Topic: How Is Kiosk Disk Blocked (Read 189 times)

bonevichio · « **on:** February 02, 2006, 01:16:00 PM »

How did M$ actually block the disk? Are they checking the signature of the default.xex to see if it is the Kiosk disk? How does the 360 after the update only block this particular default.xex on the Kiosk disc and not any other default.xex on a retail game?

BCfosheezy · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2006, 01:33:00 PM »

QUOTE(bonevichio @ Feb 2 2006, 02:23 PM)

How did M$ actually block the disk? Are they checking the signature of the default.xex to see if it is the Kiosk disk? How does the 360 after the update only block this particular default.xex on the Kiosk disc and not any other default.xex on a retail game?

I haven't seen the code so I don't know exactly how they did it. You do imply that you don't understand how they could block these xex's and not all others. I can offer one solution to the problem just to show you how simple it would be. Since these xex's can't be changed due to invalidating the signatures it's quite simple to just do a hash check. Look at the checksum and then explicitly deny any xex with this checksum from running. Go through the whole kiosk disk and deny all hashes of the xex's on the disk and you have effectively blocked the kiosk disk while allowing all others. Again, I don't know how they did it but there is more than one way to skin a cat and this is just one very simple solution.

troist · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2006, 05:57:00 PM »

i think that the dashboard now checks DVDs more thoroughly when booting them... they won't have totally blocked out DVDs being bootable because people can download updates for their xbox and burn them to disc, if they took out that feature it'd mean a lot of irritated people... i haven't got a updated box to check on, so i can't backup any of my points, but i doubt they'd just ditch that feature. its also far easier and cheaper for magazines offering demos to burn the discs themselves, than getting them burnt and pressed by MS. more demos = more awareness of games = more profits... so they wouldn't want to get that number lowered.

what i personally think they check for now is the little video that you get when you put your xbox 360 game in a normal DVD drive. when we burn the kiosk disc, we just burnt the files, not that video. it'd be relatively easy for MS to check for that video, and since all demos and games have to have that video, a check like that would mean you could weed out the backups from reals. obviously when we can boot byte to byte backups this protection will be useless, but until then its another obstacle they've set out for us. i don't think this check was to prevent the kiosk disc necessarily, but the backups we've managed to rip.

Angerwound · « **Reply #3 on:** February 02, 2006, 06:14:00 PM »

They do assign EVERY xex its own titleID and version number for a reason.

PedrosPad · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2006, 02:32:00 AM »

QUOTE(troist @ Feb 3 2006, 03:04 AM)

what i personally think they check for now is the little video that you get when you put your xbox 360 game in a normal DVD drive. when we burn the kiosk disc, we just burnt the files, not that video. it'd be relatively easy for MS to check for that video, and since all demos and games have to have that video, a check like that would mean you could weed out the backups from reals. obviously when we can boot byte to byte backups this protection will be useless, but until then its another obstacle they've set out for us. i don't think this check was to prevent the kiosk disc necessarily, but the backups we've managed to rip.

I've heard a rumor that the original Experience 360 Kiosk DVD was a true XBOXDVD, complete with video track. But Team PI noticed that the XEXs were also media flagged to run from CD/DVD-R, so they ripped the disk just like a X360 game, extracted the files, and made up the DVD-R ISO.

Very doubtful, but this may also be the case with the replacement demo disk.

So a question is, does an original of the first Experience 360 Kiosk DVD still boot after this update?

forprog · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2006, 11:28:00 AM »

is it possible to remove the new dash update?

PedrosPad · « **Reply #6 on:** February 06, 2006, 02:32:00 AM »

QUOTE(forprog @ Feb 5 2006, 08:35 PM)

is it possible to remove the new dash update?

On the X360 the Dashboard is stored in Flash memory - and I don't believe any way to access/rollback this has been released.

Interestingly, a log text file that was left on the Kiosk DVD appeared to be a directory listing of the Flash memory, following an upgrade, and its contents seemed to indicate that the previous Dashboard was backed up, not erased! There'd be no point backing it up if it's never retrievable!

jwin767 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 06, 2006, 03:09:00 AM »

QUOTE(PedrosPad @ Feb 6 2006, 11:39 AM)

There'd be no purpose backing it up if it was never retrievable!

There would be a point if there WAS some major fault that M$ didnt notice before they released a dash. i bet they know how to roll-back dash versions

PedrosPad · « **Reply #8 on:** February 06, 2006, 03:27:00 AM »

QUOTE(jwin767 @ Feb 6 2006, 12:16 PM)

There would be a point if there WAS some major fault that M$ didnt notice before they released a dash. i bet they know how to roll-back dash versions

Indeed

. Try holding in the unit's power button for 5 seconds during power up.

deadparrot · « **Reply #9 on:** February 06, 2006, 09:00:00 AM »

QUOTE(PedrosPad @ Feb 3 2006, 09:39 AM)

So a question is, does an original of the first Experience 360 Kiosk DVD still boot after this update?

They're all over eBay. Someone buy one!

mrbelvedere · « **Reply #10 on:** February 06, 2006, 05:58:00 PM »

Ok, I got a hold of the original pressed kiosk disc. It still boots. So they must not be blocking that paticular disc titleID. My guess is there is some sort of patch included so that that titleID will only boot from retail and not dvd5 regardless of the mediaflag.

G0t M4xx 21 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 06, 2006, 07:14:00 PM »

QUOTE(PedrosPad @ Feb 6 2006, 03:39 AM)

On the X360 the Dashboard is stored in Flash memory - and I don't believe any way to access/rollback this has been released.

well if you socketed the flash ship you could possibly "hotswap" flash chips immediately before doing an update, so you'd have one flash with the old dash, and one with the new

nj12nets · « **Reply #12 on:** February 06, 2006, 08:11:00 PM »

dun know if this is possible but if you could intercept the data while its updating insteado f it actually being written to t he chip itself you would have an original and a new one. i dont know how it would be done but could it be possible?

forprog · « **Reply #13 on:** February 07, 2006, 10:24:00 AM »

it will be nice to see the xbox 360 refresh disk surface

deadparrot · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2006, 01:15:00 AM »

QUOTE(forprog @ Feb 7 2006, 05:31 PM)

it will be nice to see the xbox 360 refresh disk surface

It already did. Some kid sent his xbox in and it came back with one in the drive.

Author Topic: How Is Kiosk Disk Blocked (Read 189 times)