I just looked at the latest CVS code of bnetd and there are no cdkey checking routines in the code. The code for the packet handling has 3 cases in which the cdkey is handled (one for each of the authorization packet versions Blizzard has used). In the oldest auth packet (CLIENT_CDKEY), bnetd merely copies the key into the connection structure it keeps. In the newer two packets (CLIENT_CDKEY2, CLIENT_CDKEY3) the cdkey is hashed and so bnetd ignores it all together. The cd key is never checked by the code that I have seen (and I have worked with it extensively).
WarCraft III required slightly more elaborate schemes (both of the login packets are encrypted). But, remember that bnetd did not implement these packets.
Also, based on my experience with the code, none of it feels as if someone had converted it from assembled code removed from a Blizzard game.
Older blizzard games (i.e. not WarCraft III) do not require any modification to get on a bnetd server. All bnetd does is ignore the cdkey when it is sent as part of the login process; the client does not expect a response saying cdkey ok, only that login will be denied if the cdkey is incorrect.
With WarCraft III, which bnetd did not support (WarForge did), the client expects an encrypted response to what is presumably the cdkey authentication.
You don't realize that bnetd had nothing to do with supporting WarCraft III.
You also don't realize all the people playing the beta now are (or atleast were if they are planning to boycott now) going to buy the game when they are able to. It may be technically illegal for them to have the beta, but the server itself is not (or should not) be illegal.
First I'd like to note I was one of the developers of the code fork that infuriated Blizzard into doing this to bnetd. For my part in that I'd like to apologize to the bnetd developers, they shouldn't have gone after you.
Second I would love to know exactly what bnetd did wrong. They reverse engineered the protocol from looking at a packet dumps of the communcication to and from Battle.net. Then they wrote their completely own software to act in the same manner. In my option this should not be illegal. It doesn't matter that in theory it could allow copied versions to go online because bnetd has no method to check cdkeys. In theory I could take a hammer and kill someone with it.
This is nothing new, Discover Magazine ran an article about this a few years ago :
"Thompson has evolved a circuit that distinguishes between two tones, two electric signals that, if fed into a stereo speaker, would produce two notes. One has a frequency of 1 kilohertz, the other 10 kilohertz"
It's the same guy and the same evolved chip! Once again Slashdot has missed the boat.
I thought the party line here was that you only used Napster for uncopyrighted songs, right? So if they choose to filter out songs by RIAA clients how does that stop you from sharing your authorized songs? Am I missing something?
Slashdot Mirror
I just looked at the latest CVS code of bnetd and there are no cdkey checking routines in the code. The code for the packet handling has 3 cases in which the cdkey is handled (one for each of the authorization packet versions Blizzard has used). In the oldest auth packet (CLIENT_CDKEY), bnetd merely copies the key into the connection structure it keeps. In the newer two packets (CLIENT_CDKEY2, CLIENT_CDKEY3) the cdkey is hashed and so bnetd ignores it all together. The cd key is never checked by the code that I have seen (and I have worked with it extensively).
WarCraft III required slightly more elaborate schemes (both of the login packets are encrypted). But, remember that bnetd did not implement these packets.
Also, based on my experience with the code, none of it feels as if someone had converted it from assembled code removed from a Blizzard game.
Older blizzard games (i.e. not WarCraft III) do not require any modification to get on a bnetd server. All bnetd does is ignore the cdkey when it is sent as part of the login process; the client does not expect a response saying cdkey ok, only that login will be denied if the cdkey is incorrect.
With WarCraft III, which bnetd did not support (WarForge did), the client expects an encrypted response to what is presumably the cdkey authentication.
You don't realize that bnetd had nothing to do with supporting WarCraft III.
You also don't realize all the people playing the beta now are (or atleast were if they are planning to boycott now) going to buy the game when they are able to. It may be technically illegal for them to have the beta, but the server itself is not (or should not) be illegal.
First I'd like to note I was one of the developers of the code fork that infuriated Blizzard into doing this to bnetd. For my part in that I'd like to apologize to the bnetd developers, they shouldn't have gone after you.
Second I would love to know exactly what bnetd did wrong. They reverse engineered the protocol from looking at a packet dumps of the communcication to and from Battle.net. Then they wrote their completely own software to act in the same manner. In my option this should not be illegal. It doesn't matter that in theory it could allow copied versions to go online because bnetd has no method to check cdkeys. In theory I could take a hammer and kill someone with it.
Department of Defense
Umm. Why don't they just put a new harddrive in the machine? It's not like you can't swap in a new one (assuming they don't use Windows XP :))
For some reason the URL didn't make it into that. here it is: http://208.245.156.153/archive/output.cfm?ID=1455. Showed up in the preview too.
This is nothing new, Discover Magazine ran an article about this a few years ago :
"Thompson has evolved a circuit that distinguishes between two tones, two electric signals that, if fed into a stereo speaker, would produce two notes. One has a frequency of 1 kilohertz, the other 10 kilohertz"
It's the same guy and the same evolved chip! Once again Slashdot has missed the boat.
I thought the party line here was that you only used Napster for uncopyrighted songs, right? So if they choose to filter out songs by RIAA clients how does that stop you from sharing your authorized songs? Am I missing something?