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Skype Journal: Skype protocols opening up, ready or not.

July 13, 2006 01:30 PM

The VoIPWiki Blog reports a Chinese firm reverse engineered Skype's communications protocol. It allows Skype-to-compatible softphone calls.This is credible; I've talked with a member of the team that built a Skype-compatible softphone. They hope to go public by month end. We're eager to discover if they will publish the protocols, offer Skype-compatible consumer software, offer Skype-compatible engineering products to other developers, sell their firm to a bigger company, or simply offer consulting services.

I've also used a demo version of software that crawls the Skype cloud, downloading profile data. From another group. This is not "the Skype database" but the natural white-page listing that all users put in their public profile. Skype's servers, and the financial data kept there, are not touched by this system. Screenshots:

Both systems build on detailed knowledge of Skype network parts not on Skype's servers.To build a Skype-compatible client, they had to figure out:

how to see and navigate through the Skype cloud, to find a Skype client.
publish their own client's profile into the Skype cloud, so a Skype client could find them
negotiate starting the call session, including encryption and

Publishing the Skype calling protocol would create new opportunities for products and developers:

Third parties can build Skype connectivity into their own software, no longer requiring an official Skype client.
It may open up creation of Skype-compatible server software. So your salesforce system could IM you.
It could open up Skype to PBX integration. So you might preserve Skype identity, authentication, encryption, and presence while routed through an Asterisk server.

The profile probe is a slightly different issue. In this case, software that mines the Skype cloud for profile data is working with "dirty data." The collection is unverified, often clearly faked (an unbelievable number of people live in Antarctica), old, and incomplete. It does have some gems. Correction: The cloud has email addresses, hidden in the Skype user interface but used to locate friends. The cloud has email addresses, but they are hashed and not human readable.

I'm not sitting at the management table, but Skype has several choices.

Open. They're already on the path to opening up more of their apps at the API level. Skype could embrace this at the protocol level too. This is the hardest thing to do, but may pay off in the long run. Exposing these protocols is the only way for the Skype network to become an industry standard. And it would put Skype in a position of leadership the way Microsoft is for dot net, Sun is for Java, and Adobe is for Flash.

Switch. Skype could change the protocols, breaking the new software. This is a costly and temporary solution; tricky but doable. Replacing Skype clients for updates is hard enough; getting everyone to migrate could kill the brand love. It won't be long until the Chinese engineers figure out how to get in again.

Quash. Skype might try to blow out the startup's fire. eBay has a powerful combination of PR, lobbyists, litigators, and business allies. Even in China. Skype could try to accuse the startup of piracy. My guess is Skype will tread litely. These tactics rarely work in China and often tarnish the reputation of the outsider applying the pressure.

Ignore. Skype has enough to do. Wait and see.

Invest. Buy the team, put them to work.

Jim Courtney says technology does not a brand make. It takes quality control, aesthetics, user experience, customer services, an ecosystem of ancillary products, and integration with other systems. Skype's and eBay's marketing are a higher barrier to entry than technology.

Skype personnel were not available for comment. Hat tips to 9Skype, Jan Geirnaert in Malaysia and Lee Dryburgh in Austria.

Technorati Tags: skype, ebay, skypejournal, security, privacy, compatibility, ecosystem

TrackBack (8)

» Skype reverse engineered ? from an outsider's blathering
據傳：中國有一家公司利用反向工程解譯了一部份的Skype Protocol [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2006 2:14 AM

» Alternative Implementierung von Skype from si tacuisses
Charlie Paglee schreibt in einem Beitrag im VoIPWiki Blog von einer alternnativen Implementierung von Skype aus China, die durch ein Reverse Engineering des Protokolls ermöglicht wurde. Den Ausblick auf die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung für Skype insbeson [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2006 2:33 AM

Tracked on July 14, 2006 2:48 AM

Tracked on July 14, 2006 2:49 AM

» Detente in IM’s Cold War? from Alec Saunders .LOG
Skype protocol cracked. By the end of this month it seems that we may have the ability to interoperate with the Skype network without needing… Skype. That opens up the possibilities for Skype PBXs, Skype CRMs, and so on. Big news! Yahoo / MS... [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2006 5:11 AM

» Reverse engineered Skype? from LUX.ET.UMBRA
That's what people are claiming. There actually have been instances where a Chinese company is writing a Skype client with no help from Skype. It's pretty interesting since that means that they got all of this information by sniffing the... [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2006 10:08 AM

» Skype cracked from VoIP & Gadgets Blog
VoIPWiki reports that Skype has been cracked. A Chinese company has successfully reverse engineered the Skype protocol. According to the blog post, the company's CEO stated their software will not support Skype’s supernode technology. What this e... [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2006 11:49 AM

» Skype protocols opening up, ready or not. from Haiku Headlines | A Look at Some of Today's Headlines in 17 Syllables
Chinese programmers write their own Skype client, able to call directly to Skype. This means they reverse engineered the Skype cloud, the Skype session protocols, encryption, and negotiated the audio codec settings. Skype stranglehold ends China cracks... [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2006 1:26 PM

Comments (8)

"Skype protocols opening up, ready or not." - Don't you mean the Skype network opening up, ready or not? If so what did eBay buy?

Posted by: Lee Dryburgh at July 13, 2006 2:39 PM

wait and see, not for skype, but for me

Posted by: foxmachia at July 13, 2006 2:45 PM

How will they communicate with Skype? They haven't licensed GIPS soundware, so their client cannot talk on the same codec.

Posted by: Rick at July 13, 2006 9:54 PM

perhaps they will make a solaris build? or even better give us teh code?

Posted by: vext01 at July 14, 2006 12:31 AM

Skype's best reaction to this is to keep innovating and shipping code.

Posted by: julian.bond at July 14, 2006 1:36 AM

This is nice ;-) I understand that many users put fake information in their profiles, but also quite a lot does not. Often there are fixed and mobile phone numbers, even addresses. This is potentially goldmine for telemarketers, especially knowing that skype users are a focus group for certain type of goods. I was absolutelly sure that this information is protected and is disclosed only for users whom i've authorised - now it appears that anyone can have access to it.

The message to the skype community should be - do not place ANY private information in the profile.

As for Chinese skype-clone, the possibility to integrate with asterix is just great, althou I really doubt that eBay-Skype will ever make it possible. I expect the eBay lawyers declaring war with the Chinese company in short while.

As a final word, I believe in sound and open standards. Security by obscurity is often a way to hide software flaws saying at the same time: "believe us, this is safe and secure".

Posted by: Chris at July 14, 2006 2:53 AM

Skype should just open the whole thing - the source, learn from what mozilla did with firefox.

Posted by: bob at July 15, 2006 1:59 AM

Let's say Skype ship a naked Skype library that works and exposes the API without a client install. And then they extend the API to provide access to the audio and video streams. They then provide easily licensed versions of this for Win/Mac/Linux/PocketPC. Both of these are being debated on the Skype forums and have been for months.

What's left that a reverse engineering team could produce? All I can think of is a Skype library for weird platforms like Series 60/80 or things like Linksys routers. Basically filling in the gaps until Skype get round to releasing an official version.

Is this nothing more than a spur to Skype to keep innovating, writing code and shipping it? And something that will keep Skype honest in terms of license fees?

Posted by: julian.bond at July 16, 2006 1:02 AM