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How can DRM ever be perfect? It relies on your computer to be able to decrypt the data so it an never be "mathematically perfect" like regular encryption can be

How can DRM ever be perfect? It relies on your computer to be able to decrypt the data so it an never be "mathematically perfect" like regular encryption can be. Current DRM is all about shoving the decryption part as deep in to a chip as possible and betting on the fact that it is physically too hard to extract that info. So it will always be exploitable with some amount of effort.

CamperBob2 5y ago
It can depend on online keys that can be changed by the rightsholder at will. "The Internet is the ultimate dongle" - John Carmack
- SilverRed 5y ago
  You still have to deliver the new keys to the clients. As long as the client can decrypt the file, the client can also decrypt and dump it to storage. And if the top pirates keep their methods secret, you can change the keys all you want and not know how they are extracting them each time.
elcritch 5y ago
The DRM implementation and algorithm could be "perfect" in a mathematical sense, but as you point out they tend to rely on a PUF in the silicon hardware. Currently very hard to extract but not completely so. However, say a system had a quantum based PUF then it could be unclonable due to QM. Such a system could still be potentially cracked by causing issues in the processor itself like with the ESP32s. Which was my point, since there's a physical system to work in it'd be impossible in a practice to make perfect. Hence it boils down to economics.
- rowanG077 5y ago
  It doesn't boil down to economics at all. Even if you push a googolplex dollars into perfecting it. If you wanted you can still relatively easily snoop the electrical signals that control an LCD to reconstruct the video. This is not possible to encrypt and never will be.
- bigiain 5y ago
  It could only be described as "mathematically perfect" in the sense that without the decryption key, the encrypted data is no more useful than random bytes. But DRM fundamentally needs to have the decryption key available at the end user's device - which at least in my opinion, makes it better described as "provably mathematically impossible".

CamperBob2 5y ago

It can depend on online keys that can be changed by the rightsholder at will. "The Internet is the ultimate dongle" - John Carmack

SilverRed 5y ago
You still have to deliver the new keys to the clients. As long as the client can decrypt the file, the client can also decrypt and dump it to storage. And if the top pirates keep their methods secret, you can change the keys all you want and not know how they are extracting them each time.

elcritch 5y ago

The DRM implementation and algorithm could be "perfect" in a mathematical sense, but as you point out they tend to rely on a PUF in the silicon hardware. Currently very hard to extract but not completely so. However, say a system had a quantum based PUF then it could be unclonable due to QM. Such a system could still be potentially cracked by causing issues in the processor itself like with the ESP32s. Which was my point, since there's a physical system to work in it'd be impossible in a practice to make perfect. Hence it boils down to economics.

rowanG077 5y ago
It doesn't boil down to economics at all. Even if you push a googolplex dollars into perfecting it. If you wanted you can still relatively easily snoop the electrical signals that control an LCD to reconstruct the video. This is not possible to encrypt and never will be.
bigiain 5y ago
It could only be described as "mathematically perfect" in the sense that without the decryption key, the encrypted data is no more useful than random bytes. But DRM fundamentally needs to have the decryption key available at the end user's device - which at least in my opinion, makes it better described as "provably mathematically impossible".