Xbox Live is being targeted by malicious hackers selling services that kick players off the network.
The booting services are proving popular with players who want a way to get revenge on those who beat them in an Xbox Live game.
The attackers are employing data flooding tools that have been used against websites for many years.
Microsoft is "investigating" the use of the tools and said those caught using them would be banned from Xbox Live.
"There's been a definite increase in the amount of people talking about and distributing these things over the last three to four weeks," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research at Facetime Communications.
Attack tool
"The smart thing about these Xbox tools is that they do not attack the Xbox Live network itself," he said.
He said the tools work by exploiting the way that the Xbox Live network is set up. Game consoles connecting to the Xbox network send data via the net, and for that it needs an IP address.
Even better, said Mr Boyd, games played via Xbox Live are not hosted on private servers.
"Instead," he said, "a lot of games on Xbox Live are hosted by players."
If hackers can discover the IP address of whoever is hosting a game they can employ many of the attacks that have been used for years against websites, said Mr Boyd.
One of the most popular for the Xbox Live specialists is the Denial of Service attack which floods an IP address with vast amounts of data.
The flood of data is generated by a group of hijacked home computers, a botnet, that have fallen under the control of a malicious hacking group.
When turned against a website this flood of traffic can overwhelm it or make it unresponsive to legitimate visitors.
When turned against an Xbox owner, it can mean they cannot connect to the Live network and effectively throws them out of the game.
"They get your IP address, put it in the booter tool and they attempt to flood the port that uses Xbox traffic," said Mr Boyd. "Flooding that port prevents any traffic getting out."
Skill set
The hard part, he said, was discovering a particular gamer's IP address but many malicious hackers had honed the skills needed to find them.
Some interconnect their PC and Xbox and use packet sniffing software to hunt through the traffic flowing in and out of the console for IP addresses.
Others simply use con tricks to get the target to reveal their net address.
The technical knowledge needed to hunt down IP addresses was quite high, said Mr Boyd, but many of those who had the skills were selling their expertise to those keen to hit back at their rivals on the Xbox Live network.
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.
Some offer low rates to add compromised machines to a botnet and increase the amount of data flooding a particular IP address.
Defending against the attack could be tricky, said Mr Boyd: "There's no real easy solution to this one."
Although IP addresses regularly change, people could find it takes hours or days for their ISP to move them on to a new one.
In response to the rise in attacks, Microsoft said: "We are investigating reports involving the use of malicious software tools that an attacker could use to try and disrupt an Xbox LIVE player's internet connection."
It added: "This problem is not related to the Xbox Live service, but to the player's internet connection. The attacker could also attempt [to] disrupt other internet activities, such as streaming video or web browsing, using the same tools.
In its statement Microsoft warned: "This malicious activity violates the Xbox Live Terms of Use, and will result in a ban from Xbox Live and other appropriate action.
It urged anyone falling victim to such an attack to contact their ISP to report it and get help fixing it.
In January 2009 Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had more than 17m members.
seen this, like the article says it's been going on a while. usually only done in competitive games like shooters, but stuff like this was prominent in halo 2 back in the day, and can be seen a lot in gears of war 2 matchmaking.
Really really sad yeah. Hiring a hacker because someone beat you in a videogame. Where is the world going to?
I'm not worrying too much myself *knocks wood* since I don't have a Gold Subscription to play online anyways. Add to that I'm a totally sweet person unable to piss of anyone. /attempts innocent face
I don't mind playing with people I don't know, but I'm not really into the whole talking stuff when it's with people I don't know. On PC gaming it's not as much of an issue, but with XBL it's different.
Sacchin wrote:Wait I haven't been able to play on live for the last 3 days cause I was lagging so much....
But...I don't play with people I don't know.
I wouldn't worry honestly, lagging will happen so dun worry the hackers haven't got you. Especially playing with only people you know, you're a lot better off. It really is sad though to hear all this, and not surprising either. Some of the people I have heard on there, they just take the game as serious as life and man do they live throwing threats at anyone who beats them.
