Revenge of the hackers...

[Bakka]

What is the deal with all the hackers in XI? ive been playin for nearly a year and cant figure it out, people keep hacking in and screwing it all up, so theres more maintenance to deal with, and more patches -.- which i dislike... but im sure we all do, i dont think it will be long before they have to reset all servers, but its just my opinion...

[Balfree]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

the majority of the world's population are dumbasses and idiots, so there's your answer

[Medalink]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

Not sure.. Probably some WoW fanboys? ehh j/k. I dont think they would do a server reset.... They would lose all there players. To work so hard on something just to have it erased, I dont think so. One thing I can say it is up most of the time. And once under attack it doesent stay down long. It is just a game, I think they take it down sometimes so we can actually do our school work and go out and get some sunshine.

Medalink

[Delson]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

maybe thats why my crap keeps disappearing

[=Tuyen=]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

What is the deal with all the hackers in XI? ive been playin for nearly a year and cant figure it out, people keep hacking in and screwing it all up, so theres more maintenance to deal with, and more patches -.- which i dislike... but im sure we all do, i dont think it will be long before they have to reset all servers, but its just my opinion...

I've noticed that too, i just didnt think it was possible to hack FFXI I mean beings the game is on a server, but hey I dont know anything about that sort so maybe I'm wrong......and why would someone want to hack the game, that makes it not fun for all of us -_-;;

[WINGxx]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

i was talikn to a hacker other day who plays the game as well turns out he only hacks to steal things from places lol. ironic hes jobs a pld lol. aparently its really easy and they just put all the rare stuff in thier invontory .sounds borein to me lol . bet they dont play long lol

[Macht]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

Being that the character data is on the server makes it hard to accomplish things like getting an item or creating an item with stats that don't exist in the game or getting infinite gil.

However data still has to be sent to the clients and the clients sending status reports back to the server. It is in that were you can do more of the illegal stuff, for example packet sniffers which allow a person to see everyones conversation as well as locate any mob without the need of being RNG or BST to use Wide Scan. On top of that also providing more detail then Wide Scan is capable of.

Apparently also the way the server handles the data it's a little to trusting of what it gets back from the clients. So a hacker can alter the data to be sent to the server and put in commands such as a job change or state that the character is somewere else totally different.

That means at a point of zone they could alter the data being sent to server so it tells the server that they should be heading to Upper Jeuno once they've zoned out of a Mog House in Bastok. They can also adjust the X, Y, Z of were it says they are currently at to allow them to go from one end of the map to the other end in an instant.

In the end much of the changes that a hacker can do is still limited. For example the hacker can not send to the server that it just received 1,000,000 gil. The server would see that as BS right away because gil count is given by the server not the client. That is the same with items, so they can not send a command saying that they have picked up an Excalibur sword.

The possible tricks with items and gils they could possibly do however is alter their data sent out to include what looks like a trade request from another player to him, with him accepting, then the item to be traded placed in, and finally both sided confirming. In essance the items or gil has to exist already then there are tricks a hacker can do to make the server think that Player A was giving 10,000,000 gil to Player B even though Player A never made such an action.

[WINGxx]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

so wot do the hackers actually use do they use a program to change the codes on things???? not like i want it im just intrested and say a hacker gave u an item which he had changed the code on and u dident no if square found out would u b punished as if u changed the code on it?????

[x1ang]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

so wot do the hackers actually use do they use a program to change the codes on things???? not like i want it im just intrested and say a hacker gave u an item which he had changed the code on and u dident no if square found out would u b punished as if u changed the code on it?????

-_-

they can't make such blatant changes such as item spawning/swapping/etc. that would invovle a lot of involvement with hacking the server directly. stuff like movement speed, state, and position is more client based (i believe); thus, they can be done do without SE knowing. like you can read the info that the server sends so you can get like a "widescan" effect where you get a list of all the mobs in the vicinity, but you cannot force spawn mobs or alter where they spawn, etc etc.

