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The headline is a little misleading. AACS and BD+ have been cracked for some time. What they found is the HDCP master key that would allow a company to produc
by Osiris 16y ago
The headline is a little misleading. AACS and BD+ have been cracked for some time. What they found is the HDCP master key that would allow a company to product an HDCP-compatible device that would strip the encryption from the HDMI/DVI signal and allow another device to capture/record/play the digital signal.
This is really a bigger deal for VOD with cable boxes and the like where the content going to the TV over HDMI could be intercepted and recorded, allowing VOD content to be ripped and pirated in the original digital quality (with some data loss to to decompression/compression).
Intel has already confirmed that the key is legit and can be used to generate new keys for unofficial HDCP compatible devices.
- mikeknoop 16y agoSo when Intel says 'This will not affect many people because you would need the key embedded in silicon to do anything with it' they are mistaken because in reality only one dedicated person needs to create the device you mention and release the unencrypted version via traditional download mediums?
- pmjordan 16y agoI wouldn't be surprised if you could build an HDCP decoder using an FPGA. Distribute devices built with that, and when newer keys are released, update the FPGA's configuration via an SD card or so. I don't even see why the HDCP handshake would need to be implemented in hardware, you'd presumably just need low-level enough access to the port from software.
- unwind 16y agoFrom the other story about the key leak, it seems the key-generation is based on traversing a 40x40 matrix of 56-bit numbers. If my maths is right, that adds up to (40x40x56)/8 = 11,200 bytes. Which really should be peanuts for any (half-way modern) FPGA architecture, storage-wise.
- konad 16y agoThat's where PC-Mag gives better coverage. They are 56 bit HEXADECIMAL numbers, not just regular numbers.
- drdaeman 16y agoThe real problem is that after decoding you have realtime video stream with bandwidth of several gigabits per second (up to 10.2 Gbit/s, but average's about 3 Gbit/s if I'm not mistaken), you have to either store or encode.
- limmeau 16y agoThe key is necessary to build an HDMI sniffer, which involves special hardware. If all you have is a blu-ray drive and a blu-ray disk and a PC, it doesn't help you at all. Intel's usage of the word "affect" seems limited to "helps directly with copying".
- Osiris 16y agoFrom what I read, it will probably not be terribly complicated for a Chinese chip maker to create such a chip. If that happens, they'll be able to sell devices that appear to the player as a legitimate HDCP device and provide the encrypted digital data. Once the device has the data, it can decrypt it and pass on the decrypted data. It'll be interesting to see if it materializes into an actual product.