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HDCP Break Proven

Posted by timothy on from the importance-of-honesty-in-a-relationship dept.

zavyman writes: "I just noticed at Cryptome that the flaws in HDCP posted to Slashdot earlier this year, which one person refused to disclose due to possible threats from the DMCA, have been made public by different authors. Scott Crosby of Carnegie Mellon University, Ian Goldberg of Zero Knowledge Systems, and Robert Johnson, Dawn Song, and David Wagner of UC Berkeley have published a formal cryptanalysis of the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection System that proves its fatal flaws. Interesting reading for those with some background with cryptanalysis."

2 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Unbelievable... by zunger · · Score: 5, Interesting
    HDCP uses a linear system for generating the shared secret.

    From a part-time mathematician's perspective (ok, actually a physicist) this was the line that just made my jaw drop. What were they thinking?! If this text is correct, this algorithm may as well have been designed by a high-school student.

    As several people have pointed out already, this is really one of the big threats of the DMCA -- that companies will go around using incredibly poor standards like this, and be immune to any pressure to improve their quality because their customers are legally forbidden to ask what they are receiving. It says a great deal about the present legal climate that anyone could get away with a mess like this cryptosystem in a commercial product.

    *sigh*

  2. Re:Bail money by renehollan · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If there's one good thing about the present insanity, it shows how easily such things can come about.

    No longer can we redicule the Russian people for "letting" Communism happen, or citizens of 1930s Gernany for accepting Nazi rule.

    We are as blind and "foolish" as they were.

    Rather humbling, I think.

    --
    You could've hired me.