Just reminds me of Halo 2 when all you ran into after a certain experience level was people who would Mod and do all that dumb stuff. It was REALLY fun to kill the Modders though. I remember a guy made himself run super fast and shoot without reloading. But he forgot infinte ammo. So within a minute he was out of bullets and we'd just beat him down constantly. Good times.
RuYi wrote:I don't mind playing with people I don't know, but I'm not really into the whole talking stuff when it's with people I don't know. On PC gaming it's not as much of an issue, but with XBL it's different.
Me neither, I always mute the others in Halo lolz...But I don't mind playing with random people either, I have to if I want to play some matches since it's 4vs4 (mostly)
I remember when halo 3 first came out. There was some sort of exploit where someone could lag up the whole game but continue to move around and kill people themselves. I never really looked into it but saw it happen a few times.
Innovacious wrote:I remember when halo 3 first came out. There was some sort of exploit where someone could lag up the whole game but continue to move around and kill people themselves. I never really looked into it but saw it happen a few times.
People take games way to seriously.
Sounds similar to when they'd "Stand By". Everyone would get blue screens while they would still move, always did it during Objective matches and so on i remember. They really do take it too seriously. They do it with friends and have elaborate schemes of how to boost each other's level till they get capped level. And then what? they get bored lol.
Innovacious wrote:I remember when halo 3 first came out. There was some sort of exploit where someone could lag up the whole game but continue to move around and kill people themselves. I never really looked into it but saw it happen a few times.
People take games way to seriously.
Sounds similar to when they'd "Stand By". Everyone would get blue screens while they would still move, always did it during Objective matches and so on i remember. They really do take it too seriously. They do it with friends and have elaborate schemes of how to boost each other's level till they get capped level. And then what? they get bored lol.
Like the iTz clan on Halo3..All those people have 50 skill at like leutinant (lol sp? =/) Sure there are some people that are that good but every single member of iTz, like wtf.
Well i even had a friend who I think had some friend that basically boosted him to max level on Halo 3. He got annoyed because everyone was too good and it wasnt fun, so he made another account lol. Its just so dumb. But eh, people feel its worth it somehow. Im sure it works to pick up a chick.
"So what do you do for a living?" "Heh...uh...well I dont work right now....BUT i am a lvl 50 in Halo 3 Ranks . I no scoped a dude across the map!" ":o Marry me?!"
What Inno was talking about was standby. that's pretty much the most common of the cheats, and goes on literally in 50% of the gears of war 2 matchmaking matches if you're about to win the match, they'll standby you. you won't even be able to move. dead before they let go of the button. over and over again.
also becoming common is bridging yourself host, or your friends host, so you always get host and can standby and do all kinds of other shit with people's ip's in the game if they're better than you.
again, nothing really to worry about unless you play at a high level in really competitive games. but it does suck.
oh, and itz was started in halo 2. they aren't really a clan or team or anything.. it was just a trend that's been dragged out way too long. stood for "in the zone" but most of the idiots that slap it on their gamertag wouldn't even be able to tell you that.
And I want Star Ocean 4, but like all the other rpg's I buy, it will prolly just collect dust once I get it.
What about.. Look at my ava.
I knw T~T Funny thing is I just finished Metroid Prime 3 before I went to L4D. Elysia is so pretty but the game was so short and easy. I totally had sh:hc in my hand last night but then I played 12 seconds of Spyro and watched Big O instead ._.
Thee_UniQue wrote:
Sacchin wrote:
XMoshe wrote:Which 3 games? :O
Gear of War 2 Call of Duty 4 and World at War
And I want Star Ocean 4, but like all the other rpg's I buy, it will prolly just collect dust once I get it.
You should get msn. Easier to talk.
And I want to play L4D with you, well actually I've been more on COD4, just got it, still rank 19 .
But if I see you online at xbl we'll go rampage on the nab zambis kay?
Anyways, OT: Uau that really sucks, I'm glad I just play it for fun and I'm pretty much ok if I get raped.
You're always sleeping >:( I screwed up the msn part of my xbox live account somehow > >
OT: My wireless isn't even secure =p well, it started to be as of yesterday.
