Host Problems

We are currently having problems with our website and I’m trying to fix it. For now I’ll fall back to this old blog to keep you updated.

Within a week everything should be up as normal. Hopefully a lot faster though.

Updates for 1.09

The version changer has been updated to work with the new 1.09 update.

Click here to download. It works for both PC and CE. More information about the version changer can be found here.

Edit: For those who want to use the sightjacker, download the old 1.08 executables here. Put those in your halo folder (make a backup of the files first) and overwrite the new executables  1.09 executables. You will run 1.08 halo and can use the Sightjacker. Then use version changer to change to 1.09. Sightjacker will be updated in the future, this is only a work-around.

Gandanur

Gandanur is the name of the server tool that I’m making. Some may be familiar with the old name: imega.

It was planned that today a selected number of servers would be running a beta version. However I have stumbled on a problem that slowed things down. So I have a new plan. Within a few days I will announce the servers that are running the beta version, however these servers won’t include all functionality until the problem is fixed.

Once I have finished Gandanur the servers will be updated with full functionality. It will then undergo testing and all bugs will be fixed. Once I consider the program to be stable enough it will be released to the public. I also still need to write a user guide for all the new commands. But to make sure you don’t have to wait such an awfully long time you’ll soon be able to play on servers that run the beta version!

The long wait is coming to an end.

Updated Version Changer

The version changer for halo has been updated. It fixes a bug where it messed up the menu and the overall graphics of halo. You can download it here.

It now consists of two files: strings.dll and versionchanger.dll. Both of these files have to be copied to your halo directory (overwrite the old strings.dll). The functionality is exactly the same as the previous version.

PS: Project iMega is not death.

iMega update

Let’s start with some background first. A few days ago I got my new laptop. I’m configuring it, moving files around, installing linux, etc etc. And that’s going to take a while to set up properly. So it’s slowing things a bit down at the moment. But the big advantage is that I can now program on my own computer instead of having to do everything on the computer of my brother.

Anyway you probably want to know how iMega is doing. Let’s start with the things that are working right now:

• Everything is controlled by rcon and/or console commands. People who used rcon before only need to learn what the new commands do in order to use iMega. And it’s easy to install.
• Works for both HaloPC and HaloCE. However it is designed for halopc so haloce support is limited at the moment.
• Admins are automaticly recognised by thier cd key hash. Only the players that are added to the admin list can control the server. When executing a command they also need to enter thier password. Every admin has a personal password. Admins also have a “level” between 0 and 10. A level 0 admin can execute any command. This way you can make people real admins (can change server name, maxplayers) and moderators (can’t change name etc but are allowed to kick and ban).
• It has mapvote. Once the scores are showed, it will send a message to all users that they can vote for the next map. It will send the mapoptions and the users can vote by typing “vote x” in chat (x being the vote option number). Players can only force a mapvote. They can type rockthevote or rtv in chat. Once enough people request a mapvote this way, the server will show the PCR (scores) and players can vote. There are several commands to control mapvote settings.
• You can control the version of the server. This is similar to the version changer for the client. It is also possible to let any version connect to the server! However, the server will only be listed in a specific version of the client. Other versions will have to use direct ip to join the server.
• Logger: it creates a logfile. Things that are logged are rcon and console commands, chat message and other important events. This logger of iMega is not “as powerfull” as the default logger of haloCE: currently haloce logs more information (I think at least).

And these are the things that still need to be done:

• Player Control: Finish votekick and voteban commands. Include option to autokick afk playuers.
• Include a “FunMod” module: allow users to execute devmode commands. Maybe program some more special commands to allow players to mess around some more. The most important part is designing something so this cannot be abused during matches. I’m currently thinking about a decent solution. But if that takes too long this will not be included in the first version.
• Make something so the server can send “broadcast messages”. These are messages that are send every 1-5 minutes (clan website link, rules, etc).
• Let the logger log more events.

Once this is finished the first version of iMega is finished.

On another note, I’m finally able to remove the safedisc v2.7 protection. I did this on halo 1.07. It was a good challenge ;). Using the cracked 1.07 with the version changer and Yelo battery for widescreen support is awesome. But that isn’t the best solution. I prefer to use the latest and updated 1.08 executable. If only those programs would be open source, then we could just change them ourself! I think the halo community should work togheter more. I have an idea for this. Maybe a big idea that is unlikely to succeed, but I might try it anyway… more on this soon.

