Just when a simple Live ban wasn’t enough, it seems Microsoft has gone the extra mile to stop piracy on the 360.

The new Xbox 360 Bans not only ban you from Live, but also block you from copying game to 360 HDD and not being able to earn achivements.

Kushan posts a lengthy and informative article on #FW@EFNet explaining the newest Microsoft ban wave.

- What does this mean for you and what can you do about it?
Firstly, and most obviously, you cannot connect to Xbox Live on this console any more. This means no more game updates (aka title updates), XBLA games, marketplace content, netflix/sky player and so on. There is no way around this, all online capabilities are now disabled PERMANENTLY.

In all likelihood, your gamertag has NOT BEEN BANNED. When your gamertag gets banned, Microsoft sends you an email detailing why, if you have not recieved this email then your profile should be ok, to a certain extent.

Hard Drive installs are now disabled on the banned console. This means any disk-based games you have will no longer play off of the hard drive. If you attempt to play a game, it will tell you that it was installed on a different 360 and needs to be deleted/installed again. When you delete the game and attempt to install it, you are given a message telling you that it is not supported. There is no way to fix this, that functionality is simply gone from the banned 360.

The hard drive itself is left untouched – you can place it in another 360, even an unbanned one, and it will still work just fine. You do NOT need to reformat it to regain any kind of functionality. Any installed games will need to be reinstalled for the console you want to play them on. This is normal behaviour and happens when swapping HDDs on unbanned/legit 360′s.

Windows Media Centre functionality is disabled. It is still possible to stream video/music content via the video library.

Your Gamertag may be corrupted. This does not mean your gamertag has been banned, you can recover it using any live-capable 360, however ANY ACHIVEMENTS YOU HAVE EARNED SINCE BEING BANNED WILL BE LOST. Your gamertag will be corrupted EVERY SINGLE TIME it is used on a banned console. This means you cannot use your banned console to play backups offline just to get achievements – it wont work, the second you put your profile back on a good 360, it will be corrupted and all progress lost. There is no way around this.

The same applies to game saves – if you access a game save on a banned 360, it too will be corrupted when accessed on a legit/unbanned 360! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! There is no way around this, either.

Your XBLA games and DLC will still be valid, however to play them on a different 360 you will need to be signed into Xbox Live. This is normal behaviour on unbanned/legit 360′s as well. They may be corrupted and have to be re-downloaded if you attempt to access them on a banned 360. You can transfer all of your downloaded content to a new 360 here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/default.htm however note that you can only do it once every 12 months.

So, in summary:
Your Banned 360:
* Cannot go on Xbox Live
* Cannot install games to the HDD
* Cannot use Windows Media Centre extender
* Cannot be used to get achievements from backups without corrupting your profile

You cannot do anything about this, short of buying a new 360.

There may be more functionality disabled than mentioned here, things are still being discovered.

- So what caused my ban?
There are MANY theories as to what is causing so many consoles to get banned this time, however as of yet there is nothing concrete, just a lot of circumstantial evidence and speculation. Please do not add to this, a full investigation is under-way.

c4eva, the main guy behind iXtreme, had this to say:
<+c4eva> fw itself not detectable
<+c4eva> suspect they are going hard on warez releases and incorrect use of abgx!

He also added the following:
<+c4eva> just to let you know that im looking into the current ban wave. I am currently running several brand new xboxs on live! These xboxs are in various configs. All are running ixtreme 1.61
<+c4eva> One is running original discs, another is running on xbl (no discs) , another is running a backup from my region!
<+c4eva> until tests are completed, no eta on liteon fw!

When we know more, YOU’LL no more, so please do not ask for updates!
A full transcript is available here – http://pastebin.ca/1660777

Remember, if you really want to blame someone, blame the person that decided to modify your 360 in the first place – most likey, that would be you ;

Microsoft has confirmed with IGN that they have issued another wave of bans, banning modified consoles from Xbox Live.

Microsoft Confirms LIVE Console Ban Wave to IGN: “We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE.”

