Microsoft must wish it were an April 1 joke

THE HOLY GRAIL of Xbox hacks has been found. Someone has managed to produce a hack for the Microsoft console that lets it run Linux without any hardware modification. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was achieved using the Vole's favourite security hole, a buffer overflow.

The hack is performed using a modified save-game for "007: Agent Under Fire." The modified save-game causes a buffer overflow and that in turn starts a compact version of Linux.

This was the major hurdle in getting an Xbox to run a full version of Linux, the machines are designed to only run code digitally signed by Microsoft. The fact that this major obstacle has been crossed will almost certainly lead to far more exploits.

A full version of Linux running on an unmodified Xbox would be a nightmare for Microsoft. It sells the machines at a loss so any Xbox running Linux is costing the company money. µ

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