Hacking the Xbox,9781593270292

Hacking the Xbox

by Huang, Andrew "Bunnie"
ISBN13: 9781593270292
ISBN10: 1593270291
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2003-07-01
Publisher(s): No Starch Pr
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Summary

Microsoft has sold over 8 million units of its Xbox game system. The Xbox itself is essentially a desktop PC and it can be used as one, for a fraction of the cost, once modified. When hacking the Xbox, the reader takes it apart to determine how it works (reverse engineers it), and can then modify it and put it to a different use. Many people believe that reverse engineering is a protected right, but the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes certain types of reverse engineering illegal, hence the controversy surrounding this book. We are confident there is nothing illegal in this book, and this will ultimately be an issue of free speech and First Amendment rights, which will add to the book's visibility.

Table of Contents

Prologue - Readme.1st 1(1)
The Video Game Console Market
2(2)
About Hackers and Hacking
4(11)
The Politics of Hacking
7(4)
The People Behind the Hacks
11(4)
Voiding the Warranty
15(16)
Tools of the Trade
15(7)
Tools to Open Things Up
15(2)
Tools to Attach and Remove Components
17(1)
Tools to Test and Diagnose
18(2)
Tools for Design
20(2)
Deconstructing the Xbox
22(9)
Step 1: Safety First
22(1)
Step 2: Remove Case Screws
22(2)
Step 3: Remove the Top Cover
24(1)
Step 4: Move the Disk Drives
25(3)
Step 5: Remove the Disk Drives (Optional)
28(1)
Reassembling the Xbox
28(3)
Thinking Inside the Box
31(22)
Reading a Circuit Board
32(8)
Circuit Board Basics
32(2)
Components
34(5)
Test Points
39(1)
Xbox Architecture
40(8)
High-Level Organization
40(2)
Functional Details
42(1)
CPU
42(3)
Northbridges and Southbridges
45(1)
Ram
46(1)
Rom
47(1)
Odds and Ends
48(1)
Pattern Matching
48(5)
Comparison: Xbox Versus the PC
49(1)
Contrast: Xbox Versus the Gamecube
50(3)
Installing a Blue LED
53(14)
What You'll Need
54(1)
Removing the Xbox Front Panel
54(4)
Removing the Front Panel Circuit Board
58(1)
Installing the Blue LED
59(4)
Reassembling the Front Panel
63(2)
Debugging
65(2)
Building a USB Adapter
67(6)
Starting Materials
67(2)
Strategy
69(1)
Implementation
69(4)
Replacing a Broken Power Supply
73(16)
Diagnosing a Broken Power Supply
74(2)
Replacing the Power Supply
76(2)
Strategy
77(1)
Procedure
78(11)
Building the Xbox Power Cable
78(6)
Installing the Replacement Power Supply
84(1)
Operating with the Replacement Power Supply
85(1)
Debugging Tips
86(3)
The Best Xbox Game: Security Hacking
89(12)
First Encounters with a Paranoid Design
90(11)
To Snarf a ROM
90(2)
An Encounter with Microsoft
92(1)
Analyzing the ROM Contents
93(8)
A Brief Primer on Security
101(18)
Who Needs Security, Anyways?
101(3)
A Brief Primer on Cryptography
104(15)
Classes of Cryptographic Algorithms
105(4)
Sha-1 Hash
109(2)
Tea
111(2)
RC4
113(1)
RSA
114(2)
The Rest of the Picture
116(3)
Reverse Engineering Xbox Security
119(18)
Extracting Secrets from Hardware
119(12)
Eavesdropping a High Speed Bus
122(1)
Tapping the Bus on a Budget
122(7)
Building the Data Logger
129(2)
Determining the Bus Order and Polarity
131(1)
Making Sense of the Captured Data
131(6)
Sneaking in the Back Door
137(14)
Back Doors and Security Holes
138(3)
Visor Jam Table Attacks
139(1)
MIST Premature Unmap Attack
140(1)
Microsoft Retaliates
141(1)
Reverse Engineering v1.1 Security
142(5)
The Threat of Back Doors
147(4)
