DVD Security Group Says It Has Fixed AACS Flaws

SkillZ wrote to mention an article at the IBT site discussing a fix to the security breech of the HD DVD and Blu-ray media formats. "Makers of software for playing the discs on computers will offer patches containing new keys and closing the hole that allowed observant hackers to discover ways to strip high-def DVDs of their protection. On Monday, the group that developed the Advanced Access Content System said it had worked with device makers to deactivate those keys and refresh them with a new set."

Comments

What about the other holes?

[Tragek]

"AACS is a high-profile technology and is protecting high-profile content, so we fully expect there will be future attempts," Ayers said.

How about future successes ?

Re:Serious Question

[topical_surfactant]

Current players will work fine until you attempt to play a new HD-DVD with the "corrected" AACS. Then your player will cease to play all HD-DVDs until such time that you update with a hot, steaming pile of DRM horse shit.

Already hacked via Xbox 360 add on VID

[appleguru]

From Engadget:

In parallel efforts, hackers in both the Xboxhacker and Doom9 forums have exposed the "Volume ID" for discs played on XBOX 360 HD DVD drives. Any inserted disc will play without first authenticating with AACS, even those with Volume IDs which have already been revoked by the AACS LA due to previous hacking efforts. Add the exposed processing keys and you can decrypt and backup your discs for playback on any device of your choosing. Now go ahead AACS LA, revoke the Toshiba-built XBOX 360 HD DVD player... we double-dog dare ya.

Sources:
http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?topic=6866.0
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?&t=124294&pa ge=6
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/10/aacs-hacked-to- expose-volume-id-windvd-patch-irrelevant/

Re:"Fixed Flaws"?

[ZorbaTHut]

No, that will work fine too. They haven't changed a global key of any kind. They've just revoked the old key for new media. All the newer keys still work fine. You can conceptually think of it as all discs supporting thousands of keys, some of which are used by players and some of which simply exist for future not-yet-constructed players to use - there's plenty of possible keys left for new players to work on old discs.

When they revoke keys, they simply remove the old compromised keys from new discs, so players relying on those keys can't play anything.

Re:i'm not so sure...

[EvilGrin666]

In no way did I mean that just because the players were cheap and made in China they are somehow inferior quality. Quite the opposite in fact.

For example. I have a DVD player that made by a no-nane Chinese brand, bought for 30UKP (around 60USD). It's not region free but can be unlocked by a magic button press combination on the remote. Instructions for said inputting magic combination were given to me at the shop when I bought it. It plays anything I throw at it. Even half arsed DVD rips that I failed to burn correctly.

On the other hand, my father has an expensive Sony DVD player. It's region locked, doesn't upscale for his HDTV and takes great offence if anything is slightly out of spec on the DVD disc.

Now to bring this vaguely back on topic, from a consumer point of view, which is better? I suspect those without any knowledge of region encoding (or in the case of HD-DVD, DRM) most would simply conclude the more expensive player is 'broken' and opt for the cheaper region free/DRMless player.

Fair enough, at the moment with HD-DVD they do not have a choice. Bottom line is, while the average consumer might not care about their 'digital rights' they dam well care about their shiny new disks working in their shiny new HD-DVD player. This has the same beneficial effect to my mind, the end of DRM. The movie industry pisses off the average consumer at their peril.