Hack-proof DVD drive for Xbox 360 arrives

October 5, 2006

Womble used our news submit to tell us about some interesting news, that he spotted over at the
ever inquisitive Inquirer. According to
their latest sleuthing, Microsoft has supposedly come up with a hack-proof
DVD drive. For quite a while, Xbox 360 owners have visited sites such as Xbox
scene to share information and also hacked firmwares. Below, we can read some
clippings the Inquirer has posted, detailing a new Hitachi drive that is
designed by Microsoft to discourage modifications.

Now hackers and system owners are reporting of a new
drive, sourced from Hitachi with the model number GDR-3120L and v0078FK
version tag, that makes it much harder for the console to be hacked.

Owners on the forums of the infamous Xbox hacking site 'Xbox-Scene' are noting
various changes and problems:

Black hard glue/resin has been added covering all the chip pins and
the controller pins - picture here

Removing the flash chip to externally be read will destroy the drive
due to the new black resin

Wiring in a patching-on-the-fly mod would be very hard, again due to
the resin

The firmware dump program used for all the other drives, 'memdump', no
longer works, so a totally new program re-write is needed to dump the
firmware for inspection/hacking

Chip type has been changed to a 39VF020, so new flashing (previously
'flashsec') program needed

External debug triggering into 'ModeB' has been removed which is used
for re-writing the firmware

Originally, it seems these drives were appearing in Australian
territories, but others have spotted the same drive model and version in
the UK - so expect them worldwide very
soon.

Looks like Microsoft has certainly thrown down the
gauntlet, lets see what action the Internet community takes on this one. Thanks
for the news Womble!

Source: The Inquirer