Xbox 360 security in details: the long way to RGH3
Hi there, it’s Positive Labs! Here we perform different kinds of embedded R&D. Regretfully, most of the cool stuff is not allowed to be shared due to the NDA, but I still want to introduce you to the awesome adventurous spirit of our lab. It happens that my current job is pretty similar to my long-time hobby, the security research of game consoles. So it’s high time to continue my Xbox 360 trilogy[1][2][3] (Rodrigo Copetty has a really good summary of it here). Yup, today’s topic is how the most used Xbox 360 modding method, RGH3, was born.
A long time ago, in the year 2021, I was sure that the Xbox 360 era was over. After almost 13 years in the scene, it was time for me to let it go. So I sold the rest of my console parts, abandoned the related projects and stopped visiting forums. But Providence had other plans for me, involving several months of sleepless nights.
It all started from a simple spark question: my friend asked me to help him find something that can play video games. His PC was really weak and he had no money for an upgrade. My first thought was: “Xbox 360 would be a solution! It’s pretty cheap but can play even AAA games like GTA 5.” On the next day, we bought a used Xbox360 for around $30.
