Cross Controller Support

[m88youngling]

Now, I know what you're thinking. Cross controller doesn't need servers to work, right? It works just fine offline? Well, I've been asking around, and it seems like nobody can get it to work, regardless of software version, hardware, or Internet. After a lot of trial and error, this struck me as odd. I then decided to take Ritchie's advice, which was to investigate whether or not Cross Controller actually relies on the official servers. And guess what, it looks like he was right!

This is a screenshot from a packet capture I recorded from the PlayStation Vita Cross Controller app as it tries to connect to a PS3 (turned off in this example). However, most notably, it tries to connect to the official Vita server addresses via DNS. Very peculiar for an 'offline capable' feature.

This gives me a few ideas,

• It might be possible to experiment with responding to a Cross Controller client to see what it does next. I'm not sure if any packet captures exist of this feature working when the servers were online.
• According to Wireshark, the protocol used for these communications is DNS. It might be possible to run Cross Controller features on an OFW Vita by changing DNS settings. However, for users who are already interested in running LBP Vita on CFW/HFW for Lighthouse, modifying the Cross Controller app might be easier.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N68z_oBpjXQdDri6CKNA3E9iBIQO5t0Y/view?usp=sharing - Packet Capture

[jvyden]

I will take a look at these packet captures. Very interesting find.

[jvyden]

Hmm, yeah these packet captures are vague. The Vita seems to not like the response it's getting from the DNS server; it executes the same query multiple times, but there are no errors in the response.

The one thing that does stand out to me is the fact that the request wants a recursive query, but the server will not send them. This is likely why it's not accepting it.

Interestingly I cant nslookup to give me a valid query response. That's probably because I'm using Windows 7.

[jvyden]

Nevermind, a record is there but it doesn't seem to have an address attached.

[m88youngling]

If it helps, this section of the capture occurs after generating a failure message. You may have figured that out already but as long as the message stays on screen, it keeps generating these lines over and over

I'm guessing this is just it looking at me with this emoji 😐

[jvyden]

[jvyden]

If it helps, this section of the capture occurs after generating a failure message. You may have figured that out already but as long as the message stays on screen, it keeps generating these lines over and over

I'm guessing this is just it looking at me with this emoji neutral_face

This is normal network traffic and can be ignored.

[jvyden]

Yeah, the reason it's failing is because of a bad DNS query. There is a record, but the record has no IP addresses. There's a (small) chance it will work if we override DNS, but it's probably better to try patching the EBOOT to see what happens.

[jvyden]

It really depends on what's easier. I looked it up and tried to find a hosts file for Vita's OS (a file on every modern operating system to help override DNS queries) but could not find one.

[jvyden]

@m88youngling I noticed you're actually using your router for DNS, perhaps you can override a domain in your router's DNS settings as a quick and dirty hack?

[jvyden]

Worst case scenario Ture can help; he should be getting up not too long in the future.

[m88youngling]

I decrypted the EBOOT and found what I think is the server address. It looks like there's more than one.

[jvyden]

I believe all of those are already in UnionPatcher. You should be able to patch this just fine.

[m88youngling]

IT WORKED!!@!!!

[jvyden]

lmao was that seriously it just patch the eboot?

[jvyden]

Okay, to summarize:

• LBP Cross controller depends on the old PS Vita servers
• The DNS entries for the old servers no longer have addresses, causing LBP Cross Controller to fail to connect
• Patching the cross controller app's EBOOT will resolve the issue
• No changes to Lighthouse or UnionPatcher were required
• Cross Controller does not actually use the server; it just simply wants to know that the server exists. Either that or this is a leftover of LBPV.

[m88youngling]

So, I was unable to get my PS3 to connect to my laptop via hotspot, even with 2.4 GHz. It's probably some kind of security issue. This means I won't be able to have both my Vita and my PS3 on the same network, so I won't yet be able to see what the traffic looks like during normal play.

However, I made another packet capture of the Vita after patching the Cross Controller app, and it results in something slightly different. As far as I can tell, it looks like it just checks and sees if the server is there, and then continues to attempt to connect to the PS3.

If that's true, then it may not be using Lighthouse for anything at all. Arcadius suggested that it might just be leftover code from LBP Vita where the Cross Controller app is based off of.
Lighthouse Cross Controller Partial.zip

[jvyden]

Yeah, it just looks like it wants to know that the server is there. I don't see any communication with the server in this packet capture.

