Microsoft released the Xbox One in 2013. The console, which commercially didn't perform too well, was still an achievement for Microsoft, with the company's director of OS security, Dave Weston, dubbing it "the most secure product Microsoft has ever produced and maybe the most secure [device] out there.”
These words for hackers were like a red cloth to a bull, and what followed was a 13-year slog to prove Microsoft wrong and hack the console.
That challenge has now been completed, with one hacker using a Voltage Hacking Glitch to bypass the console's security, allowing "loading unsigned code at every level" and access to the security processor, enabling games, firmware, and more to be decrypted.
During a talk at the recent RE//verse 2026 conference (via Tom's Hardware), hacker Markus ‘Doom’ Gaasedelen revealed that he has done the unthinkable and hacked the Xbox One. Gaasedelen called it a "rite of passage" for newly released consoles to be hacked, but said of the Xbox One that "some kind of iron curtain came down on security," and therefore, it never got hacked.
He alluded to Microsoft using "black magic", for its security, and that cracking the console was like "hunting dragons," but...
