When an online game no longer captivates interest, what do you do? Grind on the network protocol, of course! How does it work, is it secure - and, how can you still get away while doing this?
Online games are hardly new, but their inner workings are rarely (if ever) documented. This needs to change: if it runs on my computer and uses my network I want to know what's going on!
This talk starts by analysing the network protocol of the Runes of Magic game, and continues by introducing specific tools to aid this process and the steps taken to come up with such tools. Continuing with a demonstration to whet your appetite: we will show how much fun it is to do this kind of work, and finally some advice on the legal side of things.
All custom tools and methods described are not specific to a game per se, however using custom tools will greatly improve your reversing experience. They aren't even specific to games, the same techniques can be used to analyse about any network protocol.