How to Sniff Xbox One Packets

You may have been asked to sniff the packets of a controller, or maybe you’re interested in sniffing the packets of a controller. The process of “sniffing” packets means that you will be capturing the traffic sent to and from a controller. Capturing this communication in a working system allows us to reverse engineer the communication and implement it in third-party drivers.

Required Software

  • Windows 7 or later
  • Xbox One Controller Driver for PC
  • USBPcap

The driver is only required for systems that don’t automatically recognize and install drivers for the controller.

Sniffing Data

  • Plug in your controller
  • Open the command prompt
  • Navigate to the USBPcap directory
    • cd "C:\Program Files\USBPcap
  • Run USBPcapCMD.exe, this will open a new window
    • USBPcapCMD.exe

Navigate to the USBPcap directory

  • Find your controller (likely listed as “Xbox Gaming Device”)
  • Enter the filter number of the controller, not the port number
    • Filters are something like 2\\.\USBPcap2 while ports are listed as [Port 2]
  • Unplug the controller from your system
  • Give the file a name

Run USBPcapCMD.exe, this will open a new window

  • After sniffing has started, plug your controller into the system
  • Press and release A, B, X, and then Y on the controller
  • Press Ctrl + C on your keyboard, this will close the window
  • Host your file on some service such as Google Drive or Dropbox and provide a link in your issue
    • The file will be located at "C:\Program Files\USBPcap"

Updated: