SlySoft stays one step ahead of AACS
Nothing lets you know spring is in the air like fevered cat-and-mouse DRM activity. The AACS LA (Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator) has seen fit to try the "proactive renewal" strategy, hoping that changing up the encryption keys will keep Blu-ray Region B users securely under thumb. Good luck: the ominous-sounding MKB v7 is already "supported" in SlySoft's AnyDVD HD version 6.4.1.1, released yesterday. The end result is exactly zero "downtime" for users, as discs utilizing MKB v7 aren't due out until the end of this month. To add insult to injury, SlySoft then turned around and loosed version 6.4.1.2 today with "Improved region lock removal from Blu-ray discs which contain signed Java code." SlySoft doesn't look like it's willing to relinquish its role as fox in the henhouse![Via Afterdawn]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nfinity @ Apr 12th 2008 9:02PM
*wink
downloading the update... :)
Blockbuster here I come..
shawnmos @ Apr 12th 2008 9:42PM
When are they (MPAA, RIAA, etc) going to learn that DRM will always be broken.
mike @ Apr 13th 2008 2:23AM
its funny because the type of people drm like aacs is trying to stop from doing things are those smart enough to go on their pcs and use the lattest app to crack it. So the end result is just millions of wasted dollars on encryption nonsense.
DrXym @ Apr 13th 2008 4:49AM
AACS might be more sophisticated than CSS but it shares the same vulnerabilities to class breaks. I doubt there is anything that can be done to plug the leaks because it's too late.
BD+ is another matter. It isn't vulnerable to class breaks since the scheme can be changed and renewed. Slysoft can crack some BD+ apps but it means nothing for the future. BD+ can and will be changed. Worse (for crackers) it can start making timing and footprint critical calls on the firmware, things that cannot be emulated very easily. I think as time progresses Slysoft will find themselves increasingly swamped trying to crack each and every Blu Ray disc because the scheme on every single disk (and possibly even different production runs) is different. People expecting AnyDVD to support every Blu Ray disk, or indeed support new releases in a timely fashion are going to be sorely disappointed.
Which is the entire point of BD+. It is not uncrackable but the amount of time and effort to crack titles will just get longer and more prohibitive. Since studios make most of their money in the first few weeks, this is probably fine by them.
mike @ Apr 13th 2008 1:21PM
where have you been. BD+ has already been cracked. They already changed it after that, it was re-cracked 2 days after the new movie was released. ITs not a hard taks at all for these guys. BD+ has failed. Every movie that has it right now, has been cracked, and any future movie that uses it with a new and improved version, will be cracked within hours.
BD+ failed. More money wasted on DRM.
DrXym @ Apr 13th 2008 4:44PM
Sorry Mike, but you don't know what BD+ is if you think it has been cracked. BD+ is renewable. Do you know what that means? It means Slysoft could break the (probably trivial) BD+ programs on the first wave of discs and the studios will just change it. Not just change it but start making it test the firmware in ways that are difficult to emulate. Its just going to get harder and harder and harder to crack the disks. Please read about self protecting digital content (SPDC) and understand what it means. No one pretends BD+ is unbreakable but there will be a point where Slysoft simply cannot keep up with the output or releases in a timely fashion. They'll miss releases, and be severely delayed on others. Thinking otherwise is to not understand what BD+ is meant for.
loosely_coupled @ Apr 13th 2008 7:10PM
I was going to say the same. I'm sure you are correct about the technical details and the fact it may indeed take longer to crack, but it's already been hacked twice and I'm sure that WHATEVER the BD+ people do, they will just see increased efforts at cracking it.
I mean seriously, between the media companies and the software companies, this game has been played for literally 20 years or more, whether we are talking old school "find the 8th word on the 8th line of the 8th page of the manual"-sort of crap to secret product keys, activations, basic encryption all the way to something as advanced as BD+.
They just don't get it. They will NEVER be able to win this game. The people who program these systems will always be outnumbered 1:1000 or more from people with similar knowledge on the other side.
a MUCH better way to deal with this is simplified managed copy, allowing users to have lower-resolution copies to be used on their iPods, in-car DVD players, friends houses, etc.
Make it incredibly easy for your honest customers and most of them will always pay for the products. I would imagine most of the people who DRM is designed for will either find a way around it or utilize the old "analog hole". If they can't, I bet they don't actually BUY the product ANYWAYS.
What an incredible waste of time for all involved. This will go down in history as a great example of ignorant, short-sighted corporate knee-jerk.
the result has been
loosely_coupled @ Apr 13th 2008 7:11PM
I was going to say the same. I'm sure you are correct about the technical details and the fact it may indeed take longer to crack, but it's already been hacked twice and I'm sure that WHATEVER the BD+ people do, they will just see increased efforts at cracking it.
I mean seriously, between the media companies and the software companies, this game has been played for literally 20 years or more, whether we are talking old school "find the 8th word on the 8th line of the 8th page of the manual"-sort of crap to secret product keys, activations, basic encryption all the way to something as advanced as BD+.
They just don't get it. They will NEVER be able to win this game. The people who program these systems will always be outnumbered 1:1000 or more from people with similar knowledge on the other side.
a MUCH better way to deal with this is simplified managed copy, allowing users to have lower-resolution copies to be used on their iPods, in-car DVD players, friends houses, etc.
Make it incredibly easy for your honest customers and most of them will always pay for the products. I would imagine most of the people who DRM is designed for will either find a way around it or utilize the old "analog hole". If they can't, I bet they don't actually BUY the product ANYWAYS.
What an incredible waste of time for all involved. This will go down in history as a great example of ignorant, short-sighted corporate knee-jerk.
the result has been
D38u6 @ Apr 14th 2008 11:18AM
Just to throw my 2 cents in. Testing firmware for authentication is a very tricky proposition. Not all firmware is created and maintained equally. The studios will need to work within the frameworks of mandatory BD specs to ensure that discs will work on all BD player/console units (and a little player because hardware manufacturers are going interpret sections and choose the path of least cost and ease of production). This should narrow the field down for crackers. That being said, this technique will buy studios time until the crackers catch up. Once the emulation is complete from the crackers side, this method of authentication is effectively dead for BD and content providers will move onto other parts of BD+.
Salacious @ Apr 13th 2008 7:17AM
A future exploit for AACS is managed copy and this might mean that BD+ is vulnerable no matter what changes they do to it.