units will work also)

https://www.amazon.it/YD-RP2040-Ras...words=raspberry+pi+pico&qid=1742296206&sr=8-4

https://www.amazon.it/seeed-studio-...words=raspberry+pi+pico&qid=1742296206&sr=8-6

 

[Flame]

I see copies of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland are still sold for reasonably high, but I don't get why anymore? If it's for this hack, just use the free demo.

Scalpers are just butt hurt and need to make they money back. Good thing we have a free trial version....

 

[wuggle]

Just wondering.... Many years ago I used to have a Xbox 360 where the DVD drive firmware had been modded so it could run burned discs. Unfortunately this did not last long and the Xbox 360 got the red ring of death and died on me.

Although I have a RGH XBox 360 nowadays I am just wondering if the ability to extract the DVD-keys by this method would then allow someone to figure out a way, whilst the bad update exploit is running, to then flash the DVD drive's firmware to let it run burned discs again? I believe that would then stay persistant even after Bad Update is no longer active?

I know it wouldn't be as good a RGH hack or a true soft-modded Xbox 360 experience but would that give you a Xbox 360 where you could at least run burned discs from the stock firmware on it without doing the bad update exploit each time?

<edit> Just checked my theory with AI and it tells me "As of March 18, 2025, no public tool exists to flash DVD firmware directly from the Xbox 360 using Bad Update. The exploit’s hypervisor access theoretically allows it, but the community hasn’t yet bridged the gap between NAND dumping and firmware flashing in a software-only way." - so not sure how feasible that gap is to bridge and obviously still not the most ideal option anyway.

 

[Blythe93]

I see copies of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland are still sold for reasonably high, but I don't get why anymore? If it's for this hack, just use the free demo.

They are quick to set the prices high, but they slow as snails to revert them back to normal.

 

[BigOnYa]

Just wondering.... Many years ago I used to have a Xbox 360 where the DVD drive firmware had been modded so it could run burned discs. Unfortunately this did not last long and the Xbox 360 got the red ring of death and died on me.

Although I have a RGH XBox 360 nowadays I am just wondering if the ability to extract the DVD-keys by this method would then allow someone to figure out a way, whilst the bad update exploit is running, to then flash the DVD drive's firmware to let it run burned discs again? I believe that would then stay persistant even after Bad Update is no longer active?

I know it wouldn't be as good a RGH hack or a true soft-modded Xbox 360 experience but would that give you a Xbox 360 where you could at least run burned discs from the stock firmware on it without doing the bad update exploit each time?

You would have to remove the DVD drive and flash the firmware on the DVD drive itself. There were many different DVD drive models, and each used its own specific firmware. And who really wants to go thru the hassle of burning DVDs anymore.

 

[Retrojunkies]

Yea a iHAS burner, with Verbatim dual layer dvds, running thru abgx360 first before burning... Those were the days.

I have a massive like brief case disc holder full of Xbox360 and PS2 games, id go to Blockbusters, rent games to rip then take back to rent more games to rip.

If I could go back in time and kick my own arse, because I bought a chipped PS2, ripped all of my games and GAVE my normal PS2 with ALL my original games to my brother for FREE.

Now find many of the games I had, now would fetch a nice price.

What kind of retard gives away all of his original games for FREE because he now has copied them to DVD.....

 

[Jayro]

I see copies of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland are still sold for reasonably high, but I don't get why anymore? If it's for this hack, just use the free demo.

It's one of the compatible games to use TonyHax with. (Plus the game itself is pretty good.)

 

[Afeohtan]

I think they were being sarcastic.

I know.

 

[raxadian]

It does.

So I can permashack my late model PS3 slim? Cool.

 

[rommy667]

Using this on a jasper and its fantastic some times it works in 2 mins others well ages hats off to the dev amazing work

 

[Idaho]

We could have used this 18 years ago...

There was the king kong exploit my dude...

Stop being snarky and ungrateful, this is a great news, second hand 360s sell for cheap, it's a good opportunity to have fun without spending much...

Think of all the emulation you can do and games you can play for that price, it's pretty good...

I think this hack is only the beginning of a revival for the 360 scene, my guess is, we are gonna see refined exploits and more homebrews in the future...

 

[PhyChris]

I just want my keys

 

[americandadsonic]

We could have used this 18 years ago...

It's actually perfect timing. The Xbox is dying and Microsoft has destroyed it's legacy and killed the Xbox Store for the 360. Most people have kept their 360s in storage so the exploit should work on most Dashboards. The Xbox One/Series dropped the ball hard on backwards combability and even Xbox fans will admit this.

 

[SylverReZ]

I just want my keys

The keys for your console (including DVD key) are stored in the NAND after dumping with Simple 360 NAND Flasher.

Import the NAND (.bin) file into J-Runner and it'll automatically display them for you, which can be very handy in the near future for RGH/JTAG or DVD firmware flashing.

 

[BigOnYa]

The Xbox One/Series dropped the ball hard on backwards combability and even Xbox fans will admit this.

What do you mean? XOne/ Series S/X has backwards compatibility for x360 and OG Xbox games, and dev mode for older retro games even.

 

[SylverReZ]

There was the king kong exploit my dude...

Not many people used the King Kong exploit as it got quickly patched after being showcased. It was more of an PoC entrypoint than something you could use for playing backups.

Stop being snarky and ungrateful, this is a great news, second hand 360s sell for cheap, it's a good opportunity to have fun without spending much...

What's so "snarky" about that statement. Jayro ain't wrong about what they said. If this had came out mid-way through the lifespan of the 360, then it would've been a revelation. But it most certainly will 100% get patched instantly. Microsoft pushes out updates quite a lot around that time to mitigate other security gaps. For many years, the Xbox 360 had been very secure until the rise of mod chips.

I think this hack is only the beginning of a revival for the 360 scene, my guess is, we are gonna see refined exploits and more homebrews in the future...

The community would be spending a lot of their time getting through the kinks. It could take one or two years even, or never at all for a full softmod exploit to even release. Don't get your hopes up high. BadUpdate isn't perfect as many others have stated.

Using this on a jasper and its fantastic some times it works in 2 mins others well ages hats off to the dev amazing work

Wow. A new world record.