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Blu-ray AACS copy protection falls to same hacker as HD DVD!

by Bob Crabtree on 23 January 2007, 14:12

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The news


AACS logo - with split

The hacker who last month cracked the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy protection on movies in HD DVD format has now done the same with the AACS version that protects Blu-ray Disc high-def movies!

Details of the new crack by muslix64 are in Doom 9's Decrypting forum, where the HD DVD crack was first revealed.

Astonishingly, that original thread - started less than a month ago on Dec 27 - has now received over a thousand comments and had close to 1.25 million reads.

By comparison, the Blu-ray and AACS thread, which was started on January 18, currently has only 130 or so comments and been read only (only!!) 88,000 times.

Mind you, the cracking announcement from muslix64 was only added on January 20.

We were amazed by how quickly AACS for HD DVD was undone but the Blu-ray crack took less that 24 hours from start to finish, according to muslix64 - and was carried out with no direct access to Blu-ray Disc hardware!

Instead, muslix64 used what's described as "my known-plaintext attack" on a Blu-ray media file - about which you'll find more on page two. This file was supplied by another Doom 9 member on disc along with a memory dump.

After the crack was complete, the file - from the movie Lord of War - could be played well, muslix64 says, on the VLC (VideoLan) player.

And, following on from there, muslix64 made available for download yesterday a tiny tool (just 18KByte) to let others try cracking Blu-ray Disc movies!

As a result, a bunch of Blu-ray movies have been busted open. Details are in this thread, Blu-ray Volume Unique Keys. A similar thread - HD DVD Volume Unique Keys - already existed for movies in the rival HD DVD format.

We are not yet at the stage where an app has been developed that lets you crack Blu-ray high-def movies as easily as the DVD Decrypter program does standard definition movies.

However, a decrypter for HD DVD with a graphics user interface is now available as a minuscule download (just 97KByte) - see this thread, BackupHDDVD (GUI Mod) - Java - and something similar for Blu-ray Disc movies has to be on the cards.


Backup HD DVD GUI version 0.0.9
Backup HD DVD GUI version 0.0.9.  You can expect
something like it soon for Blu-ray (click for larger image)



And all this will have come about because muslix64 realised, after buying an HD DVD external USB drive for an Xbox 360, that it couldn't play movies in high-def because the PC's installed video card was not HDCP-compliant.

The biter bit!

Check out the Blu-ray and AACS thread in the Doom9 forums - and be sure to keep an eye on other Doom9 threads listed below.

Oh, and if you are interested in what muslix64 describes as "my known-plaintext attack" on a Blu-ray media file, there's more info on page two.

Thoughts? Share them with us in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum.

HEXUS.links

HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this article
HEXUS.lifestyle.headlines :: AACS high-def-disc copy-protection cracked already?

External.links

Doom9 forum thread - Blu-ray and AACS
Doom 9 forum thread - Blu-ray Volume Unique Keys
BackupBluRayv021 - download (14KByte)

Doom9 forum thread - BackupHDDVD, a tool to decrypt AACS protected movies
Doom 9 forum thread -  HD DVD Volume Unique Keys
Doom 9 forum thread - BackupHDDVD (GUI Mod) - Java

AACS - home page
YouTube - AACS is Unbreakable!