[TorutheRedFox]

it might just be to make damn sure that the console has internet access by sending a known good (not anymore lol) DNS query

[darthHunterous]

Do you guys think there's a way to overcome this issue without patching the EBOOT? Having an OFW way would be nice, as it would be deemed legit in some PlayStation gaming communities. For example, in Saints Row 3 you can re-route the offline server for character upload to anything else and it will make the feature somewhat accessible. Would something similar work with the Cross Controller?
https://forum.psnprofiles.com/topic/66339-how-to-get-the-jumped-in-trophy-after-the-servers-shutdown/

[m88youngling]

Cross controller probably yes. And probably to any website or server but that hasn't been tested. We think cross controller is just doing a network check. That's all. If you're curious about other parts of Lighthouse, DNS will not work, see this thread https://www.lbpunion.com/forum/union-hall/project-lighthouse-faq-littlebigplanet-private-servers-megathread

[TorutheRedFox]

doesn't cross controller also need slot filtering and a separate earth decoration on the PS3 side?

[TorutheRedFox]

filtering peripheral based levels is generally unimplemented

so no cross controller or move pack filtering

[m88youngling]

I'd say move pack filtering would be more important to support than cross controller if it comes down to prioritization, given that there are significantly more move controller users if I had to guess

I'm sure both will be supported eventually

[TorutheRedFox]

move pack filtering tbh is less important as it's really just an optional filter you can apply in the ingame sort menu

[Ezoiar]

I don't think there was any move pack separation at the official servers, but filtered search feature would work best if you want move pack filter.

[TorutheRedFox]

the move pack levels were treated as their own game by the game filter

[m88youngling]

Starting a new comment on this thread to say that thanks to ImBasicallyAlex's suggestion on Discord and testing by Vilijur, we've discovered more specifically what needs to be changed in the EBOOT to allow cross controller to work correctly. The original line is shown below,

All you have to do is change the url to the Lighthouse in the same format. Include .sessionmaster. They suspect that it uses the server for something more than that, but this hasn't been experimentally verified. I've experienced rate limiting and a lot of authentication attempts when using cross controller, but I've asked the USC team to report bugs they find. Their EBOOTs will be different than mine since they didn't patch the other URLs in the file. Who knows what their performance will be like until they report it. I'll continue to drop my findings in here, as it might help with future feature implementation.

[vilijur]

To add onto this, there's probably a way to integrate this patching into UnionPatcher to allow people to patch their app without having to hex edit, which could make the process more simple.

[vilijur]

I've done quite a bit of experimenting since then, and have came back with the following conclusions...
In order to successfully patch a Cross-Controller eboot, the URL must:

• Be short enough to fit in the eboot without adding any extra bytes to the file (I have not tested to see if there needs to be space between the URL and the true, or if the true is even necessary) (also any extra or missing bytes will make the eboot unbootable)
• Be typed at the beginning of the original URL
• End with .sessionMaster
• I tried a URL with just an image and that didn't work so it's probably gotta have some sorta html to it idk I'm not a web developer

Also, as one last tidbit, I have not yet tested the DNS theory, mainly because I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to that stuff. Theoretically speaking, I still think it would work, but without practice, it's hard to tell.
anyway that's all from me, time to not respond to anything else apart from this discussion because cross-controller is my life now lol
ok bye

[ShadowMan2002]

I really don't know much about game programming but I spent a while looking at the original Eboot.bin and the one modified after the LBP Union and what I noticed, apart from the fact that the patcher makes a cut to the original file, I realized that the eboot .bin apart from an HTTP or HTTPS address, there is a port number that is 10060, looking for the port address plus the web address, yes, it is down but I tried to access the port through VPN and the port does not work either.

Already half out of ideas, I tried to see what I could try and it would be curious, we have tried to return the remote function to something that we must change apart from a web address, we must have a port, but we did not think about the USB port, the PSvita USB Port sends information to the PS3 constantly as from Host to Server, applications like Vita Stick take advantage of this to become a PS3 or PC control via USB, you could try making a tool that allows you to simulate the Cross-Controller through USB or through the connection Bluetooth of the system, it is an idea, since it is like we are at a dead point, since without the port and without the address it is somewhat difficult, unless someone gets the domain and reactivates it from within or finds a way to restore through the Project Lighthouse page

[jackcaver]

Restoring cross controller app is as simple as modifying hosts file on your PC, you just need to redirect the domain that the game checks for to something like 127.0.0.1, the app doesn't seem to even try to connect to it, it just checks if the domain exists, so in theory LBPUnion could just host a custom DNS server for that purpose, but for now if you want a solution that works on OFW, just host a WiFi hotspot from a device where you could modify the hosts file and that's it, although i only tested it on windows, so i'm not sure if it works on Linux or MacOS