Introduction

Like many others, when I was younger. I owned a Xbox 360 console. The Xbox 360 is one of the most popular game consoles in the past decade. With 85.50 Million units sold. Like any other gaming scene, there tends to be some sort of underground cheating scene, and typically game development company would have a dedicated anti-cheat team etc. The Xbox 360 was no expection. Like the orginal xbox. It was eventually pwned. Hackers found ways to execute unsigned code. If you’re interested in learning more in-depth how the Xbox 360 was pwned, or more about underground Xbox 360 stories. You can do so here Wired Article Darknet Daries Series. This blog will focus on counter measures that Microsoft used to try and catch hackers.

Fingerprinting

In 2008, when the NEX dashboard was relased. Microsoft deployed a fingerprinting technique to try and identify some hackers who posted videos of them hacking. Hackers often had game capture cards that would directly capture dthe isplay of their xbox 360, record videos and publish them online. Typically an average video would display booting up console, loading a game, then loading in to a match. I overlooked this when I was younger, and recently just noticed it. The Xbox 360 logo on the Dashboard (Main Menu) prints the console’s serial number in morse code with rings around the logo. Which is very clever on Microsoft’s part. Xbox 360 underground hackers would often censor their gametag, and other identifiable information prior to publishing cheating, or hacking videos. Although most forgot to censor the logo area. Some Xbox 360 underground hackers back in the day, received cease and desist letters from Microsoft. Some got their development kit, or console bricked remotely. Most just got banned. I wonder if this fingerprint method was used to identify some of them.