[Macht]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

so wot do the hackers actually use do they use a program to change the codes on things???? not like i want it im just intrested and say a hacker gave u an item which he had changed the code on and u dident no if square found out would u b punished as if u changed the code on it?????

No no. To break it down more easily for people to understand, the data when recieved from the server comes out sort of like:

{Mathew>>}Hey did you see the game last night?[Match],{Mathew}128.1122, 32.1223, 40.5523;{Marry}/fight [bc_1238493]{Marry} 127.1233, 33.12344, 39.2341;

This is not actual but a demonstration, everything in {} is addressing character ID who is doing the action while [] is the target of to who. The last 3 number sets are that specific characters current possition on the map they are on.

Something to that similar effect is also sent back to the server, but bee more like:

{Marry}/fight [bc_1238493] {Marry}/trade [Macht] {Marry}127.1233, 33.12345, 39.2344

In this the client just said that Marry has engaged in battle with mob objectID 1238493, sent a request to Macht to trade, and is currently in X,Y,Z position on the map.

Now if a hacker knows that Marry has 1,000,000 gil then potentialy he can alter his data packet to say:

{Marry} /trade [Johnny] {Johnny} /trade accept {Marry} /trade gil 1000000 {Marry} /confirm trade {Johnny} /confirm trade

The way the server is it won't really check to verify if this action was legit all it see's is that character Marry (Hacker Impersonate) requested trade with Johnny (Hacker or Agent Character to take the blame), then Johnny accepted, Marry puts in 1,000,000 gil for trade then confirms, and finally Johnny confirms.

The bad thing with the server being so trusting of the data it recieves on SEs side this trade looks legit even though the whole thing was hacked and Marry just had 1,000,000 gil forced out of their hands. The only way this can be caught is if a GM is actually looking at this as it is occuring to realize the action was not legit. The hacker could even place in: {Marry} 0,0,0 and drop that character in the dead center of the map. In which cases some of the maps on this game dead center is in the ground which means the character becomes stuck.

To expand the hacker can not do:

{Johnny} gill +10,000,000 (to get gil)
{Johnny} item add Excalibur (to get said item)

Those the hacker can not do because as far as how much gil or what items you possess that is on the server. If you ever do gain gil the only thing that server does is: {Johnny} /emote [bc_12384] has dropped [g3821] gil.

This means the server just told you that the mob ID 12384 has dropped gil in the amount of ___ with [g3821] being the amount that the server has just upped your gil on it's database. So in order to alter your gil or items you would literally have to attack the server directly, the server itself though is very well protected and attacking it directly for most hackers is a foolish thing to attempt.

This is also were you see the major difference between server side data and client side data. On client side data item could be added or even create an item that has stats and abilities non-existant in the game, on server side these kind of things can not be done as easily.

[WINGxx]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

Can they say if there fightin a monster and they no its goin to drap an item presumenly by the code it has cpuld they change the code to a difrent item so say a gob that would drop some silk ends up dropin chaos bringer????

[Macht]

Re: Revenge of the hackers...

Can they say if there fightin a monster and they no its goin to drap an item presumenly by the code it has cpuld they change the code to a difrent item so say a gob that would drop some silk ends up dropin chaos bringer????

No, they can not do that. What the mobs drops and chance of drop are all determined server side the client never sees this info and so can not change it. However with the design it does seem to present the potential that they could steal the mob by sending a command to the server as if it was the attacking person or group stating to disengage and then they engage it after.

As long as the mob is claimed all that server sends back is results of each cycle, the results trigger the attack motions. In the case of Ranged attacks the results send the end fire trigger telling the system to activate the animation of the RNG firing the bow, it also seems that inital battle engagement with the mob as well as able to strike is determined by the client. So theoretically a hacker could engage any monster in the zone without being near it and be capable of hitting it still.

But altering gear that is dropped would require direct attack on the server.