The design for a hacking tool to bypass security features on the Xbox games console has been released by an Australian company.

Hibana is freely offering the design of its DualMod chip as open source software on its website.

So-called mod chips are add-ons that can be put on a console's circuit board, allowing people to run imported games or illegally copied discs.

The legality of the chips is a grey area, with a US court recently sending a man to jail for selling them on his website.