In other news, Jungle Flasher V0.1.67 beta (50) has been released, new features/changes:
* iXtreme 1.61 support
* 1 minor bug
* other work was planned but leak of 1.61 prompted this quick fix

[ViA IGN and JungleFlasher]

Xamp from Xbox Scene has released a patched version of Xplorer360 to work with the 250GB HDD.

The Good:
* Drag and drop content to and from (inject/extract) confirmed working on both Partitions 2 and 3.

The Bad:
* Do not use any sort of backup or restore image features with this patched version.
* Do not use this version with 20, 60, or 120 gig drives.

The Details:
* Changed the cluster chain length value to 00 08 39 at offset 0xF0C2.

Microsoft have introduced a new disc security to stop piracy on the 360 (Wave 4 protection). The game “Car-o-Rama” is known to have this new security on it, but a 3mb patch quickly strips the new security.

Last Friday Disney Pixar released a new game, Car O Rama, which boasted a new Wave 4 protection. Microsoft’s earlier attempts at protecting the Xbox 360 against piracy have all failed miserably, and it seems this one is no exception. Pirates have already created a temporary fix for the iXtreme 1.6 hack firmware, which involves you downloading a 3MB “activate.iso” file and burning it to a DVD9 disc.

This disc can then be used to load games with Wave 4 protection, which currently only include Car O Rama, but will most likely include otehr games in the future. The official NFO file for the loader states

[VIA]

Team Cygnos integrates JTAG hack into Cygnos360 v2, news from Team Cygnos:

The last couple of weeks have been very turbulent for all Xbox360 lovers. We have seen some very good developments towards homebrew and better linux. We had fought with delays caused by the manufacturing and sourcing process which we finally solved. Now, Cygnos360 V2 is on stock at several shops and on the way to others. Production is still slow but ramping up and we are shortening delivery times. We did however not spend the time waiting doing nothing. We have used the time to significantly improve the functionality and usability of Cygnos360 V2.

* Most interesting new features are:
-Integration of the JTAG hack into our firmware so that we can play the role of the microcontroller doing the JTAG inject. This is running and tested on xenon and falcon mainboards. The other versions will follow via software updates. No taking apart or re-wiring needed. (please note that we cannot (yet) read and program the 256 & 512 Mb jaspers, 16Mb Jaspers are fine)
-The Cygnos360 V2 USB board now has a vertical USB connector. That way it is much easier and cleaner to install in your Xbox360. -We have added the possibility to communicate from “Xell” to Cygnos360 V2, for example to switch kernel via software command. (hotswap)
-We have added the functionality to enable switching between kernels having different SMC versions. It is not necessary to unplug the console for kernel switching, which is the case on current homebrew nand switchers and XD card solutions.
-We have added a back-channel to the Cygnos360 V2 that enables developers to talk back from applications running on the 360 to Cygnos. This way it is possible for example to send data from within the 360 to the PC via Cygnos360 V2. (e.g. temperatures, CPU/DVD key, or other nice stuff)

* Firmware and Toolbox
A flaw in our firmware has been fixed that caused the JTAG hack to work only once every power cycle. The JTAG hack has so far been tested on Xenon and Falcon. Opus is very likely to work as well. We appreciate, if anyone could test this on a Zephyr. Please report any errors!
The new toolbox in conjunction with the firmware will display serial output from XeLL, Linux, etc. in the console window.

Output coming from the Xbox 360 is colored yellow in order to distinguish it from toolbox messages (green). Since XeLL outputs the fuse settings via serial port, there’s now a very convenient way to save these to a file.
Download the new firmware and toolbox from here

* XeLL
Since our microcontroller cannot handle serial communication at 115200 baud, we had to make a minor modification to XeLL. The modification will set the baud rate register of the Xbox 360 to 38400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit. This implies that you have to build a custom JTAG hack image for Cygnos360 V2 with our modified XeLL. You can download the XeLL binaries and sources from here.

