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There is currently some panic going on over rumors of SSv3 and AP2.5.

Since the release of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has used a version of their game disc called Xbox Game Disc 2.0. This is why when you rip a disc, the filename is called something like XGD2DVD. Part of the Xbox Game Disc 2 spec includes a set of anti piracy protections called Anti Piracy 2.0, or AP2.0.

To combat the checks and measures included in Anti Piracy 2.0, the Xbox scene has developed a set of countermeasures such as the security sectors, or SS. The scene's countermeasures also have a set of specs of their own. Currently there are two specs in wide usage, version 1 and version 2. It is currently recommended that all backups have the version 2 spec of security sectors, or SSv2.

Recently, rumors have broken out about a recent leaked version of the Xbox 360 dashboard. (As of 10/28/2010 it has not been pushed to members of the official beta program). With this new leaked version, certain backups of new games such as Fable 3 and The Sims 3 do not work. So far, the community has only been able to gather that with this newest version of the dashboard, Microsoft is employing AP2.5.

AP2.5 is an updated spec of the original Anti Piracy 2.0. All drives ever made, from Hitachi onwards support AP2.5, but it has never been activated. To get into some technical moon language, "AP2.5 involves host supplied LBA checks, encrypted with AES, LBA's are submitted by the host (360)"

Transcript from c4eva:

<+c4eva> AP25 threat is real, but only MS knows if it will ever be enabled, since it has been in drive fw since hitachi!
<+c4eva> action against ap25 will be taken when it is used, until then we can only monitor!
<+c4eva> ap25 involves host supplied LBA checks, encrypted with AES, LBA's are submitted by the host (360)!
<+c4eva> not all drives support it, and they will have to make sure all drives that do support give back reliable results! not as easy as it sounds!
<rift> c4eva so just to make sure i got this correct, you said the 360 makes the AES'd lba request correct? not the drive?
<+c4eva> rift: transmitted to drive to do the checks!
<+c4eva> fifa is fine
The developers in the scene (i.e. c4eva, Team Jungle, etc.) have been aware of AP2.5 for some time now, at least one and a half years. They've been working on a new spec for security sectors, SSv3. SS v3 patches haven't been put into use yet because in the five years the since 360 has been out AP2.5 hasn't been used once.

From an April 2009 Team HyperX nfo released with their 0800 firmware:

SS v2 suports multiple timing samples for challenges type 5 and 7 , stroing them in the SS. This is a pre-requiste for SS v3 which has support for the so called AP2.5 check. Since this has never been used or may never be used by MS we will adopt a wait and see approach and continue to monitor for its usage.
This reason is because AP2.5 is likely one of Microsoft's last trump cards when it comes to detecting modified firmware and preventing the usage of backups, and if c4eva did indeed do a good job with the iXtreme LT firmware they may now be forced to play their hand.

More details and information is sure to follow in the days to come with the upcoming dash. If AP2.5 is employed, there is decent hope that the scene will already have countermeasures prepared to allow for these new AP2.5 backups to be played on modified systems. From the sounds of it only new titles such as Fable 3 and The Sims 3 (and future releases) will require SS v3 patches, as prior games with SSv2 / SSv1 (not recommended) will still work on the recently leaked firmware.

Don't panic!

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