Xbox Encryption Key Under Brute-Force Hack Attack; Could Take Eons

has created an downloadable application to decode the key. The rewards for cracking the key are substantial -- the CEO of Lindows.com has promised $100,000 to the person or group who can get a version of GNU/Linux that runs on the Xbox. That could be done one of two ways: porting Linux to a modified Xbox, or to hack the Xbox key. While most of the press about Xbox hacking has centered around the former challenge, The Neo Project is attempting to tackle the latter -- which would let them boot-up an unmodified Xbox under Linux. The strength of Xbox's RSA-2048 encryption rests on the prime factors of this 617 digit number: 25195908475657893494027183240048398571429282126204 03202777713783604366202070759555626401852588078440 69182906412495150821892985591491761845028084891200 72844992687392807287776735971418347270261896375014 97182469116507761337985909570009733045974880842840 17974291006424586918171951187461215151726546322822 16869987549182422433637259085141865462043576798423 38718477444792073993423658482382428119816381501067 48104516603773060562016196762561338441436038339044 14952634432190114657544454178424020924616515723350 77870774981712577246796292638635637328991215483143 81678998850404453640235273819513786365643912120103 97122822120720357 According to the group, there are currently about 3,500 Neo users, and they have eliminated 776 million possibilities for the encryption key so far. There is but one solution to any RSA security key, two large primes, and it's been conjectured that determining the solution could take longer than the current age of the universe, given current computing power.