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Making and Breaking HDCP Handshakes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

Cadre writes "Ed Felten describes the handshaking routine used by HDCP and how if any 40 devices conspire together, they can break the security of the system."

2 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. 'Old' news by bas.westerbaan · · Score: 5, Informative

    HDCP has been broken, and has been proved to be weak in 2001 twice. See http://apache.dataloss.nl/~fred/www.nunce.org/hdcp /hdcp111901.htm

  2. Re:Cool, but nor practical by quentin_quayle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did the moderators Read The Fine Article before giving the parent points?

    Felten in talking about "a conspiracy of about forty devices" is not saying that (defectors at) forty device makers have to reveal secret keys. What he's saying is that you just need to the 40 devices themselves, or rather (as post above pointed out) enough to get 40 different key sets (and some math and programming ability). Then the crack is done by analysing the bit streams between the devices (between player and display, or whatevre).

    The expense is the cost of all those tvs and players. Bribing the device makers is a *different* kind of attack which Felten rules out as impractical.