If you still own an original Xbox, you can now hack it with only a memory card

The original Xbox can now be hacked with only a memory card, according to an exploit that was discovered and published on the Xbox Dev GitHub page.

The exploit, which is suggestively called Endgame, doesn’t require a game or a functional DVD, and it can be easily deployed using a memory card. It is compatible with all the versions of the original Xbox Dashboard, so you can now hack your console with it if you still have it around.

ENDGAME is a universal dashboard exploit for the original Microsoft Xbox. This exploit has been carefully engineered to be compatible across all retail kernel and dashboard versions released for the original Xbox. It does not require a game, or even a working DVD drive — only a memory card.

XboxDev

What does this mean exactly? Well, you could use the exploit to hack your original Xbox and make it compatible with modern softmod solutions. This means you could make your original Xbox run all sort of old-school games on it.

XboxDev says the exploit in itself is not enough to provide a soft mod experience, but coupled with other methods, it will make it easier to mod the console.

No, by itself, ENDGAME is not a softmod. But it will make softmodding significantly more accessible as the community integrates it into existing softmod solutions.

XboxDev

The developers have also left a guide on how to implement this exploit, and you’ll only need a memory card to do it. So, if you have one to spare, you can try this now. After you run the exploit, you’ll obtain arbitrary code execution and you’ll be able to make it easier to change the behavior of the console.

The exploit targets an integer overflow in the dashboard’s handling of savegame images. When the dash attempts to parse the specially crafted images on the memory card, ENDGAME obtains arbitrary code execution.

XboxDev

However, you should also be aware that you could potentially lose all the data from the original Xbox in question, so you have to consider the risk before implementing the exploit.

Check out the full blog post here (it includes the guide on how to deploy this exploit on the original Xbox using memory cards).