Xbox network data question

Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 11:17 pm

I would have posted this in the development forum but, lo, I don't have access Razz

My question is: Kai and other tunnel software work by sending the xbox network packets over the internet, but does Kai actually know what it's sending?

As in, does Kai differentiate between broadcast packets and the data packets? Does it at any point decrypt any of the packets to aid the tunneling process, or does it do it all blindly? I know that it's theoretically possible to decrypt the network data if you extract the lan key of the game (embedded in the .xbe) and use that, but I was wondering if kai actually did this or not.

Ta,
Dan

Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 0

Quote:

As in, does Kai differentiate between broadcast packets and the data packets? Does it at any point decrypt any of the packets to aid the tunneling process, or does it do it all blindly? I know that it's theoretically possible to decrypt the network data if you extract the lan key of the game (embedded in the .xbe) and use that, but I was wondering if kai actually did this or not.

Well, yes and no.

The engine differentiates between broadcast traffic and direct traffic - thats how it routes the data to the other users, or lets ppl in the arena know about new game servers.

With the xbox, all syslink data does throught an encryption layer similar to IPSEC. It's not just a case of using the LAN key, as the encryption is considerably more involved. I used to have some documentation on it - can't put my hands on it right now, but I believe it can be found in the XDK docs. But tu summarise, no, we dont look at payload at all - and it *appears* to be essentially impossible to do so.

TD

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:34 am

Nuts. I was hoping I could do my uni project on something to do with xbox network traffic but it seems a bit too complicated and/or illegal. The assumptions I made about the Lan key were only based on a few snippets I read in forums online.

My idea was to make a spoofer that would decrypt traffic from an xbox hosting a system link halo game and fool it into thinking someone had joined (the most primitive application being that modders could test their new maps without having to go split screen). But then, if the network packets would have been as relatively simple to decrypt as I'd assumed then someone would probably have already done it by now. I should have realised this.

Oh well, thanks for your help TD. Hope you liked Machu Picchu Smile