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Microsoft Windows Media Player Encryption Hacked
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?"
Let's see now - first of all, a fucking great hurricane wipes out that sordid nigger city New Orleans and drives the remaining coons into a big ol' stadium. From here they proceed to rape and kill each other, as niggers are prone to do - sort of a self correcting problem really. I think Bush made a wise tactical desician in delaying assistance to this crime prone city - maybe it is best that we just let it rot and sink?
The 2nd best news, was the death of almost 1,000 crazy Islamic terrorists in training - oh, sure - they were women and children, but they were on their way to the Islamic "Church" to get the daily dose of brainwashing that they should kill all good Westerners [excluding the criminal niggers from NO, of course]
How perfect was that to see - someone yells 'BOO' and, like the LEMMINGS that the muslims are, they flee and jump off a bridge - allu be praised.. hehe - allah be FUCKED more like it.
Anyway, I just thought I'd summarise these exciting developments.
By the way - FIRST POST
DVD Jon hacks Media Player file encryption
By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco
Published Friday 2nd September 2005 06:40 GMT
Get breaking Software news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how
Norway's best known IT export, DVD Jon, has hacked encryption coding in Microsoft's Windows Media Player, opening up content broadcast for the multimedia player to alternative devices on multiple platforms.
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.
Johansen doesn't believe there is a good reason to keep the NSC files encrypted, because once you open the file with Media Player to start viewing the stream, the IP address and port can be revealed by running the netstat network utility that is included with most operating systems.
The hacker hopes his move will make content streamed to Media Player more widely available to users of alternative players on non-Windows platforms, as well as to TV-stealing niggers in the New Orleans area.
Johansen achieved notoriety when he was tried and re-tried in a Norwegian court for creating a utility that enabled him to play DVDs on his Linux PC. Prosecutors, acting in the interests of the beloved US Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued he had acted illegally by distributing his DeCSS tool to others via the internet. This, the prosecution, claimed, made it easier to pirate DVDs.
However, the court ruled in his favor, saying he had not broken the law in bypassing DVD scrambling codes that had stopped him from using his PC to play back DVDs.
Earlier this year Johansen developed a work around to bypass digital rights management (DRM) technology in Apple Computer's iTunes.
His latest hack was done to make Media Player content available to the open source VideoLAN Client (VLC) streaming media player. VLC is available for download to 12 different operating systems and Linux distributions and has seen more than six million downloads to Mac. Apple is even pre-loading VLC on some Macs destined for high schools in Florida.
Johansen told The Register he'd acted following requests for NSC support in VLC. One developer is already hard at work integrating Johansen's decoder into the VLC.
Johansen said: "Windows Media Player is not very good and Windows and Mac users should not be forced to use it to view such [NSC] streams."
The NSC file contains information about the stream, such as the name and address of the stream server. When the file is opened in Media Player, the file is decoded and then connected to the stream server specified.
Johansen said claims made by companies like Cisco Systems, who ship products with NSC support, that the encoding he cracked protects the media don't make much sense. "It's more likely that the purpose is to prevent competing media players from supporting the NSC format," he observed.
I believe that this might just be another example of micro$oft trying to wipe out the competition. Not only is it creating cheap programs that undercut the competition but makes special formats to force you to use them. This just highlights this fact. How simple can you get. write your link in a strange language so no-one else understands. The truly secure systems pay top hackers and crackers (yep, they really do employ DVD-J) to break into their software / servers etc etc and monitor how it is done. Cunningly enough they then use this to make it even more secure. Lets assume this is now on the net that microsoft will patch WMP with a different encryption in ooo... 2 weeks and get you to download it as "a vital security update for WMP".
I only use it to watch something internal to my house network. My firewall (IPCop) is configured to block everything that WMP uses port-wise in and out, and can only open links to stuff on my LAN as I have a media server that does produce Windows media from one device (Beyond TV3).
Knowing both Micro$oft's history, and the fact that much of Windows is still akin to swiss cheeze, I don't want to risk it. My kids are predominantly using Winamp and I even shudder with it sometimes.
Cheers
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Make Windows worth a shit.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
You forgot Windows premier attraction: security!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!