YG Updater / recipe trees

[bruiser]

http://ffxiv.yg.com/yg-updater

This program will install a network packet filter on your computer, and appears to sniff the TCP connection that FFXIV has with the server. It claims to have one purpose: To determine item drops and enemies killed, and upload this information to the server for the purposes of statistics gathering.

If this is legit, this is really badass and I would highly recommend. But I'm worried about the risk potential here. I might try to disassemble the program myself and see if it does anything suspicious. If anyone wants to attempt this before I manage to get around to it though, post back your results.

I've already requested source code from yg, we'll see what they say.


In other news, YG has recipe trees / bill of materials now. Whcih are just pure win in every possible respect. Check it out:

http://ffxiv.yg.com/recipe/bronze-labrys?id=89

[sruon]

Their Aion sniffer was found to be legit and helped quite a lot populating their pages

[tymora]

They said no to Bruiser.

[bruiser]

Unfortunate, but not surprising.

[tymora]

On the side, do you happen to know how to parse the DAT files? Can't seem to find much info on them.
So far, I can only find one dat viewer that works properly and it is made by a JP, which I believe is the source of all the item data out there at the moment (due to similarities in the item indices). The download-able copy however blocks the output to csv function.

[bruiser]

I haven't really tried looking into it, and I never did anything with FFXI DAT parsing either. The first thing I would check though is whether they use fixed-length records. Does the beginning of the item name always appear exactly the same number of bytes apart? If so, take that number of bytes N and compute S % N, where S is the number of bytes of an entire DAT file. Then take that resulting number M and seek M bytes into the beginning of the file. From there you should have a list of N-byte records. It probably doesn't work this way, but it's the most obvious thing I can think of so it's the first thing I'd try

[tymora]

Well, the DAT files mostly start with a header that describes the file. Matter of figuring which does what.
Judging from the functionality of the JP tool, the DATs contain the following info:

(???)Item details - All language descriptions, statistics (visible + hidden)
(GTEX) Item Icons - Stored as texture maps, some as Mipmaps.
(???)Some database that links the item with the icons

Maps (The full size of the maps are huge...)
Leves - Icons, descriptions

The funny folder names look like some kind of offset.
Strings are stored in unicode so "findstr" doesn't work. I'll try using Sysinternals strings to see if it turns up anything interesting - Be nice if that is threaded though.

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I do find it odd that the author of Rapture received a cease and desist order from SE (or so I heard) and yet the JP tool is still up there...

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Add:
Oh rofl, they even pack in Excel files in there...
FINAL FANTASY XIV\data\02\01\00\00.DAT > Rename this to something .xls and open it with Excel.

[Emirii]

I'm using the YG tool right now, seems to be doing what it's supposed too. I already have some "contribution points" on my profile from what it's done so far. Seems like a go :D

[deshende]

I want to give this a try (if my paranoia doesn't get the best of me). YG has a lot more to gain from data than they would game accounts at this point so I'd like to think it's legit. Probably similar purpose to the Wowhead collection tool.
I feel a little bit better about my game account with the security token, and if the client was attempting to keylog non-game info I think that'd be easy enough to detect.

[vegetaa]

and if the client was attempting to keylog non-game info I think that'd be easy enough to detect.

Depending on how they use the pcap library to filter network packets, there's no way for you to tell if they access non-ffxiv-related informations :/

To be sure, you can always prevent YGupdater from connecting to their servers to report any data...but it kinda beats the purpose of this tool. Better not use it, if you're not 100% confident.