Hacking XexMenu capabilities?

[AtomSmasherMazionga]

^title should say it all. if not, allow me to clarify. what are the capabilities and functions of Xexmenu? i.e, what can it do, emulators, game backups, stuff like that. didn't see another thread like this, though if there is one, sorry, and could someone post a link here?
so, things I'd like to know:
1: does it run emulators?
2: does it run backups?
3: what are the requirements for it?
4: is there an easy hardmod possible, if not, what hardmods (if any) are required?

Thanks, and sorry for being a N00B!

 

[DinohScene]

It runs everything.
Tho I HIGHLY advice you to use Freestyle dash or Aurora.
Their replacement dashboards and work and look far better then XeXMenu.

Generally, you use XeXmenu to install Freestyledash/Aurora.

As for "easy" hardware mods, they all require soldering and RGH can be fiddely.
It depends on your dashboard (7371 and below for JTAG 14699 or below for RGH1 and everything up to now, RGH2)

 

[AtomSmasherMazionga]

what about something along the lines of X360key (or xk3y or whatever it's called) or a similar ODDE? I've seen a good many sites that list a "temporary softmod" by installing Xexmenu via usb, though I believe those are fake.... -EDIT- here's a link to one such site:http://www.jtagxbox360.com/

 

[DinohScene]

Xkey is purely for retail backup loading.
No homebrew, no hacking no custom things.

Everything you see about "softmodding" a 360 for homebrew is a hoax.

 

[AtomSmasherMazionga]

yeah, I was thinking as much. would've been nice though. ah well.

 

[DinohScene]

I wouldn't count on ever having a "softmod"
The only really way to hack it is with hardware.

 

[AtomSmasherMazionga]

yeah, but still. what could possibly be so difficult about making one? the original Xbox was literally nothing more than a glorified Dell laptop implemented with a "special" disk drive.

 

[DinohScene]

Lots of factors, mostly that everything is checked by the Hypervisor.
The 360 is really secure from a software point of view, the only "softmod" was the King Kong exploit and that was used solely to boot Linux to dump the fuses/do Linux things.
Even that required a flashed DVD drive to pull off.

 

[AtomSmasherMazionga]

okay, so let me ask this: if a custom dashboard was written just like an official dashboard update, and made to fool the 360 into thinking it was an update, would it be possible, even in theory to softmod that way? hopefully I don't sound like an idiot here, but custom firmwares aren't that hard to make, at least for me.

 

[DinohScene]

Won't ever work.
The 360 is secure from a software point of view.
CFW doesn't exist outside of flashed DVD drives.

The NAND needs to be patched in order to load a buggy old hypervisor that doesn't have signature checking.
With that, it's possible to boot unsigned code from very early in boot.
This way you can completely bypass the MS dash and load a custom dash and or homebrew/Linux.

This can only be achieved with hardware hacking that seizes control over the bootloaders.

 

[gudenau]

Such a shame that the software is so well done, in a security point a view at least.

 

[DinohScene]

Actually not really.
It's interesting how MS secured their console from a software point of view.
Only one software based exploit ever came from it and that was on the 4548 kernel.
JTAG, RGH and RJTAG ultimately boot into that kernel, cause it's the one kernel that doesn't check signatures.

I'd like to see Sony or Ninty make their products that secure.

 

[AtomSmasherMazionga]

yeah, it is kind of interesting, but what I'm getting at is, like how the psp/ps3 cfw was written, you only needed to rename the cfw to Updat.DAT or the like and the system would be fooled into thinking it was an update, and then install the cfw. why isn't this possible for 360? it is just THAT secure? is it even remotely possible? I ask this because I have a phat white jasper model with a dead disk drive, and a phat black jasper model working 100%. I'm willing to at least attempt a cfw, and bricking my white jasper isn't really a problem.

 

[DinohScene]

Like I said, the only hacks are hardware hacks.
They involve soldering.

Everything is checked for signatures by the Hypervisor of the 360.
It makes it pretty much impossible to stick some code somewhere and load it.
Maybe in the distant future someone will succeed in loading something but I wouldn't count on it.