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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."
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.
Do they not understand, that if you can view it, you can copy it?
On the other hand, maybe they do understand, and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray 2.0 will offer only un-viewable content. Step 3, profit!
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
and it will join the ranks of every other DRM mechanism devised.
How about future successes ?
If that's "fixing the flaws", then I guess whenever I fill my gas tank I'm "inventing perpetual motion".
The flaws aren't fixed. They're just papered over slightly more aggressively. Don't worry, there'll be more flaws.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
Is that like a chastity belt? Or maybe an adult diaper?
Read Pynchon.
I read this bit:
"New high-def DVDs will include updated keys and instructions for older versions of the PC-playback software not to play discs until the software patch has been installed."
No one gives my computer instructions but me. So I will have nothing to do with either of these formats at all. I am just gonna say no and take my business elsewhere.
DVD is quite fine, and where it doesn't then there are hard drives. Hollywood can give me movies in a format I'll accept or they can e2fsck off.
My little Linux and tech blog
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.
No no no. Let's just tidy that baby up a bit:
"Makers of software for playing the discs on computers are requiring consumers to download patches that will re-apply the product defects that computing professionals had removed in the weeks prior. Despite the fact that nothing is technically wrong with the older versions of the software, it is being intentionally rendered obsolete to force the update -- no new movies will be viewable on the old software."
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
They didn't fix any flaws. They just deactivated old keys and issued new ones. Supposedly InterVideo will be patched to be more secure (aka try to hide the new key). Maybe that is what they are talking about but it still does not fix any flaws by a long shot. Just look at all the cracked versions of software out there that have all kinds of fancy safety and protection mechanisms and are still cracked daily. As long as its in memory in unencrypted form for any amount of time, it can be obtained.
What they have done is analogous to re-keying a lock that is susceptible to being picked -- it's only a matter of time before it is picked again. Lather, rinse, repeat. And how long before a hardware player is cracked? If I had one I'd bust into it to see what kind of flash it has. It probably has an on-board JTAG or other programming port to dump the memory like most consumer devices which are mass produced and then flashed assembly style, making obtaining the key quite easy. When the players come down in price I fully expect them to be cracked on a daily basis.
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?topic=6866.0
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?&t=124294&p
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/10/aacs-hacked-to
appleguru.org
You're missing the point.
The benefit of all these cracks isn't to allow people to copy the movies. That ability was never in doubt -- people will always be able to do that. They'll be able to do that regardless of what the content monopolies do, short of just deciding that they won't release movies anymore (which is fine; there's enough of a demand for entertainment that other people will do it -- there's nothing special about making movies that a lot of people can't do, it just takes a lot of money).
Holding onto a crack until AACS is ubiquitous wouldn't do anything. The ultimate failure of AACS isn't, and never was, in doubt -- all DRM is flawed, and it will eventually be broken.
The question is whether it's possible to convince both the studios/content-creators, and consumers, of the utter futility of DRM in the first place, so they'll stop trying to do it, and stop wasting everyone's time. DRM is nothing but a broken window: it's millions of man-hours and probably billions of dollars of resources diverted from other, more productive, tasks, both to create it and break it. That's the real cost of DRM.
So if by releasing cracks for AACS every time they update it, as quickly as possible, it demonstrates to the studios that they're engaging in a war against a guerrilla enemy that they can't possibly defeat, regardless of how much money they spend, perhaps they'll throw in the towel sooner rather than later. It may be a slim chance, but given that Apple has started to see the light, there's some hope.
That's the real benefit of these cracks. Compared to the economic and social cost of the wasted effort, the ability of people to pirate a few movies pales in comparison.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I'm sorry, but this is /. and we only allow automotive analogies here. Please rephrase.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Here is the important question:
;)
If you were the implementer of AACS on HD player SW, how would you hide the key? I can think of a few ways:
1. Keep the data in CPU registers and cache.
2. Split the keys up into smaller pieces, and spread them around when in memory.
It seems that both is basically security through obscurity, and that has not worked very well in the future.
If you respond to this with a clever way to do this, make sure you post the reason it will not stand up to hackers as well. Otherwise, keep it to yourself
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
Oh, a lesson in history from Mr. I'm my own grandpa.
It seems that both is basically security through obscurity, and that has not worked very well in the future.
Ahh, I see you have already attended the time travel seminar that will be held in two weeks.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Someone just has to write a ps3 cell code to do the key guessing just like folding@home, 100,000 pirates, and whammo, it would be cracked really fast , maybe 24hrs. Ironically, that the device player to
make bluray popular could be used to actually crack the keys the fastest.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.