Xbox Live Players Targeted In Denial-of-Service Attacks

The BBC reports on a growing trend where some Xbox Live players are launching denial-of-service attacks against those who beat them or otherwise irritate them in games. Quoting: "'The smart thing about these Xbox tools is that they do not attack the Xbox Live network itself,' [Chris Boyd, director of malware research at Facetime Communications 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. The tools mean anyone with a few dollars can boot rivals off Xbox Live. 'Instead,' he said, 'a lot of games on Xbox Live are hosted by players.' ... 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."

Comments

The victims are the winners..

[the_raptor]

When I beat someone so badly that they have to resort to those sorts of tactics, I feel like the winner. If that happened to me I would brag for years how I had beaten 1337d00d94 so badly that he had to DDOS me.

Re:The victims are the winners..

[hairyfeet]

I wouldn't, because after awhile it gets irritating as hell. That is why I quiet playing online games, as i would stomp some asshat who thought his "Elite" Shadowcat couldn't lose in Mechwarrior and when i moped the floor with my Atlas I would end up with either a DDOS or him and his little buddies "suicide running" me every time I got on. Remember that if some of these guys get pissy at you they can make it their life's work to fuck with you. I would go for a week or more at a time unable to do anything in the game at all. Not to mention your ISP tends to get cranky when the network is being slowed to a crawl because some asshat doesn't like you. I had some many conversations with guys at the ISP before I quit playing online games it wasn't funny, and it was all thanks to asshats.

If MSFT has any brains left there at all they will find a way to put a screeching halt to this and quick. While I have never been big on the consoles from what my friends say Xbox Live is what makes the 360 worth having. If too many of their customers get stomped into the ground with DDOS attacks and end up spending more time dealing with their ISP and trying to deal with BS than actually playing it could really hurt their sales. And with the economy as it is bad press like this is something they should be really trying to avoid. Most folks want to come home after a hard day and have fun, not deal with this griefer crap.

Re:The victims are the winners..

[Anonymous Coward]

He's commenting on the fact that so many morons use names that either have:

A reference to being "elite" or "leet", to use the script kiddie parlance.

A reference to some sort of mind altering substance, probably put in place as a pathetic show of how "cool" or "mature" the person thinks they are.

A reference to genitalia or sexual practices, used either for "shock" value or, like the above, as a sad little show of how "cool" or "mature" the person thinks they are.

A reference to a character, title, group or place within the Star Wars universe.

A number within the name, which most likely traces its roots back to the user being a current or former AOL customer and/or an unimaginative philistine and/or a lazy wart on the ass of life.

Or all of the above. For example 1337stoner92, drunkpussyeater16, darthmarijuana483, etc.

$20? You cang et it for free

[SupremoMan]

Just submit a story full of buzzwords to Slashdot, and instead of linking article link your victims IP address. The editors won't check the link, and your victim will be slashdoted for a while.

Re:$20? You cang et it for free

[Rip Dick]

An ingenious evil plan, I admit. But, your one flaw was assuming people will actually RTFA...

Re:$20? You cang et it for free

[artor3]

And yet the links always get slashdotted. I suppose it's like New York City, where no drives on account of all the traffic.

This is interesting...

[Anthony_Cargile]

I was just playing Halo 3 today on Xbox Live(hey, I get bored too), and I'd say 92% of the people I played were what sounded like 10-12 year-olds. One pronounced another person's gamertag, XdamnedsoldierX, "ecks damm-ed soul-digger"[sic], and after reading TFA I could only think: "So, the new conductors of DDoS attacks these days are no longer the smart, possibly disgruntled computer engineering majors of the 80's and 90's, but prepubescent kids who can't even pronounce words like 'damned' (despite using it online since mommy's not home) and 'soldier".

But from what this says, they can still be considered "script kiddies", since they still seem to be relying on the work of others to accomplish these misdeeds. Whatever happened to the good 'ole 80's and 90's when you had to actually know something about the trade in order to accomplish something like this? I'm not justifying it, but come on, whatever happened to working towards something? I don't remember the movie "WarGames"'s plot including the act of downloading some program to do his work.

Re:Private servers

[Exawatt]

The servers allowing you to find each player are Microsoft's. The servers you play on are the player's own Xboxes (or is it Xboxs?). Some games may not use this method, but many games (e.g. Halo 3) do. Proof would be when the game host leaves, and everyone has to wait while the game says "selecting new host." Microsoft servers determine the game host as the one with the best connection to the other players, but from that point the game is played directly between the involved players.

It should be noted that many games work this way. Not just Xbox games. Not just FPS games. This "tactic" is nothing new. It's just a DoS targetted at an opponent.

Re:Private servers

[Rip Dick]

Xboxes (or is it Xboxs?)

Xboxen?

Took them long enough.

[Detaer]

XBL has now just caught up to PC gaming in 1995.

The new XBox 360 logo

[David Gerard]

You'll know it happens to you when your box's logo turns to one of these. Instantly recognisable!

Re:Hyperbole?

[snowraver1]

Actually L4D does have dedicated XBOX Live servers.