Vista DRM Cracked by Security Researcher

An anonymous reader writes "Security researcher Alex Ionescu claims to have successfully bypassed the much discussed DRM protection in Windows Vista, called 'Protected Media Path' (PMP), which is designed to seriously degrade the playback quality of any video and audio running on systems with hardware components not explicitly approved by Microsoft. The bypass of the DRM protection was in turn performed by breaking the Driver Signing / PatchGuard protection in the new operating system. Alex is now quite nervous about what an army of lawyers backed by draconian copyright laws could do to him if he released the details, but he claims to be currently looking into the details of safely releasing his details about this at the moment though."

Comments

Re:Seems that the cat is already out of the bag...

[dpilot]

I have discovered a truly remarkable proof^H^H^H^H^HVista DRM crack which this margin is too small to contain.

Temporary At Best

[mpapet]

1. Anyone with half a brain new this was coming.
2. No doubt there are *lots* of exploits waiting to be found. This is a Microsoft OS after all. Microsoft's core strength is Marketing and general amoral anything-goes business practices certainly not operating systems.
3. This is all very temporary. As Tivo's smart card/signed OS has shown Microsoft the way to maintaining their artificially high price for an operating system and subsequent inflated hardware prices.

It makes me so sad to see stories like this tagged with "haha." There is such a small number of people that understand the implications of DRM and the ultimate harm to all that they are simply marginalized as "nut jobs/OSS holy warriors."

The last laugh absolutely, positively, is Microsoft's and the broader special interests they serve.

Since this is the slashdot echo chamber, go about your business being morally outraged and doing nothing.

Re:Details?

[CelticWhisper]

Sorry, authorities are currently awaiting further details.