Is it possible to run hacks and cheats on hardware level on gaming consoles (xbox and PS4)?

[R4k4n0th]

I never owned a gaming console. I don't know much about them.
In PCs, you can run whatever code or software you want on your PC. This allows you to cheat on video games, even online.
Some people even use hardware based cheats on PCs, such as PCIeScreamer (to read or write computer memory) or Arduino boards (for aim smoothing, for example).
But on gaming consoles, you cannot run your own code AFAIC.
You cannot even install any hardware into the motherboard like in PCs. But you can install or replace HDD or SSD in gaming console.
Correct me if I am wrong.

1.) SSDs or HDDs have their own firmware. Can you tamper with this firmware to access gaming console's memory?

2.) The memory chips and controller seem to be integrated into the motherboard on gaming consoles. Is it possible to tamper with the memory controller or memory chips? I guess it would be extremely difficult to remove them from the motherboard. I am just wondering if it is remotely possible.

3.) Do USB devices on gaming consoles have direct memory access?

 

[HammerON]

Thread closed for now while we (Mods) discuss this...

EDIT - After discussing this thread, we (Mods) decided to see where this goes. Walking a fine line here so be careful.

 

[Vya Domus]

It would technically be possible to make a machine learning software that could play the game using only the video feed and a modified controller to get it's inputs from an external PC. I can't think if anything else.

 

[vega22]

Yes, you can inject code into Xbox consoles to run hacks and I imagine the playstation has much the same vulnerabilities. But from what I understand they only work on some firmwares and are quickly patched once they become public.

 

[silentbogo]

2.) The memory chips and controller seem to be integrated into the motherboard on gaming consoles. Is it possible to tamper with the memory controller or memory chips? I guess it would be extremely difficult to remove them from the motherboard. I am just wondering if it is remotely possible.

I've been out of the console game for a long time as well. Started reading random stuff last night, and it got me kinda interested...
Apparently there have been lots of significant improvements on the homebrew front for XB360. I've heard about JTAG debuggers for XB, but years later some dude actually wrote a decent debugger to go with it.

X360DebuggerWV/README.md at master · zeroKilo/X360DebuggerWV

XBox 360 Remote Debugger by Warranty Voider. Contribute to zeroKilo/X360DebuggerWV development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Maybe I should find a broken 360 for experiments.

There's also lots of cool stuff like homebrew, demoscene, Linux on inappropriate things, etc.
I think the first PS3 hack that allowed to use all cores and NVidia RSX GPU was developed specifically with demoscene in mind, cause at the time Sony's OtherOS locked it all out.

 

[hat]

You can jailbreak a console, which allows unsigned applications to run. With a jailbroken console, you could potentially use cheats if someone has developed them. Sony, at least, is pretty quick to catch jailbroken consoles though and ban them from PSN...

 

[Nuke Dukem]

Well, that's a shame... I left this thread sitting in a tab for later, but when I came back to it today there's almost nothing left. I specifically remember one long post about webcams, tensor cores, aimbots - there was a link to some article, it looked really interesting. If somebody has the link, feel free to PM me.

 

[R-T-B]

Did this thread get purged of a lot of posts, or am I losing my mind? (Both are possible, hence the ask).

 

[Nuke Dukem]

No, you're still sane. The purge is real. I complained about the same thing in the post above, guess you missed it.

 

[metalfiber]

Do you mean like a trainer you can get for the PC?
Run the trainer then the game, press N1 for cash press N2 for health...something like that.
I loved the old Game Sharks back in the Sega Genesis days.
The only cheats for the PS4 that i know of is from here and you've got to pay for them. https://www.savewizard.net
I've never used savewizard or know anything else about them. Just be an ethical cheater and use them on single player games only.

 

[silentbogo]

Yep, it seems that along with morality rant all of my useful posts got swept under the rug.
Guess I'm gonna have to do some research and post more links to keep this thread going...

Well, that's a shame... I left this thread sitting in a tab for later, but when I came back to it today there's almost nothing left. I specifically remember one long post about webcams, tensor cores, aimbots - there was a link to some article, it looked really interesting. If somebody has the link, feel free to PM me.

T'was a link to my old thread about spambots, I think.

IP cameras as Spambots

This is probably the old news, and many of you already heard about last years massive abuse of connected devices by hackers, but today I had a live example. Usually when I receive spam/scam emails, I ignore them, but sometimes (if the case is interesting) for the sake of curiosity I am doing a...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Nuke Dukem]

T'was a link to my old thread about spambots, I think.

No, I believe it was something about a webcam looking at a monitor (displaying a video game), a PC crunching the video feed, analyzing it, then altering human input in order to act as aimbot/assist. Or may it be that I have misunderstood something?

 

[silentbogo]

No, I believe it was something about a webcam looking at a monitor (displaying a video game), a PC crunching the video feed, analyzing it, then altering human input in order to act as aimbot/assist. Or may it be that I have misunderstood something?

Oh, I haven't yet found the video I mentioned in that post.
The one I posted was screencap without a camera (just a proof of concept for a PyCON presentation).

Spoiler

Using Python to build an AI to play and win SNES StreetFighter II with machine learning

If you want to learn more, you can dig around youtube && github. There are tons of material on this topic. I think I've even stumbled upon few coding tutorials for trigger bots and other simple stuff. I think the most interesting thing to look at is autonomous RPG bots. I know back in a day people used to run those for Lineage II, Guild wars series, Diablo 3, and others. Once I've even tried to write my own bot for text-based RPG (very-very old russian tactical browser game that exists till this day)...

 

[Vario]

Oh, I haven't yet found the video I mentioned in that post.
The one I posted was screencap without a camera (just a proof of concept for a PyCON presentation).

Spoiler

Using Python to build an AI to play and win SNES StreetFighter II with machine learning

If you want to learn more, you can dig around youtube && github. There are tons of material on this topic. I think I've even stumbled upon few coding tutorials for trigger bots and other simple stuff. I think the most interesting thing to look at is autonomous RPG bots. I know back in a day people used to run those for Lineage II, Guild wars series, Diablo 3, and others. Once I've even tried to write my own bot for text-based RPG (very-very old russian tactical browser game that exists till this day)...

Etal bot was interesting for Diablo 2. I tried running a team of bots with that for private baal games just for fun.

 

[Aquinus]

I suspect it's rather difficult to do since platforms like the Xbox One are locked down pretty well. There are a lot of things in place to prevent this sort of thing. Consoles are a little more complicated than back when you could just plug in a GameShark and have at it.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

Using Python to build an AI to play and win SNES StreetFighter II with machine learning

This video was definitely one of the things I wanted to check out, thanks!

If you want to learn more, you can dig around youtube && github. There are tons of material on this topic. I think I've even stumbled upon few coding tutorials for trigger bots and other simple stuff. I think the most interesting thing to look at is autonomous RPG bots. I know back in a day people used to run those for Lineage II, Guild wars series, Diablo 3, and others. Once I've even tried to write my own bot for text-based RPG (very-very old russian tactical browser game that exists till this day)...

Oh, I'm sure there's info and I get the basic principle, I just wanted to have the links to exact same resources in order to avoid losing precious time in searching and hoping for the best