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Confirmed: Intel says HDCP 'master key' crack is real
- CamperBob 16y ago"For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," Waldrop told Fox News, and that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware -- something Intel doesn't think is likely to happen in any substantial way. http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=NEXYS2 http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=NEXYS2 Less than $100 with student ID! What a deal, folks. Step right up.
- tptacek 16y agoThe article's spin is that designing hardware is for the super-rich, but the subtext is that anyone who tries to sell this as a hardware product is going to get sued.
- mathgladiator 16y agoAren't there provisions in the DCMA that would enable certain people to obtain such technology to use for legitimate DCMA enabled reasons? Or is this going to be an IP issue?
- tptacek 16y agoThere are exemptions to the DMCA, but in general the entire law works in exactly the opposite direction, and exists basically to prevent products like this from being brought to market.
- mathgladiator 16y agoThat makes me sad. I go back to my cave now.
- cryptoz 16y agoDMCA is only relevant for about 5% of the world's population. Don't be so sad, things are better than they seem.
- ascuttlefish 16y agoThose negotiating ACTA are looking to change that...
- yxhuvud 16y agoThankfully the DMCA only applies to one country and not all the other ones..
- ascuttlefish 16y agoFor now. ACTA appears to be aimed at cramming DMCA-style IP law reform down the throats of the rest of the world.
- philwelch 16y agoHey, it's Digilent! I know their president and founder--he teaches EE classes at my college and I took one from him. Aside from being a successful founder he's also a very entertaining lecturer.
- lurkinggrue 16y agoHow about a driver for a computer with an hdmi port? How about a virtual video card driver?
- uxp 16y ago> "For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," Waldrop told Fox News, and that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware -- something Intel doesn't think is likely to happen in any substantial way. I'm sure thats just a PR statement, however, in most currently available products that require these keys, they are stored in flash so they can be revoked or changed in the future. Firmware these days is much more spongy than its predecessors. Hacking a legitimate firmware update for popular devices to embed new keys will soon be an automated process for anyone willing to do it. What would it take for a Chinese knockoff builder to create a BluRay player that generates a new key every time it boots and stores it RAM? That'd be nearly impossible to blacklist, since anytime you rebooted the player, it would appear to be a brand new device. The implications of this crack are much more far reaching than dvdcss, and potentially far more economically threatening to the model they spent so much time and money on.
- tptacek 16y agoIt would also be very difficult to sell in the markets where people actually buy Blu Ray disks.
- uxp 16y agoOnline? Ebay? Craigslist? No, you couldn't but them at Fry's, but when have you ever been able to buy similar grey-market electronics legitimately in B&M stores?
- tptacek 16y agoWithout having to get into a drawn-out series of hypotheticals let's just stipulate that pushing DRM cracks that far underground is a win condition for a content industry that just a few years ago was as open to piracy as redbook CDs.
- Someone 16y agoWould it? I know this is a different scale of breach, but AFAIK region-free DVD players are everywhere.
- tlb 16y agoThe description of the algorithm is eccentric. I'm guessing it's written by a lawyer. It's not the way cryptographers or hardware people talk.
- leif 16y agoIt sounds more like hacker speak. They tend to communicate the most important information not in code or math, but in (as unambiguous as can be made possible) english. It's the sense of "I'm not giving you a crack, I'm just describing it, you can build your own if you really want it".
- _delirium 16y agoThe careful use of English sentences and spelled-out words sounds like it might be aimed at making it harder to suppress it as non-speech. The law's still sort of gray-area around there, but in general courts are more willing to allow "devices" to be banned, and are more protective of "descriptions of devices". Machine code, or pages of hexadecimal numbers, seem like they could be construed as closer to a device, while an English explanation of a mathematical expression is at least a bit closer to a description.
- sliverstorm 16y agoThe security of HDCP seems immaterial. Hasn't Blu-Ray been cracked?
- OpieCunningham 16y agoHDCP is important for VOD. With release windows changing and Studio's pushing for various types of pre-DVD street date VOD releases, and providers pushing for the same, an HDCP crack could enable profit-seeking pirates to obtain pre-DVD, pre-Bluray, in some cases pre-theatrical releases and redistribute them. The financial considerations for a profit seeking pirate are trivial - perhaps an FPGA (though software seems feasible), HDMI capture card, RAID system, Bluray burner. On the consumer end, why pay $50 for a theatrical day-and-date VOD when you can purchase a pirated Bluray of it a day or two later? Market considerations aside, this crack will force the Studios to rethink VOD release windows.