* imgbuild
The free60 imgbuild tool does by default not generate a full image as required by our toolbox. We therefore modified the build script accordingly. You can download the whole package from here.
Building your own image under Windows requires the installation of a Python interpreter. The simplest way is to download and install the Cygwin base system along with the “python” and “python-crypto” packages from here [cygwin.com].
Our modified imgbuild tool does not require a full binutils/gcc toolchain to generate an image. We included a precompiled payload binary instead. The SMC config block is taken from a dump of your Xbox 360. A typical command to generate and image would look like this:
python build.py dump.bin CBxxxx.bin CDxxxx.bin xboxupd.bin smc_hacked.bin xell-1f.bin
CBxxxx.bin and CDxxxx.bin are console (Xenon, Zephyr, Falcon, Opus, Jasper) specific, as well as smc_hacked.bin. Please use the xell-1f.bin from our XeLL package.

* Manual
For all interested for more info, check out the installation manual it contains a lot of info:

http://www.cygnos360.com/Downloads/Cygnos360V2_InstallationManual_V1.01.pdf

Happy Hacking!
Team Cygnos

[VIA]

After the release of the hack for Xenon and Falcon motherboards, today we get the Free60 JTAG/SMC XeLL Hack for Zephyr (v2) motherboards!. This NAND image will boot your Zephyr Xbox360 right into XeLL (Allows you to launch Linux distros or run libxenon homebrew software).

Finally the Zephyr JTAG Hack is here
This is XELL (compiled 11.09.09) inserted into 4558 Zephyr-Kernel.
!Fixed Version! USB Support was broken

Don’t wonder about the Filesize, its correct like that. It just flashes the beginning of the NAND so your console specific data like MAC adress will stay.

Of course you should have a working backup of your NAND before you proceed.

Just flash with:
LPT
nandpro lpt: -w16 zephyr_hack_updxell.bin 0
USB
nandpro usb: -w16 zephyr_hack_updxell.bin 0

SMC-JTAG Hack Wiring
DB1F1 —|<|— J2D2.1
RFUnit 2nd row, 2nd Pin —|<|—- J2D2.2
J2D2.4 ——— J2D2.7

FrostyTheSnowman released a new revision of his 360 Modification USB Drive.

Features:
- Complete Modding Solution for Samsung/BenQ/Lite-On
- USB-Based Successor to 360 Modification Disc Project
- iXtreme v1.6 (12x) Firmware
- 0800 Mode for Samsung/BenQ/Lite-On (thanks to iXtreme v1.6)
- USB Flash/Thumb Drive Bootable!
- Supports Samsung TS-H943
- Supports BenQ VAD6038
- Supports Lite-On DG-16D2S
- Supports Previously Modded Drives
- Supports Previously Spoofed Drives
- 100% DOS Based Dumping & Flashing
- Fully Automatic Dumping & Flashing
- Step-by-Step Instructions
- Backup of all drive-related files to USB flash/thumb drive!

Changes in v1.6:
- 360 Modification Disc v1.6 discontinued in favor of USB-based version (this one)
- NTFS support dropped, backup files are now saved to USB flash/thumb drive
- NTFS-related freezing issues fixed (due to dropping of NTFS support)
- Many code fixes in regards to backup firmware files
- Bugs fixed in backup folder generation
- Overall speed/performance improved

[VIA]

Felix Domke and Michael Steil at the Free60 Project have sent us the following email/notice today. They basically are sending a warning to Xbox 360 Hackers to not update their 360 (to the latest software version) as it blocks out the new homebrew hack they are planning to release. You can read the email below:

On Tuesday, Microsoft has released an Xbox 360 software update that overwrites the first stage bootloader of the system. Although there have been numerous software updates for Microsoft’s gaming console in the past, this is the first one to overwrite the vital boot block. Any failure while updating this will break the Xbox 360 beyond repair. Statistics from other systems have shown that about one in a thousand bootloader updates goes wrong, and unless Microsoft has a novel solution to this problem, this puts tens of thousands of Xboxes at risk.

