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I've often wondered how easy it would be for people in the scene to rip Netflix or others streaming content. Isn't it as simple as getting the URL of the video

I've often wondered how easy it would be for people in the scene to rip Netflix or others streaming content. Isn't it as simple as getting the URL of the video player element in the browser and using cURL or wget?

alt227 5y ago
It is, but the resulting files are encrypted. Hence this post being about exposing CDMs (Content Decryption Modules). These use decryption keys obtained through hacking or paying internal staff. Once the decryption keys are exposed like this then the content providers 'burn'; them and generate new ones meaning the process has to start over again.
- ordx 5y ago
  I assume at some point Widevine plugin decrypts these files to display the actual video stream in the browser, correct? Why don't they capture already decrypted stream?
  - e3bc54b2 5y ago
    That's why they now embed displays with verification modules. Basically whole stack from server to your display is a giant chain verifying you are not doing what they don't want you to do.
    - Scoundreller 5y ago
      Though often they get it wrong, like when I bought a movie off Apple and it errored when I screen mirrored to my dumb TV and it’s back to piracy first for me.
      - ArchOversight 5y ago
        Your dumb TV doesn't have the appropriate HDCP chips, which is why it errored. Your computer didn't know whether it was a dumb TV or if it was an HDMI capture card ready to rip the movie... Not that I agree with the practice.
    - GekkePrutser 5y ago
      And see how well it works. 2 hours after airing everything is online. The only ones they're giving any hassle are legitimate consumers.
      - malermeister 5y ago
        This is a similar charade to airport security: It doesn't actually do anything but satisfy a bunch of suits and create some pointless jobs around it.
      - e3bc54b2 5y ago
        These things are designed to hassle legitimate customers only. Pirates are never going to pay anyway. DRM is so they can squeeze more out of paying customers.
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    My thought is that the decryption and decompression are interlinked. So while it’s relatively easy to get the raw stream, if you want to re-distribute it, you’ll have to compress it again. With these leaks, you can get the compressed and decrypted files and re-distribute without any added compression loss. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
  - 323 5y ago
    It depends. Today there are APIs which allow the actual decryption to be done directly on the GPU, while requesting the GPU to not allow the sharing/capturing of those decrypted images.
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    You are technically correct. The stupid thing about DRM is that the player has to download the decryption keys into the RAM of the player. All these players do is try to obfuscate the keys so they can't be accessed very easily. When you see these proper rips out there they are being done by groups who extracted a decryption key from the player and used that to unencrypt the stream. DRM is dumb. I used to work on DRM. It was dumb then, it's dumb now.
0x0000000 5y ago
No, because the video is protected with the Widevine DRM. You can't just curl a resource, you will not get a usable output. That said, it can't be all too hard as Netflix exclusives are all over the open seas.
- themitigating 5y ago
  There's a software kit distributed in "the scene" that downloads and decrypts Netflix content
saurik 5y ago
Netflix is not just like <video src="something I could put into VLC">... DRM is often said to be "broken by design" but it is an actual thing you have to defeat, not some lie told to scare you away.
waltbosz 5y ago
It's not that simple. The video files are chopped up into pieces for streaming, so what you would download (assuming wget would handle the stream) are thousands of tiny files. You could reassemble them with ffmpeg, but first you'd need to decrypt them. It's the encryption that these leaked scripts take care of.
alibert 5y ago
I think there is actually no challenge to rip them because everything streamed seems to be almost immediately available for download in the original bitstream format without any recompression (at least for 1080p content).

alt227 5y ago

It is, but the resulting files are encrypted. Hence this post being about exposing CDMs (Content Decryption Modules). These use decryption keys obtained through hacking or paying internal staff. Once the decryption keys are exposed like this then the content providers 'burn'; them and generate new ones meaning the process has to start over again.

ordx 5y ago
I assume at some point Widevine plugin decrypts these files to display the actual video stream in the browser, correct? Why don't they capture already decrypted stream?
- e3bc54b2 5y ago
  That's why they now embed displays with verification modules. Basically whole stack from server to your display is a giant chain verifying you are not doing what they don't want you to do.
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    Though often they get it wrong, like when I bought a movie off Apple and it errored when I screen mirrored to my dumb TV and it’s back to piracy first for me.
    - ArchOversight 5y ago
      Your dumb TV doesn't have the appropriate HDCP chips, which is why it errored. Your computer didn't know whether it was a dumb TV or if it was an HDMI capture card ready to rip the movie... Not that I agree with the practice.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    And see how well it works. 2 hours after airing everything is online. The only ones they're giving any hassle are legitimate consumers.
    - malermeister 5y ago
      This is a similar charade to airport security: It doesn't actually do anything but satisfy a bunch of suits and create some pointless jobs around it.
    - e3bc54b2 5y ago
      These things are designed to hassle legitimate customers only. Pirates are never going to pay anyway. DRM is so they can squeeze more out of paying customers.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  My thought is that the decryption and decompression are interlinked. So while it’s relatively easy to get the raw stream, if you want to re-distribute it, you’ll have to compress it again. With these leaks, you can get the compressed and decrypted files and re-distribute without any added compression loss. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
- 323 5y ago
  It depends. Today there are APIs which allow the actual decryption to be done directly on the GPU, while requesting the GPU to not allow the sharing/capturing of those decrypted images.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  You are technically correct. The stupid thing about DRM is that the player has to download the decryption keys into the RAM of the player. All these players do is try to obfuscate the keys so they can't be accessed very easily. When you see these proper rips out there they are being done by groups who extracted a decryption key from the player and used that to unencrypt the stream. DRM is dumb. I used to work on DRM. It was dumb then, it's dumb now.

0x0000000 5y ago

No, because the video is protected with the Widevine DRM. You can't just curl a resource, you will not get a usable output. That said, it can't be all too hard as Netflix exclusives are all over the open seas.

themitigating 5y ago
There's a software kit distributed in "the scene" that downloads and decrypts Netflix content

saurik 5y ago

Netflix is not just like <video src="something I could put into VLC">... DRM is often said to be "broken by design" but it is an actual thing you have to defeat, not some lie told to scare you away.

waltbosz 5y ago

It's not that simple. The video files are chopped up into pieces for streaming, so what you would download (assuming wget would handle the stream) are thousands of tiny files. You could reassemble them with ffmpeg, but first you'd need to decrypt them. It's the encryption that these leaked scripts take care of.

alibert 5y ago

I think there is actually no challenge to rip them because everything streamed seems to be almost immediately available for download in the original bitstream format without any recompression (at least for 1080p content).