MiTAI

An analysis of the MiTAI network protocol, used for interaction with, for example, a Mitel PBX.

Table of Contents

• Connections
• Message Structure
  • Message Example
  • Header
    • Message Prefix
    • Message Length
    • Header Length
    • Action
    • Unknown Attribute #1
    • Parameter
    • Body Length
    • Body Type
• Actions
  • Command
    • Connect
    • Keepalive
  • Response
    • Connect
    • Keepalive

Connections

The default TCP ports are 8000 and 8001 (SSL).

Message Structure

The messages can be saparated in a header and a body. All messages contain a header, the body is optional. When there's no body, the message will end with the Header End.

Message Example

F9 F8 F7 F6 55 00 00 00   12 43 43 20 36 30 31 20   ....U... .CC 601
20 20 31 20 20 20 36 36   20 4E 00 4D 6F 6E 73 74     1   66  N.Monst
65 72 5F 70 69 64 00 31   34 30 38 38 00 00 00 00   er_pid.1 4088....
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   00 11 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........ ........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   00 00 00 11 30 30 3A 30   ........ ....00:0
30 3A 33 36 3A 45 31 3A   33 33 3A 37 44            0:36:E1: 33:7D

Hex	ASCII	Meaning
F9 F8 F7 F6	....	Message Prefix
55 00 00 00	U...	Message Length
12	.	Header Length
43 43	CC	Action
20 36 30 31	601	Unknown Attribute #1
20 20 20 31	1	Parameter
20 20 20 36 36	66	Body Length
20 4E	N	Body Type
00	.	Header End
6F 6E 73 74 ... 33 3A 37 44	Mons ... 3:7D	Body

Hex value 00 fills the blanks and hex 20 is a seperator.

Header

Message Prefix

All messages start with the hex value F9 F8 F7 F6.

Message Length

The message length is the total amount of characters in the message, minus the Message Prefix and Message Length parts. The length equals the decimal value of an ASCII character, which will be used.

The message length in the example is 85, which is the decimal value of the ASCII character U (capital U).

Header Length

The header length is the total amount of characters in the header, minus the Header End. It is shown as an ASCII character, just like Message Length.

Action

The action is displayed as two characters, like CC. The first character has only two values, C (command) or R (response). C is a message sent from the client to the server, and R is the response from the server to the client. The second character represents the action. See also the Actions section.

Unknown Attribute #1

This might be a client version number. This parameter only has a value on the connect action.

Parameter	Action
601	Connect
0	Everything else

Parameter

When an action allows multiple operations, the parameters specifies the exact operation.

Parameter	Action
0	Keepalive
1	Connect
3	Select device (before 25 and 26)
25	Alter device
26	Query device

Body Length

The body length is the total amount of characters after the Header End. When there's no body, this value will be 0. The body length will be shown as a combination of all characters in this field. When the field contains multiple characters, like    66, the merged characters form the total length.

Body Type

This fields indicates the structure of content in the body.

Parameter	Meaning
0	No body
N	Values divided with a separator and filled with blanks
H	Values structured using the ASN.1 BER/DER standard

Actions

Command

CC Connect

Message

F9 F8 F7 F6 55 00 00 00   12 43 43 20 36 30 31 20   ....U... .CC 601
20 20 31 20 20 20 36 36   20 4E 00 4D 6F 6E 73 74     1   66  N.Monst
65 72 5F 70 69 64 00 31   34 30 38 38 00 00 00 00   er_pid.1 4088....
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   00 11 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........ ........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   00 00 00 11 30 30 3A 30   ........ ....00:0
30 3A 33 36 3A 45 31 3A   33 33 3A 37 44            0:36:E1: 33:7D

Header

Description	Attr #1	Parameter	Body Type	Response Action
Connect	601	1	N	RC

Body

Hex	ASCII	Meaning
4D 6F 6E 73 ... 34 30 38 38	Monster_pid.14088	Client hostname and process ID
11	.	Field separator hostname/PID and MAC
30 30 3A 30 ... 33 3A 37 44	00:0 ... 3:7D	Client MAC address

CH Keepalive

Message

F9 F8 F7 F6 13 00 00 00   12 43 48 20 20 20 30 20   ........ .CH   0 
20 20 30 20 20 20 20 30   20 30 00                    0    0  0.

Header

Description	Attr #1	Parameter	Body Type	Response Action
Keepalive	0	0	0	RH

Response

RC Connect

Message

F9 F8 F7 F6 1F 00 00 00   12 52 43 20 36 30 31 20   ........ .RC 601 
20 20 31 20 20 20 31 32   20 4E 00 70 62 78 5F 41     1   12  N.pbx_A
2D 63 69 64 33 0A 00                                -cid3..

Header

Description	Attr #1	Parameter	Body Type	Command action
Connect	601	1	N	CC

Body

Hex	ASCII	Meaning
70 62 78 5F ... 63 69 64 33	pbx_ ... cid3	Server and client/connection ID (?)

RH Keepalive

Message

F9 F8 F7 F6 13 00 00 00   12 52 48 20 20 20 30 20   ........ .RH   0 
20 20 30 20 20 20 20 30   20 30 00                    0    0  0.

Header

Description	Attr #1	Parameter	Body Type	Command action
Keepalive	0	0	0	CH