It seems that this update is being done to fix a vulnerability already known to the Free60 Project. This vulnerability has been successfully exploited to run arbitrary code, and a complete end user compatible hack has been in development for some time and is planned to be released on free60.org shortly. It will allow users to take back control of their Xboxes and run arbitrary code like homebrew applications or Linux right after turning on the console and without the need of a modchip, finally opening up the Xbox 360 to a level of hacking as the original Xbox.

Because of the dangerousness of the update and the homebrew lockout, the Free60 Project advises all Xbox 360 users to not update their systems to the latest software version. The Project website at http://free60.org/ will provide the latest information on this ongoing topic, including the final hack software.

Free60 (www.free60.org) is a project that aims to enable Xbox 360 users to run homebrew applications and operating systems like Linux on their consoles. The effort is headed by Felix Domke and Michael Steil, who have a background in dbox2, Xbox and GameCube hacking, and who have spoken at various conferences about their findings. Two years ago, Free60 released a hack that allowed arbitrary code execution using a game (“King Kong Hack”) as well as an adapted version of Linux, but this possibility has been disabled by Microsoft in subsequent updates of the Xbox 360 software.

Felix and Michael have repeatedly argued that game console manufacturers should open up their platforms to Linux and homebrew, similar to what Sony has done with the PlayStation 3.

Team HyperX has released the newest IXtreme firmware for Liteon 83850c drives. If you still wish to keep your keys currently still only one method and that is the Foundmy/paid solution. Team HyperX is working on an alternative free solution for this. An important note for this release is that THX to not cross spoof between 7x and 8x LiteOn (rev1/rev2) drives! You can view the offical release statement below.

A new version of JungleFlasher to compliment the new firmware is due shortly.

[VIA Xbins]

Aversion Media have found a way to edit the Xbox 360 achievements, change your gamescore and even change your gamertag!

Watch the video on how to do this below:

Seacrest released abgx360 v1.0.0, the ultimate tool for Xbox 360 ISOs and Stealth files:
abgx360 v1.0.0 is finally here to save you from the BAN HAMMER!

Very easy to use.
Runs natively on practically any operating system.
All the info you could want is contained in the GUI.
If you still need a tutorial or you plan to write one, you’re an idiot.
Enjoy and thanks to everyone involved! You know who you are!Love,
Seacrest

[Download]

Team Jungle has released the latest iXtreme firmware and Jungle flasher for Xbox 360

Features (iXtreme):

This represents a possibility of booting a bad backup but now that there is some good tools out there (like abgx360) to check your backups before you boot them, the risk is small.

So please check your backups to ensure consistency with the original!

Full support to flash all drives in the new Jungleflasher (0.1.51) including easy upgrade for Liteon iX1.5 drives (WIll get all info inc key from drive over SATA)

We can’t give you the download link to iXtreme Firmware, but we can to Jungle Flasher and you can grab that below:

Features for Jungle Flasher:
View full list of updates here.

Download Jungle Flasher.

If you have a Xbox 360s with a stealth firmware, there might be bad news for you. New releases (such as Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. and MLB 09) do not boot on stealth firmwares. Xbox-Scene explains why below:

The reason in short: these games include the NXE dashboard update inside the video partition of the disc. The newer ‘stealth’ iXtreme firmwares check the crc of the video partition and if it doesn’t match ‘wave1′ or ‘wave2′ it will refuse to boot the disc. This new video partition that includes the NXE dashboard upgrade is ‘wave 3′ and support will have to be added for it in the iXtreme firmwares.

Older non-stealth firmwares do not check the video partition, so these will probably boot the discs, but it’s unsafe (alias stupid) to use these firmwares on a Xbox360 you also want to connect on LIVE, as it can/will get you banned.

C4eva and his team are already working on a new iXtreme version for all drive versions. iXtreme v1.51 will probably include full ‘wave3′ support (including for Hitachi drives). v1.6 is planned for later with 0800 dumping for all drives as well! There are no deadlines for the release, it’ll be out when it’s ready and tested, so please don’t ask … it shouldn’t take too long.

[via Xbox-Scene]