Hackers Targeting Xbox Live

darthcamaro writes "Windows isn't the only piece of Microsoft technology that hackers are attacking anymore. During a presentation at the SecTor security conference in Toronto, a Facetime security researcher revealed numerous methods by which Xbox users are being hacked today. 'Though the Xbox doesn't have the number one market share, it is the top target for hackers,' Boyd said. 'Xbox Live has 17 million plus subscribers, and that service requires payment.'"

Comments

That explains it!

[hags2k]

That explains why these 12 and 13 year-old kids keep pwning me in Halo. Damn hackers.

Same old MS

[mcgrew]

According to Boyd, the friend request DoS has been minimized in recent months as a result of Microsoft actions. Microsoft has now limited the number of friend requests a user can send, so there is now a time delay that mitigates the DoS risk.

Not if the attacker is using a botnet, unless TFA means the number of friend requests a user can receive.

One way that attackers enumerate their targets is by way of information that is easily publicly accessible. Xbox users gain points during gameplay, which leads to a gamerscore metric. The higher the gamerscore, the more valuable the gamer account. Boyd noted there is no easy way to keep a gamerscore private.

"If you go into the Xbox privacy settings, you can't block the gamerscore," Boyd said. "All you can do is hide your list of most recently played games."

Boyd added that sites like Mygamercard.net promote users' gamerscores, in effect painting a big target for attackers.

Typical, and depressing.

Re:Same old MS

[Morgon]

As the owner/founder of MyGamerCard, I hope that you're not claiming it's typical or depressing that I run a service that organizes gamers by their GamerScore?

MGC exists primarily to allow people to share their GamerCard (i.e. their gaming history) with friends. In addition, the stats I collect are used to foster competition and for personal tracking. The Leaderboards (which organize gamers by their score) are to incite people to play more and induce curiosity; I do not promote or condone any illegal activity.

Apologies if I'm being overly defensive or reading too much into your quote.. just seems that every six months or so, something comes around about GamerScore, and MGC gets thrown in the middle like it's intentionally trying to cater to idiots.

Everything is said.

[Anonymous Coward]

'Though the Xbox doesn't have the number one market share, it is the top target for hackers,

This phrase says everything.

Re:Everything is said.

[erroneus]

Indeed it says a great deal in that the myth that "Microsoft is the number one target because Microsoft is number one" is now shattered with this reported fact/statistic. But before we start citing this fact/statistic, let's do some fact-checking first and get some other parties checking these statistics. I have no leaning either way for this to be true. I actually have XBox360 and XBox Live so that I can play with my older children, so I would like it to be true that it's not driven by weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows driven network.

Another thought that hit me, and it was my first thought, was "compromised XBox360s joining botnets." The evidence for an infected PC is often readily available through various clues not the least of which are severe decreases in performance and software installed that the user doesn't recall installing. But with a very closed system like XBox360, the evidence wouldn't be nearly as obvious unless these machines set themselves up to power on in the background while disabling front panel indicator lights. (Since the indicator lights are mostly controlled by software, that would not be surprising to see.) And since XBox Live relies on home routers having specific ports forwarded to the machine so that game sessions can be hosted, port scanning could relatively easily identify machines running XBox live. Should a vulnerability be found to compromise the machine, you can bet that silent and worm-like infections would quickly follow even getting past NAT connected XBoxes as they connect to the infected game hosts.

Bad enough that yet another class of Windows machine is being targetted, but even worse that the liklihood of it being detected is significantly lower and that remedies to the problem are effectively limited to pulling the power plug from the wall even if it COULD be easily detected.

Re:Everything is said.

[mcgrew]

I would like it to be true that it's not driven by weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows driven network.

According to TFA, most attacks are from phishing, but Microsoft makes the phishing easy by putting your CC info where everyone can see it. They say you should lie on your user page.

Re:Everything is said.

[DdJ]

Indeed it says a great deal in that the myth that "Microsoft is the number one target because Microsoft is number one" is now shattered with this reported fact/statistic.

This is misleading.

XB360 is not the top console, no. Wii is. But how many of those Wii players network their machines? And how many of those also attach payment information to their machines?

In terms of network accounts with cash flow attached to them (ie. paid subscribers to a network service), Microsoft is number one. There are more paid XBox Live accounts worldwide than there are active "World of Warcraft" accounts! When looked at this way, Nintendo and Sony aren't even close. And so, the priority for hackers makes a great deal of sense.

Man

[Random2]

I'm so glad I went with the PS3, I'll never have to worry about hacking if my firmware doesn't even work!

Phishing, not Hacking

[Silentknyght]

Don't be confused. They're not hacking your hardware or the Xbox Live servers. They're using social engineering and any publicly available information (courtesy of things users choose to divulge in their profiles) to attempt to get passwords.

Big difference between hacking & phishing. Moreover, there's nothing particularly unique to the XBox Live service & this phishing, either.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING IS NOT HACKING

[Com2Kid]

The "researcher" who is quoted in this article comes off like a moron.

He complains that there is no way to hide one's gamerscore. NO SHIT. It is called social networking. GAMERSCORE = (imagined) PENILE LENGTH INCREASE. You don't farking hide it, the entire point is to show it off.

Next up, sending someone a message "g1ve me urz PW and I'll givez you 1,000,000 gamerscores!!" is not hacking. It is exploiting people's greed. There is a big difference.

Likewise wussies DOS'ing a game server to get back at the people who kicked their wimpy arse is also not new, it happens WAY more often in PC games, since the majority of PC games have dedicated servers whereas only a few (but popular) Xbox 360 titles use dedicated servers.

In summary, these are not "hackers targetting Xbox Live". 99% of them don't even rank as script kiddies.

Re:SOCIAL ENGINEERING IS NOT HACKING

[Com2Kid]

It seams that xbox-live would be particularly susceptible to cheating because of the lack of dedicated game servers/communities doing proper verification

Cheating is rampent on Xbox live. So is the ban hammer.

As an ultimate punishment, MS can disable one's entire Xbox live account. Worst case, that costs the cheater $$. Or of course they have a huge supply of 48 hour free trial gold cards, but then they have to spend their free time hunting additional 48 hour free trial gold cards. :P

Most cheats for Xbox live games are fairly low tech. Purposefully inducing lag spikes, crap like that.

Happened to me

[Lost Engineer]

My account was stolen. It sucked. It took me months and way, way too many phone calls to get it back. The asshole who hacked it had changed so much information, including the gamertag, that they didn't even want to talk to me on the phone at first. Xbox customer support is absolute shit. Their reps are totally unhelpful, refusing to deviate from the script despite the fact that "account stolen" is apparently not in the script. There was not one that I called that was comprehensible in English.

Oh and this whole thing started because I found over $100 worth of Xbox points charged to my credit card. To this day I have no idea whether that person actually got my CC number or figured out how to charge without it. I executed a chargeback on that $100, and have yet to see another fraudulent charge.

s/Hackers/Phishers/g would be a good start..

[bmajik]

if you RTFA, what you basically see is this
- Xbox LIVE accounts are worth something, and often have CC info embedded in them
- all of the techniques are for getting control of an XBOX live account or DOSing an XBOX live user
- all of the non-DOS techniques are SOCIAL engineering "attacks"

The XBOX Live network is actually pretty solid, with IPsec between endpoints and servers. The successful "attacks" at the network layer are essentially ping-floods or traffic stoppages [i.e. the Halo bugs where you could turn off your cable modem and thus disconnect without killing your ELO ranking].

Finally, regarding the point about market share / attractiveness to hackers: this is stupid.

XBOX Live has more paying customers than any other console gaming network. Looking at # of consoles sold is not the same thing as attractiveness for phishers/scammers.

So, Mod the Article (-1: Epic Fail)

Re:Top target?

[VisiX]

RTFA, there is no hacking being done. It's all DoS attacks, social engineering, and phishing scams. These methods are all independent of the hardware and in most cases the services being offered.

Also, while the xbox may not have the largest marketshare I would argue that it is very likely to have the largest and most active online community. The article is about "hacking" account information, not the hardware or software itself.

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