Monthly Archive for February, 2009

I knew it was coming, but for some reason, some people didn’t see it. I refer to the old equation that a normal person, plus internet and anonymity, equals asshole. Therefore, from that equation, one can guess that the asshole that derives from the equation will deliberately want to make someone’s life hard, simply in order to prove the point that they are better, as well as to stroke their ego.

Hackers have seen this opening in the market, and have taken advantage of these people that will do almost anything (obviously not limited by things that are inside the law) to prove their gaming prowess over other gamers, to the point of stopping people from getting onto the Xbox Live network in the first place, therefore making sure that they cannot challenge other people to regain their standing. The BBC has put an article up on this very subject, and it’s not that hard to see why Xbox Live users are interested in the services provided by these hackers.

For $20 (£13) some Xbox Live hackers will remotely access a customer’s PC and set up the whole system so it can be run any time they need it.

So, for $20, a hacker will remotely get into a customer’s computer, and set up this system, so it can be turned on at any time, and target any player. I don’t know why people haven’t realised that by giving the hackers the ability to get into their machine, they also give the hackers an open door to get the information that they want from the client’s computer, and use it to their own ends. Be it security information, credit card information, or even to set someone up as part of another client’s botnet, these players are giving the hackers an open door, and they’re paying them for the privilege.

The reason that this is possible lies in the Xbox Live Network’s biggest strength; the majority of the games that utilise the network don’t actually have central servers that actually host the games. In order to keep the running costs low, the players themselves host games. This is most often built into the game’s multiplayer infrastructure, and thus is very hard to change.

All the hacker would have to do is get into the game, sniff the direction of the packets, and where they are heading to, and they have the host. Sniff the host, and they have the IP addresses of all the players. Thin the list down until they have their target. Then, all they have to do is flood the target’s Xbox Live port with ping requests, or just random data; DDoSing the target until the client says stop, or the hacker gets bored.

The only reason I’m surprised, is that this weakness in the system hasn’t already been exploited on a larger scale. The amount of ‘toughguys’ on the internet alone should mean that these hackers have people almost flooding their inboxes with request. I don’t blame them, to be honest. I blame the game designers, and the designers of the Live Network, who didn’t see this coming.

Microsoft have said that whoever is caught using these systems will have their Live account and their console banned from the network, but the players that will be caught, will be a small fraction of the people that use the tools.