More Hardware Projects
151(10)
The LPC Interface
151(4)
LPC Interface on the Xbox
152(1)
Using the LPC Interface
153(2)
The Other 64 MB of SDRAM
155(2)
Xbox VGA
157(1)
Mass Storage Replacement
158(3)
Developing Software for the Xbox
161(12)
Xbox-Linux
161(10)
Installing Xbox-Linux
162(4)
``Project B''
166(5)
OpenXDK
171(2)
Caveat Hacker
173(20)
Caveat Hacker: A Primer on Intellectual Property
175(18)
Lee Tien
Classical Intellectual Property Law: An Overview
175(1)
Copyright
176(2)
Patent
178(1)
Trade Secrets
179(1)
The Constitutional Copyright Bargain
179(1)
The Traditional View of Reverse Engineering
180(1)
Trade Secrecy and ``Improper Means''
180(1)
Copyright Law and the Problem of Intermediate Copying
181(1)
Patent Law
182(1)
New Challenges for Reverse Engineers
183(1)
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Problem of Unauthorized Access
184(1)
Unauthorized Access
184(1)
Circumvention Technologies
185(1)
Navigating the DMCA's Exemptions
185(1)
1201(f): reverse-engineering for interoperability
186(1)
1201(g): encryption research
187(1)
1201(j): security research
187(1)
End-User License Agreements and Contractual Prohibitions on Reverse-Engineering
187(2)
Trade Secrets and the Economic Espionage Act
189(1)
The Responsible Hacker: Ignorance Is No Defense
189(1)
Civil and Criminal Offenses and Penalties
190(1)
Reverse Engineering as ``The Freedom to Tinker'' and Other Legal Issues
191(2)
Onward!
193(14)
The Hacking Community
193(4)
Hacking Fora
194(1)
Making a Contribution
195(2)
Trusted Computing
197(9)
Taking a Step Back
199(3)
Palladium Versus TCPA
202(2)
Hacking the Trusted PC
204(1)
Looking Forward
205(1)
Concluding Thoughts
206(1)
Appendix A - Where to Get Your Hacking Gear
207(4)
Vendors for Hobbyists
207(2)
Prepared Equipment Order Forms
209(2)
Appendix B - Soldering Techniques
211(12)
Introduction to Soldering
211(3)
Use Flux
212(1)
Starter Tips
213(1)
Surface Mount Soldering
214(9)
Technique for Simple Components
215(1)
Technique for Complex Components
216(3)
Technique for Removing Components
219(4)
Appendix C - Getting into PCB Layout
223(14)
Philosophy and Design Flow
223(9)
Refining Your Idea
223(1)
Schematic Capture
224(2)
Board Layout
226(1)
General Placement and Routing Guidelines
227(1)
Leave Space for Via Fanouts on Surface Mount Devices
228(1)
Decoupling Capacitors Fit Nicely Under SMD Pads
228(1)
Know Your Special Traces
229(2)
Circuit Boards Make Fine Heatsinks
231(1)
Establish Preferred Routing Directions for Each Layer
231(1)
Stack a Board with Orthogonal Layers
231(1)
On Two-Layer Boards, Use Fingers to Bus Power
232(1)
Hints on Using an Auto-Router
232(1)
CAD Tools
232(1)
Board Fabrication Companies
233(2)
Sierra Proto Express
233(1)
Data Circuit Systems
234(1)
Advanced Circuits
234(1)
Alberta Printed Circuits
234(1)
Starter Projects
235(2)
Appendix D - Getting Started with FPGAs
237(10)
What Is an FPGA?
237(2)
Designing for an FPGA
239(8)
Project Ideas
243(1)
Where to Buy
244(3)
Appendix E - Debugging: Hints and Tips
247(10)
Don't Panic!
247(2)
Understand the System
247(1)
Observe Symptoms
248(1)
Common Bugs
249(3)
Recovering from a Lifted Trace or Pad
252(5)
Appendix F - Xbox Hardware Reference
257(10)
Power Supply Pinout
257(1)
Video Connector Pinout
258(2)
USB Connector Pinout
260(1)
Ethernet Connector Pinout
261(1)
ATA Connector Pinout
262(1)
DVD-ROM Power Connector
263(1)
LPC Connector
264(1)
Fan Connector
265(1)
Front Panel Connector
265(2)
Index 267

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