with identifiers like unpack_41_715680 and the_thing it is not exactly easy to read
Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
11–20 of 145 posts
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#12It seems that the encryption algorithm has been reverse engineered. I guess you'll still need the keys to decrypt the voice data using this algorithm, assuming it works. It's a big deal if has been done, because a lot of people have been trying to crack it. Some governments are going to love this. The Skype client itself has a lot of obfuscation to prevent something like this.
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#13It is looking like result of Hex-Rays decompiler.
Can you say more?
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#14It seems that the encryption algorithm has been reverse engineered. I guess you'll still need the keys to decrypt the voice data using this algorithm, assuming it works. It's a big deal if has been done, because a lot of people have been trying to crack it. Some governments are going to love this. The Skype client itself has a lot of obfuscation to prevent something like this.
The ability to interoperate with Skype as one of the participants in a call has little to do with the ability to intercept and decrypt Skype calls as a non-participant in a call, unless Skype uses broken crypto (a very real possibility).
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
That still doesn't mitigate the need for lawyers. The protocol is still intellectual property, and reverse engineering it may not be without consequences.
"intellectual property" That's a really muddy term. How exactly can you protect a protocol? Trade secret? Patents? Copyright shouldn't apply if it's a reimplementation. Edit: s/since/if/
The easiest way to is to restrict the right to reverse-engineer in the Terms of Service of the Skype client (which he needs to use, in order to have something to reverse engineer.)
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#16It seems that the encryption algorithm has been reverse engineered. I guess you'll still need the keys to decrypt the voice data using this algorithm, assuming it works. It's a big deal if has been done, because a lot of people have been trying to crack it. Some governments are going to love this. The Skype client itself has a lot of obfuscation to prevent something like this.
I think it's fair to surmise that those intelligence agencies that care have probably had the algorithm for a long time and searched for weaknesses. Bear in mind that at one time they were complaining about it's use by criminals to avoid phonetaps.
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
That still doesn't mitigate the need for lawyers. The protocol is still intellectual property, and reverse engineering it may not be without consequences.
I don't believe it's possible to secure any sort of intellectual-property protection for a mere protocol. The usual way of protecting them, though, is to patent some essential feature needed to implement the protocol, which may or may not be the case here.
Actually, as I've said elsewhere, one easy way of protecting a protocol is to explicitly restrict the right to reverse engineer in in the Terms of Service of the client that implements the protocol. Without that client, there's nothing to reverse engineer.
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#18If the goal is to open up Skype, this isn't the way.
Even if some insane insomniac de-twiddles the pages upon pages of optimized indirection in this code (which I seriously doubt), all Skype has to do is tweak the protocol or encryption and the researcher is back to square one. It's a losing battle. And that's not even getting into the legality of it it all.
How about instead of trying to fruitlessly crack Skype, we spend the time making something that's both open and better?
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#19It is looking like result of Hex-Rays decompiler.
Can you say more?
A simple Google search turns up this: http://www.hex-rays.com/decompiler.shtml
Re: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source available
#20How easy is it for skype to change the protocol?