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Microsoft Windows Media Player Encryption Hacked

Posted by Zonk on from the he-sure-is-a-busy-fella dept.

NubKnacker writes "Here we go again. The Register has the story about the encryption in Windows Media Player being hacked by DVD Jon. From the article: 'Jon Lech Johansen has reverse engineered a proprietary algorithm, which is used to wrap Media Player NSC files and ostensibly protect them from hackers sniffing for the media's source IP address, port or stream format. He has also made a decoder available." This has been pending for some time now. Do you see a reason to install Windows/WMP just to be able to view a webcast?"

12 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. nscdec.c by coolnicks · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://nanocrew.net/software/nscdec.c

    "VLC should have NSC support in the near future."

  2. Cool but not super cool by Psionicist · · Score: 5, Informative
    What this does is simply to take one of those files with meta info about a stream and translate it to a human readable format. The meta file looks like this:

    [Address]
    Time To Live=0x00000002
    URL=023m000000001WQ01q07G0S00w02y 0Bm1Z06y0P01b06C0Sm0k06q0QG1Z0780Rm1p06y0PW
    1q02u 0Om1l06q0Bm1f07C0OG1m06a0Bm1j0700TG1m06S0SW1X06G0P G0k06G0R01i0000
    Player Version=020m000000000MD00k0300BW0n02u0Cm0u03K0C000 00
    NSC Format Version=029G0000000008Cm0k0300000
    Channel Version=0x00000083
    Name=026G000000000UKW1b06m0QG1 X06C0OG1p07G0KW1X06G0QG1l0000
    IP Address=02EG000000000KCW0p03C0BW0p02u0Cm0k0340000
    IP Port=0x00000457
    Delivery Mode=0x00000002

    The utility translates it to this:

    [Address]
    Time To Live=64
    URL= /media/files/Cisco.asx
    Name= Demonstration Content
    IP Address=169.254.10.1
    IP Port=22593

    So you can grab the stream without using the MS program and netstat.

    The utility is more like a utility like base64 decoders (this is not base64 though) than a circumventing tool.
  3. Re:why did he do this ??? :-( by I_Want_This_ID · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why? All encryption mechanisms (save quantum) can and will eventually be defeated. This has been known for quite some time. Why does this make it a sad day ?

  4. Re:why did he do this ??? :-( by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1, Informative

    Then you should know that any encryption which can be broken like this is really not worth appreciating.

  5. Re:Yeah! by lou2ser · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to his wikipedia page, he's currently 22 years old.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Johansen

  6. It's actually a good codec by m50d · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's why I'm willing to use it. Looks a bit blocky, but compresses incredibly well - I have a wmv music video that's smaller than an mp3 of the song in question. Also, I've found it the easiest of the main video formats (windows media, real, and quicktime - ogg theora and dirac just aren't ready for primetime yet) to get working in linux - just dump the dlls in the right format and both xine and mplayer can play them flawlessly, even as streams from websites (just install gxine or kaffeine). Real is harder, at least if you don't want to use their OSS-only official client, and quicktime is an absolute nightmare. So I'm all in favour of requiring windows media player to view videos, because the alternatives are worse.

    --
    I am trolling
  7. Re:Let the best player win! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Downloading:
      SDP Downloader
      CoCSoft Stream Down

    Cutting editing/encoding:
      Asfbin
      VirtualDub 1.4c-asf

    Happy Googling.

  8. Re:Let the best player win! by stoborrobots · · Score: 2, Informative
    $ mplayer -streamdump -streamfile fun.wmv mms://server.domain.example.com/path/fun.wmv
    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  9. No such thing in our legal system by andersh · · Score: 2, Informative

    You're mistaken - we don't use Case Law in Norway. Our legal tradition is Scandinavian/continental civil law - where precedents are very weak arguments as opposed to the US/UK Common Law system.

  10. Re:To bad this doesn't help me by martin_b1sh0p · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thanks as well. Couldn't find one that did this, now thanks to the /. crowd I have two to choose from :-)

  11. No, I will not install Media Player by DougMelvin · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can not believe that people are still trying to broadcast streaming media via proprietary and "locked" technology. I, for one, will use this new decrypter to view any streaming broacasts that use this technology. I'd like to also rant a little on Quiktime who now bundles iTunes.. if you are not using a windows 98/me you are forced to install iTunes just to view a .mov file.. That's BS.. I now use Quiktime alternative and Media Player classic which may be download alone, or bundled with the kazza lite mega codec pack.

    --
    Reality is in the mind of the beholder - me 1996
  12. Re:Let the best player win! by kleinux · · Score: 2, Informative

    To simplify a little you can usually save embedded media in Firefox with Tools|Page Info|Media. There you will see a list of all embedded media on the page. In this you will usually find the url of the video and you can press save on that line. This will sometimes produce an empty file, but works most of the time.

    This is how I view most embedded media when at home under Linux.