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Blu-Ray Players Hackable Via Malicious Discs
An anonymous reader writes: Some Blu-Ray disc interactive features use a Java variant for UIs and applications. Stephen Tomkinson just posted a blog discussing how specially created Blu-Ray discs can be used to hack various players using exploits related to their Java usage. He hacked one Linux-based, network-connected player to get root access through vulnerabilities introduced by the vendor. He did the same thing against Windows Blu-Ray player software. Tomkinson was then able to combine both, along with detection techniques, into a single disc.
My Blu-Ray player runs Linux and hasn't had a firmware update since 2011. I'd be shocked if it didn't have remote root holes accessible via network, let alone local privilege escalation exploits in Java.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If you can, have the "computer" that you use for such things not matter if it gets hacked. If your blue ray player has no writable storage or network access and you power it off after every use, there is no danger: all a disc could do when played is show stuff and play sounds, which can happen regardless of the hack. Lack of risk exposure, so you can literally not care about the threat, is always better than trying to actually secure something.
These players were designed from the ground up to keep you on a leash forever, so of course they will try every way to force firmware updates on you even if you deny yours access to the internet. They never thought much about keeping the device secure, except against the customer.
If you watch your movies via streaming, this is not an issue. 2015 people, 2015.
Programs running on a device can exploit weaknesses in security!
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...that are inserted by their owners.
Always good to remember a venerability is a venerability, but a trojan is a trojan.
- People buying legitimate blu-ray titles are not going to have this issue.
- Even people downloading pirated content are not going to have this issue... as long as they are downloading just video files and not trying to pirate the entire disc with menus.
I have hated blueray since the day it came out. I hated the initial cost of the players. I hated that the first generation of players were often incompatible with later disks. I hated that they made you watch FBI warnings, company logos, etc. I hated that they wanted me to rent them from sleazy stores like blockbuster. I hated that Sony slimed the HD DVD thing. I hated that you couldn't get a reasonably priced blueray burner for a computer. I hated the exorbitant cost of a blank blueray for a computer.
But if I had known that the core of the technology had anything to do with Java I wouldn't have hated them, I would have pitied them. Sort of like I don't hate a cripple who walks slowly in front of me. It's not their fault their crippled. I so I guess it isn't Sony's fault that they are retarded.
And his parents thought he wouldn't amount to anything
Why "malicious discs"?
The fact that owners can hack their own devices is a GOOD thing.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I own lots of Blu-ray discs, but I don't actually own a Blu-ray player. I buy the disc (whatever my thoughts on Copyright, it is the law and the content producers do deserve to be paid), then I download a Blu-ray rip of the movie from a torrent site. Toss the file on my media server, and call it a day. They get their money, I don't have to deal with their forced previews and FBI warnings. I really have to wonder what they're thinking. First they complain about piracy, then they respond by making their products worse for legit customers than for pirates.
Isn't the very point of this player's system, that the player serves the interests of the disc's publisher over the interests of the users, where the users' needs should always yield whenever there is a conflict? That's not a mere technicality; it's the very essence. From the spec's pov, this is desirable operation. Nothing has been subverted.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
can you use this on trun off HDCP / region lock?
Unless they get you first like Steve Irwin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
and so now they can do what to my stuff?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Arguably off topic, but anyone that thinks on-disc custom menus with interactive content are a good idea should have watched my grandmother try to just play a DVD. Pop the disc in, hit pay. Then after wading through unbypassable FBI warnings (how can they even get away with some of the things they claim in those messages?) and previews, you finally get to the movie. Erm no. It's video loop with an integrated menu. She could hardly remember which remote was which, let alone what button did what. Trying to explain to a hearing impaired person how to play the video was always very interesting. Sometimes hitting play again worked, sometimes it didn't. Turn on CC? Very difficult for her. In many respects the old VHS was way more usable for her. Put it in, hit play, hit the CC button. Call it good. interactive blu rays would probably have been completely unusable to her.
I learned a lot about technology over the years watching her try valiantly to interact with it. She did an admirable job for someone in her 90s (She learned computers with MS-DOS in her late 60s, so she's always had aptitude for it), but it made me realize most modern technology seems to be developed by 30 something year old hipsters who never think they will grow old and decline cognitively, or decline in terms of physical dexterity (drag and drop, double click, or any modern tablet action). Things that are obvious to me and easy now will be much harder some day. But never to worry. The next generation will roll their eyes and push buttons for us (or touch screens) while rolling out their own hip technology that we're just too old to appreciate.
Hey guys Linux is secure right? Can we please stop pretending open source means secure? Closed source doesn't mean secure either but the argument you often hear is "X is open source" "Open source things are secure" "Therefore X is secure".
Does anyone else just want to sit down with the genius who decided to put a Java runtime into a standard for home video and have a long, fireside chat?
Possibly involving the poker and some of the larger blocks of firewood?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Wouldn't it be easier to buy a blu-ray player that has that ability? There are certain makes available in the U.S (I'm going to assume you're in the U.S.) that have hidden player settings menus to control BD region specification. It's not possible to get a true "region free" (it plays everything) player, you'll have to change the player whenever you go from discs from one region to another. But at a cost of $50-$100 it's affordable to buy it as a second BD player to set to your favorite secondary region that you have many titles from, and much cheaper than importing a normal player from the region you want.
My Blu-ray player software runs on Mac and updates every week to support more new released Blu-ray discs. It's easy to operate in dealing with the Blu-ray discs and Blu-ray ISO files. Pretty good in designs and features. Almost forget, it's from Macgo.
People still use physical media? What is this 2005?
The Internet connections available in some geographic areas are effectively stuck in 2005.
If you live too far from the nearest CMTS or DSLAM to get a cable or DSL connection, how much streaming are you going to do with the 10 GB per month that a wireless ISP allows you?
that are inserted by their owners
Not necessarily, because not everybody lives alone. Anybody in your household with the opportunity to insert a disc can attempt to exploit a vulnerability like this. I imagine that most people do not regularly disconnect their BD players and keep them under lock and key.
NO. Sony v. Universal (and subsequent rulings) have made it clear, it does not matter where a backup comes from, as long as you dont share it.
Where do you get that? I see UMG v. MP3.com which decided exactly the opposite. The backup has to be made by you from a genuine copy, not transmitted by someone else through the Internet.
But unfortunately, "most sane countries" place onerous requirements on people born in not-sane countries who wish to live and work there.
But, what if everybody can qualify as a disc publisher just by handing over a disc?
That's what AACS is supposed to prevent. BD players are supposed to require BDMV discs to use AACS, and the AACS license imposes a fee per title plus other requirements that likely include not doing this very thing.