- tptacek 16y agoNo. Blu-Ray's BD+ scheme (which was co-designed by an HN contributor) is renewable, which means that when you break it, Rovi can push out a new version on the next round of disks that can't be ripped by the same code. It's been "cracked" several times now, but not (so far as I know) permanently.
- tomjen3 16y agoThat blurb by the end about having to implement it in hardware seems silly to me - surely there are software blueray players, right? There might even be a market for an open source one, like there are open source dvd players, and they would be able to decrypt these movies using this key.
- pmjordan 16y agothey would be able to decrypt these movies using this key. Actually, no. Movies are encrypted using AACS or BD+ on the actual blu-ray disc. The player decrypts the disc and re-encrypts it for HDCP, which it will only do if it establishes a valid HDCP handshake with whatever device is plugged into its HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort port. For a software Blu-Ray player, the HDCP handshake is delegated to the graphics card, and the player software will refuse to run unless the operating system guarantees that the handshake has taken place. For an open source Blu-Ray player, you need the AACS/BD+ keys (which do periodically turn up, and then get changed on the next batch of discs), not HDCP.
- mfukar 16y agoActually, BD+ and AACS have been circumvented time and again by various people and tools. But regardless, breaking HDCP means we can access the digital uncompressed/unencrypted signal and manipulate it at will, as opposed to relying on the analog hole.
- tomjen3 16y agoThanks to your comment, I am now wiser and have seen my errors. /me Bows
- tlrobinson 16y ago"For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," I admit I know little to nothing about HDCP, but this sounds like BS to me. What about things like FPGAs? And why can't it be done in software? Not enough raw processing power?
- trezor 16y agoHDMI typically sends uncompressed streams of audio and video. Basic math would be: frame = 1920x1080x3 (Full-HD RGB) videoBytesPrSecond = frame * 60 (assuming full progressive video) audioBytesPrSecond = 3 * 96000*6 (24-bit, 96kHz, 6 channels) totalBytesPrSecond = videoBytesPrSecond + audioBytesPrSecond totalBitsPrSecond = 8 * totalBytesPrSecond ~= 3gbps And that's just the payload, no transmission headers, no protocols, no signal-synchronization. You do need a pretty cool computer to process and do crypto on that realtime. I say dedicated silicon/FPGA would be the way here.
- jimbobimbo 16y agoBut as long as ripping concerned - does it really need to be realtime?
- aquark 16y agoMaybe not, but that is still 384MB\s sustained write speed to your disk which is 22GB\minute so you'd need a 2TB disk for the average movie. Maybe in a couple of years when 2TB SSDs are cheaply available...
- js4all 16y agoSince when needs decryption to be done in silicon? That's P.R. A captured data stream can be decrypted "offline" in as many time as is needed. Storing the stream for offline decryption however does need an immense storage capacity. But we all know, storage capacity is steadily increasing.
- gmlk 16y agoCan a HDCP stream be captured by a non-HDCP device? I thought that HDCP needed a handshake of something? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_...
- js4all 16y agoRight, but you can capture the traffic between the devices that did a handshake and decrypt it.
- kbatten 16y agoI hope this means I can watch a movie I have purchased without 10 minutes of unskippable commercials in front of the feature. Just like mp3s, decss, etc this will not decrease the amount of money I spend on entertainment, it will only increase my options in how I store and watch it.
- sp332 16y agoNope, for that you'll need to remove AACS, not HDCP. AnyDVD HD can do that for almost any disc http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html , and the free BackupBluray can do many older discs. http://wesleytech.com/backupbluray-guide/ http://wesleytech.com/backupbluray-guide/
- Unosolo 16y ago> "For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," Waldrop told Fox News, and that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware -- something Intel doesn't think is likely to happen in any substantial way. "A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done." Andy Grove, former Chairman and CEO, Intel Corporation
- orblivion 16y agoEven if you can't decode it real-time without a chip, will this at least facilitate ripping?
- wmf 16y agoRipping a Blu-ray disc requires a $50 BD-ROM drive and a $100 copy of AnyDVD HD. HDMI/HDCP ripping requires a $200 HDMI capture card, a $XXX FPGA, and a RAID array.