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The Neo Project, a group of distributed computing enthusiasts, has apparently resumed its attempt to crack an encryption key used to digitally sign software for Microsoft's Xbox video game console.

The group had said on its Web site on January 7 that for legal reasons it had abandoned its effort to crack the key, just four days after it began. However, a different message appeared the next day.

Renewed Resolve

"We're back and we're back strong," reports a statement now posted on the Neo Project Web site. The message tells visitors to stay tuned and promises that the group would have new client software available to continue what it called the Xbox Challenge.

"With the recent media frenzy we stopped the project to research the legal aspect before preceding (sic) any further," said the statement, which was on the site at 5 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday.

The Neo Project was launched last July as an attempt to crack the $10,000 RSA-576 Factoring Challenge, sponsored by RSA Security. Then, the group turned its attention in January to Microsoft's real-life application of the same algorithm. The Neo Project announced this week that it has found an interesting mathematical property of the RSA-576 number: the squares that (when added together) make it up. It is still searching for the factors that could win it the $10,000 prize.

In a series of messages on its Web site, first invited supporters to donate their PC's idle time to help search for Microsoft's private encryption key using distributed computing techniques. Then, it declared it would drop the effort if the Xbox project was found to be illegal or Microsoft threatened legal action. On January 7, a message declared The Neo Project had withdrawn from the challenge and removed the code to crack the Xbox key.

The organizers of The Neo Project have not been able to be reached for comment since the initial announcement that they would ditch the project.

Other Attempts

Many hackers are searching for ways to run other applications or their own software on the Xbox, but have so far been thwarted by a security mechanism in the console. Microsoft built in restrictions to permit applications to run only if they are digitally signed with Microsoft's 2048-bit private encryption key, according to one such group, the Xbox Linux Project.

That group has posted a version of Linux for Xbox, promising to turn the device into a fully-featured PC.

The distribution for the Xbox is based on MandrakeSoft SA's Mandrake 9.0 Linux. It was developed by a German group called h07.org. It also requires installation on the main circuit board of an extra chip known as a mod chip. Microsoft says such a modification enables users to circumvent copyright protection on games.

A $200,000 prize for the Xbox Linux Project contest was recently revealed to have been contributed by Michael Robertson, founder and chief executive officer of Lindows.com, a Microsoft rival being sued by the software giant.

The Xbox Linux project and similar efforts are based on the fact that the Xbox hardware architecture is very similar to that of a PC. The console has a 733-MHz Intel Pentium III, 64MB of RAM, and an 8GB hard disk.

Other cracking efforts are ongoing. In June, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June claimed to crack the Xbox's security system, potentially allowing users to run any software on the system.

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