Xbox One Exploit Proof of Concept Released, Based on Chakra Exploit

Xbox One Exploit Proof of Concept Released, Based on Chakra Exploit(wololo.net)

108 points by fmavituna 9 years ago | 27 comments

I don't know much at all about the Xbox One architecture (and what I do is from public information obviously), but it seems safe to assume that this exploit would only land in the "Application" portion of the system. As I understand there are two (three?) hypervisor-level isolated portions of the system... particularly for cases like this in order to prevent a compromised application from being able to enable piracy of the "GameOS" portion.

gambiting 9 years ago | |

There are actually 3 different OSes running on the Xbox One. Applications are in their own OS, so any "kernel" exploit would only grant them access to that very limited OS that can't run games. Unless, of course, they somehow manage to escape that container and force VM to run their own modified version of GameOS.

my123 9 years ago | | |

A modified version of Hyper-V called NanoVisor is used. Apps run in SystemOS, which is already accessible officially even through other ways... GameOS and HostOS use a stripped-down version of the NT kernel, compiled differently and without binary compat.

watsonc73 9 years ago |

"I do not have an xbox one and cannot verify that the exploit indeed works. With that being said, there’s enough hints pointing to this being real so if you have an XBox running on the affected firmware, feel free to give it a try and comment."

I've no doubt this exploit is legit but it would be nice for reporters to actually verify these issues themselves before posting online.

The above basically reads to me I'M TOO LAZY TO CHECK MYSELF

spondyl 9 years ago | |

I would struggle to call wololo a reporter. The site is more of a "scene" blog so I don't actually know what resources he has.

For example, you might expect Ars Technica to own an Xbox One but wololo may not have one himself but yeah, I know what you mean.

EDIT: Oh, I overlooked the part where he says "yup, I still don’t have an Xbox One…" so there ya go

lawl 9 years ago | |

He said he doesn't have an xbox one in TFA. What do you want him to do? Go buy one so he can make a blog post?

aaossa 9 years ago | | |

He could have ask a friend to apply the exploit, is a matter of responsibility because you need proofs to support your statements. What would happen if the exploit is not real and he called it out incorrectly?

supergreg 9 years ago | | |

Let someone who tried it do the reporting?

patcheudor 9 years ago | | |

Yes! Emphatically yes! Particularly in the security community this has become quite a problem. People will report on stuff and make claims without actually doing the research and it contributes to some very bad practices over time as things which are factually untrue become accepted as fact.

wpietri 9 years ago | |

Looking around, this appears to be a hobbyist news and discussion site. Here's the news portion:

http://wololo.net/category/news/

Even if this were the New York Times talking about an exploit, I'd expect their reporters to, well, report, not necessarily directly verify something themselves. And this is quite clear that it's unconfirmed. What he does do is report what the developer is saying, adding sufficient context for non-experts to understand, and giving links so those interested can learn more. Presumably once it's verified, there will be another article saying so.

Given that, it seems like perfectly fine amateur journalism. Why do you expect it to be something else?

matt_wulfeck 9 years ago | |

Sounds more like a liability thing to me. "I've never actually done it wink wink"

lawnchair_larry 9 years ago | | |

Liability? Would he take legal action against himself for exceeding authorization against himself?

userbinator 9 years ago | |

It reminds me of the Knuth quote: "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."

watsonc73 9 years ago | | |

+1 Sums up my point beautifully - to be clear I'm not trying to clamp down on free speech and would encourage reporters to "report" breaches like this. The main issue I have is that there's a first to post mentality without adequate fact checking. Speed is beating substance. The incentives in media are unfortunately all lined up the wrong way. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic but I miss the days when any journalist (amateur or not) would pride themselves on the accuracy of their statements. I've basically just stopped believing what I read after the FB fake news revelations.