Microsoft Fights Against Xbox Hacks

Microsoft has fired back against hackers who had broke into the Xbox 360 console to run their own code by masking a patch to disable such activity within a system update billed as a fix to the console's online systems. As with most fixes, a user is signed out of Xbox Live and prevented from signing back in until the update is applied, making its installation almost mandatory.

The patch comes after it was discovered in late February the console had a vulnerability that allowed privilege escalation into hypervisor mode. Such an issue would allow attackers -- or creative users -- to run arbitrary code or alternative operating systems. Although no one has yet been successful in running anything of consequence, a "hello world" script program was posted on the Xbox Scene Web site late last week.