Microsoft silently released a patch that closes off holes in the tamper protection mechanism in its Xbox 360. This mechanism prevents users from running their own applications and alternative OSes like LINUX, but was defeated in December at a hacker conference.

The update was pushed out via Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming service. Any game coming out after February 20 will ship with the fix, which is also available for download on the Xbox Web site, the representative said.

However, Microsoft doesn’t describe the Xbox update as a security fix. Instead, on its Web site it lists an “operating system update” for download, without stating what the update does.

Source: CNET News