Halo Version Changer

Important: This is an old post, for the least and up to date information go here.

Because of the recent 1.08 update for halo, many programs made for halo or haloce 1.08 no longer work. While it is possible to update all these programs, this could take a long time. And the people who made them could be inactive and never update their program at all. The easiest fix is to allow a 1.07 client to connect to a 1.08 server. This way you can still use your old programs, but play on the updated 1.08 servers. This is exactly what the Version Changer will do.

You download the version changer and overwrite the original strings.dll in your halo directory (make a backup of the old one!). Then simply start halo. If everything went good, you will see a small message when halo starts. You can now use the new version command in the halo console:

version: Displays the version of the executable (your real version) and the version you are playing on (the faked version).
version table: Displays all the versions you can switch to.
version 1.0x: Changes the version to 1.0x (for halopc).
version 1.0xCE: Changes the version to 1.0x (for haloce).

It will also disable the “checking for updates” message. Although you will still see this message, no actual check will happen. While it is possible to change between halopc and haloce versions, you will not be able to join any servers if you mix halopc and haloce. The versions 1.00/1.01/1.02 for halopc are not supported. Version Changer will not load if you use the executables of these versions. You also cannot join these versions from a newer client (halo will crash – protocol mismatch?). These versions (and halo trail) will not be supported in future releases, unless there are enough requests of users to also support these versions.

Attention Halo Custom Edition users: Make sure you always include the CE postfix when changing to a different version!

Rcon stealer

In the past there have been many fake screenshot, videos and programs of so called rcon stealers. All of these are fake and don’t work.

A real rcon stealer is nearly impossible to make. You can only make this if you found a bug/exploit that would allow you to execute your own code on the server (like a buffer overflow). But a bug like this has never been found in the halo server. So it’s impossible to get the rcon password in a few seconds. There is however a second method to find the rcon password: bruteforce it.

The halo server is not protected against bruteforce attacks. So this is possible to make. The downside is that this can take a long time (read: extremely long). If you want to try all possible passwords with only lowercase letters, you already have 217,180,147,158 possible combinations. Let’s say you design a decent algorithm that can test 1000 passwords each second. This is already fast, considering we’re doing this over the internet. But it would still take more than 6 years to test all possible combinations. If you also include numbers and uppercase letters, this would be even more: 225,387,915,461,472 combinations, taking more than 7147 years if we could try 1000 passwords each second. So praticly this method also isn’t usefull.

To demonstrate this I made a quick program. It tries all the passwords with only lowercase letters. It send a rcon command to the server and waits for a reply. If the server says the password was invalid, we try the next one. Repeat untill password found or all combinations have been tried. I tested this on my own server against a very weak password.

Server and client are running on the same computer, so the connection is very fast. Yet it still takes 191 seconds to crack it. And it’s a very weak password since it only uses lower case letters and isn’t long. It tried a total of 2886 combinations, resulting in around 15 attempts each second. The weak point in the current algorithm is that it waits untill the server replies. To increase the speed you could send multiple attempts at the same time, then wait for the results, send multiple attempts again, etc. Once you have a positive match you know the password was in one of these attempts. Try each of these attemps again and you have your password.

Next post on this will include this updated algorithm, and the results of it. But for now it seems your rcon passwords are safe.

Future of iMega

It’s been a long time since there was an update on imega. And it’s been under development even longer. Time to clear things up.

Some of you may think that this project will never be finished. After all, I’m working on it for how long already? Two years? It depends what you call working. In that time I was mainly learning and exploring. But now it’s getting a bit more serious. The solution I have now will be very stable compared to the early designs. And it will be a lot easier to install. In the near future it might even be possible that users can make plug-ins for it.

But let’s talk about what is already done. The project is now under version control with bug tracking and all the fancy tools. Everything is now better organised. Hopefully this will result in a better program and faster release. So far the “core” of imega is almost finished. It works for Halo PC 104-108 and Halo CE 1.08 (other versions could work too, but have not been tested). I’m currently working on the admin module. After that the logger needs to be made. Then the core is almost finished. Once that is done, the map vote module will be made. And then it’s release time.

I’ll keep you updated when these sub tasks are finished.