Xbox Live

Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system in November 2002. (Wikipedia) Xbox Live support for the original Xbox ended in April 15, 2010.

Architecture

The Xbox Live architecture consists of Kerberos-based authentication tickets, with a Secure Gateway used to then access services (such as Matchmaking, Statistics/Leaderboards, and custom game servers)

Authentication and access to Xbox Live services is controlled using the Kerberos protocol with a few proprietary customisations for the Xbox. When an Xbox first connects, the server gives it a Machine Account which it uses to access the service; this machine account is always sent, but it can only be used alone to access UACS (User Account Creation Service) to create a user account - with both a machine account and user account, all other services are accessible.

XDK Functions

XOnline* Functions

function	description
XOnlineGetUsers(XONLINE_USER* XBLAccountusers, DWORD* numOfXBLiveAccounts)	The XOnlineGetUsers function will enumerate both the hard disk and any attached memory units looking for user accounts
XOnlineTaskClose(XONLINETASK_HANDLE logonHandle)	Called to abort the authentication process.
XOnlineStartup( XONLINE_STARTUP_PARAMS* )
XOnlineLogon(XONLINE_USER* XBLLoggedOnUsers, DWORD* XBLservices, DWORD SERVICE_COUNT, NULL, XONLINETASK_HANDLE &logonHandle)	When a title calls XOnlineLogon to sign in, instead of blocking until the authentication completes, an asynchronous task handle is returned. As part of the authentication process a title must specify which services it will be using (XBLservices, SERVICE_COUNT).
XOnlineTaskContinue(XONLINETASK_HANDLE logonHandle)	Called to check the status of XOnlineLogon. It will return XONLINETASK_S_RUNNING while the login process has not been completed.
XOnlineLogonTaskGetResults(XONLINETASK_HANDLE logonHandle)	Will return XONLINE_S_LOGON_CONNECTION_ESTABLISHED when the task is successfully completed. Otherwise it will return an error code.
XOnlineGetLogonUsers()	This returns a pointer to an array of XONLINE USER structures. This array is similar the XONLINE USER array we populated and passed into XOnlineLogon, but is updated with error status and permission flags for each user.
XOnlineSetUserGuestNumber(dwUserFlags , 1)	macro sets a specific guest number for a player in an online game. It updates the dwUserFlags code with the new guest number, which is required for logging in.
XOnlineTitleUpdate(DWORD)	The XOnlineTitleUpdate function will boot into an updater application, which performs the actual update
XOnlineGetServiceInfo(Service, ?)	XOnlineGetServiceInfo returns the connection status for a service
XOnlineNotificationSetState
XOnlineArbitrationCreateRoundID	Generates an arbitration round ID. Takes a pointer to a ULONGLONG variable, which will hold the round ID upon return. This function must be called to generate a round ID before using other arbitration functions.
XOnlineArbitrationRegister	This function registers an arbitration session by setting up necessary parameters like session ID, round duration, and control flags. It also handles the completion event and task handle for asynchronous operation.
XOnlineArbitrationReport	This function reports the results of a specified round. If stats are specified, every participant must pass the stats for all participants. The arbitration server matches up and analyzes the stats, connectivity problems, and suspicious information reported by every participant to determine the outcome of the round.
XOnlineStorageCreateServerPath	generates a server path using provided information such as storage facility, user ID, team ID, and file name.
XOnlineStringVerify	The XOnlineStringVerify function checks user-provided text strings for objectionable content before they are uploaded or stored. It takes the number of strings, an array of Unicode strings, the language of the text, an optional event handle for signaling, and an output task handle. It returns S_OK if the task starts successfully,and XOnlineTaskContinue will indicate success or failure of the strings. The function can verify up to four strings at once, each up to 256 characters long. It supports multiple languages.

Discontinuation of service

The service was officially discontinued on April 15th, 2010.

12 players decided to stay in a lobby of Halo 2 24/7 to keep a server running. The final player, Apache N4SIR was streaming the entire event, as the player count of 12 twindeled down to just him. At 11:40 PM PDT, on May 11th 2010, Apache N4SIR was booted from the game[1].

See Also

• Reversing the Original Xbox Live Protocols presented by User:monocasa at DEF CON 30 (2022).