3 ms·

DirecTV's Secret War On Hackers (2001)

77 points by jsnell 12y ago

joezydeco 12y ago
Years later, the person responsible for the "Black Sunday" kill came forward: http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/05/tarnovsky?currentPage=all http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/05/tarn...
- wilhil 12y ago
  I didn't read the whole thing, but, it seems highly related to what happened in England where Sky Digital basically hacked Ondigital making it a non viable platform and it eventually went bankrupt :/
- blueintegral 12y ago
  Tarnovsky has given several really great talks at Defcon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh238PUqz3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh238PUqz3I He goes into a lot of technical detail which is great. I'm a big fan of his work.
  - apaprocki 12y ago
    I can neither confirm not deny being directly affected by his work at the time :) Needless to say once the story came out it was amazing to read about it from the "other" side. The scene got so complicated it could only be described as an arms race. It quickly moved from having modified cards and custom devices to live intercept rigs where a computer sat between the card and receiver. What, you don't have an unlooper in your drawer?
mikestew 12y ago
I remember it well, last time it came up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6387545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6387545. Ingenious, with a little dig at the hackers.
nickysielicki 12y ago
I'd just like to point out that vulnerabilities in satellite TV are surfacing once more, but this time, on a much more irreparable scale. [1]: http://colibri.bplaced.net/powervu.htm http://colibri.bplaced.net/powervu.htm
- kw71 12y ago
  PowerVu is pretty old, and (at least in the USA) it's not really used for home viewing, so I think this isn't very interesting unless you have a giant C / Ku band antenna.
  - nickysielicki 12y ago
    Right. But if you do have a big ugly dish (or are willing to find one on the free section on craigslist and put it in your backyard) you can theoretically view nearly everything. PowerVu isn't used by DirectTV or Dish for their home viewing. But it is still used by the major networks. Nearly everything from sports to entertainment is on PowerVu at some point, and then received and retransmitted by individual carriers. Check out lyngsat.com.
    - kw71 12y ago
      My experience working in cable headends are that most programs that we watch on cable are delivered using DigiCipher (motorola's) CAS. There are always one or two PowerVu receivers tho: Viacom (MTV, A&E) is one notable feed. Also there are usually a small number of tandberg-style receivers with Irdeto or something. Nevertheless I was glad to see that someone is figuring out PowerVu :) I would like to see the same for DigiCipher, as the 4DTV scheme uses it. Both PowerVu and DigiCipher have similarities to the CAS schemes from their respective manufacturers for cable settops, too.
djmollusk 12y ago
DirectH was my fav app. I remember when DirecTV took control of hackhu.com. Forgot about this scene.
have_humility 12y ago
Fun fact: DirecTV HD DVR's contain GPL code. (Maybe Linux, but I can't remember, really.) It was amusing coming across the phrase "Ty Coon, President of Vice" in my parent's printed owner's manual a couple years ago. Not so fun fact: When I saw that, I checked online to see what sources DirecTV is offering, and I came across claims that DirecTV is yet another corporation shirking their responsibility wrt their use of GPL code.
- bkuhn 12y ago
  Please send a copy of the manual and specific details of what you tried to receive source code from DirecTV to <compliance@sfconservancy.org>. Note that GPL doesn't require "putting the source online" necessarily, but they are required to make a valid offer for source code to you and fulfill that offer when exercised. We'll need to investigate whether or not they've properly done that before anyone should claim that DirecTV has violated GPL. (BTW, I'm Bradley M. Kuhn, who, through my role at Conservancy, started the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers: https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/ https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/
JacobAldridge 12y ago
Not loading for me - did we just Slashdot Slashdot?

77 points by jsnell 12y ago

Years later, the person responsible for the "Black Sunday" kill came forward: http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/05/tarnovsky?currentPage=all http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/05/tarn...

wilhil 12y ago
I didn't read the whole thing, but, it seems highly related to what happened in England where Sky Digital basically hacked Ondigital making it a non viable platform and it eventually went bankrupt :/
blueintegral 12y ago
Tarnovsky has given several really great talks at Defcon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh238PUqz3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh238PUqz3I He goes into a lot of technical detail which is great. I'm a big fan of his work.
- apaprocki 12y ago
  I can neither confirm not deny being directly affected by his work at the time :) Needless to say once the story came out it was amazing to read about it from the "other" side. The scene got so complicated it could only be described as an arms race. It quickly moved from having modified cards and custom devices to live intercept rigs where a computer sat between the card and receiver. What, you don't have an unlooper in your drawer?

mikestew 12y ago

I remember it well, last time it came up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6387545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6387545. Ingenious, with a little dig at the hackers.

nickysielicki 12y ago

I'd just like to point out that vulnerabilities in satellite TV are surfacing once more, but this time, on a much more irreparable scale. [1]: http://colibri.bplaced.net/powervu.htm http://colibri.bplaced.net/powervu.htm

kw71 12y ago
PowerVu is pretty old, and (at least in the USA) it's not really used for home viewing, so I think this isn't very interesting unless you have a giant C / Ku band antenna.
- nickysielicki 12y ago
  Right. But if you do have a big ugly dish (or are willing to find one on the free section on craigslist and put it in your backyard) you can theoretically view nearly everything. PowerVu isn't used by DirectTV or Dish for their home viewing. But it is still used by the major networks. Nearly everything from sports to entertainment is on PowerVu at some point, and then received and retransmitted by individual carriers. Check out lyngsat.com.
  - kw71 12y ago
    My experience working in cable headends are that most programs that we watch on cable are delivered using DigiCipher (motorola's) CAS. There are always one or two PowerVu receivers tho: Viacom (MTV, A&E) is one notable feed. Also there are usually a small number of tandberg-style receivers with Irdeto or something. Nevertheless I was glad to see that someone is figuring out PowerVu :) I would like to see the same for DigiCipher, as the 4DTV scheme uses it. Both PowerVu and DigiCipher have similarities to the CAS schemes from their respective manufacturers for cable settops, too.

djmollusk 12y ago

DirectH was my fav app. I remember when DirecTV took control of hackhu.com. Forgot about this scene.

have_humility 12y ago

Fun fact: DirecTV HD DVR's contain GPL code. (Maybe Linux, but I can't remember, really.) It was amusing coming across the phrase "Ty Coon, President of Vice" in my parent's printed owner's manual a couple years ago. Not so fun fact: When I saw that, I checked online to see what sources DirecTV is offering, and I came across claims that DirecTV is yet another corporation shirking their responsibility wrt their use of GPL code.

bkuhn 12y ago
Please send a copy of the manual and specific details of what you tried to receive source code from DirecTV to <compliance@sfconservancy.org>. Note that GPL doesn't require "putting the source online" necessarily, but they are required to make a valid offer for source code to you and fulfill that offer when exercised. We'll need to investigate whether or not they've properly done that before anyone should claim that DirecTV has violated GPL. (BTW, I'm Bradley M. Kuhn, who, through my role at Conservancy, started the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers: https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/ https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/

JacobAldridge 12y ago

Not loading for me - did we just Slashdot Slashdot?