HDCP master key discovered?

[diogen]

That would be great news if true!
HDCP 'master key' supposedly released, unlocks HDTV copy protection permanently -- Engadget

No more handshaking issues, having to upgrade to newer TV sets and other such things.
And the best news - no more chances to put this genie back in the bottle!

Diogen.

EDIT: More details
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ter-key-leak-could-be-fatal-to-drm-scheme.ars
This writeup shows that even if one day AACS is patched to the point that neither AnyDVD HD nor any other software
can strip the protection off the Blu-ray disks, this HDCP hack opens the doors to create a device
that will pretend to be a legit display and will record the digital stream instead.

 

[mike123abc]

HDCP concept was kind of silly anyways. OK, now you get your 2 Gbit/sec signal in the clear, it is going to take some work to recompress it to something that could be useable. It is not going to really allow new pristine copies of things to float around the internet, there will be compression artifacts and it currently would be expensive for a 2Gbit/sec capture, not to mention the encoding to recompress it in real time.

 

[Foxbat]

HDCP concept was kind of silly anyways. OK, now you get your 2 Gbit/sec signal in the clear, it is going to take some work to recompress it to something that could be useable. It is not going to really allow new pristine copies of things to float around the internet, there will be compression artifacts and it currently would be expensive for a 2Gbit/sec capture, not to mention the encoding to recompress it in real time.

As I've said before, BlackMagic has been doing HDMI recording at Full HD (1080 and 720) resolutions for under $200. See their web site at Blackmagic Design: Intensity for pricing and specs.

 

[diogen]

As I've said before, BlackMagic has been doing HDMI recording at Full HD (1080 and 720) resolutions for under $200...

...but no hires audio.

Diogen.

 

[Foxbat]

The new USB 3.0 box supports 8 channel HDMI audio. L, R, Center, LR, RR, LE, RE, and subwoofer. 48 KHz and 24 bit audio sampling. But I suppose you want 96 KHz or 128 KHz sampling, right?

 

[diogen]

Never used the USB box.
The PCIe cards I have seen did not have anything but stereo...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

The question mark at the end of this thread title can be replaced with an exclamation mark
Confirmed: Intel says HDCP 'master key' crack is real -- Engadget

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

Interesting detail: unlike the CSS hack (DVD protection) the HDCP key wasn't leaked but was simply calculated
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/intel-threatens-consumers/

Waldrop said Intel did not believe that a “human source” entrusted with the master key leaked it because the master is “created and structured that nobody sees it.”

Now, HDCP is actually a secondary level of content protection. AACS on Blu-ray plays the role of CSS on DVD.
It is AES-256 and brute force is obviously useless. Any chance its implementation has any back doors? Time will show, I guess.

Diogen.

 

[mike123abc]

It was predicted that with 50 keys one could calculate the master key when the HDCP first came out. Someone must have been busy calculating based on the individual manufacturer keys.

AES seems to be holding up well. And, of course, with bluray it is not the AES but the key distribution system that has been compromised.

 

[diogen]

...with bluray it is not the AES but the key distribution system that has been compromised.

I don't think you can even call it compromised.
No matter how you do it, the decryption keys have to be in the open (somewhere in RAM) at least for a short time.
And the process of fetching them has been optimized in software like AnyDVD and the like...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

An HDCP story...
Editorial: For the umpteenth time, copy 'protection' only hurts people who actually buy your product -- Engadget

Not the first, not the last. And even all the arguments used in that piece ain't new.
It's just that it is written by a "Senior Associate Editor" of a respectable online tech news site.

And one does wonder (although this is already in the philosophical realm for a long time) will this ever be understood by the "media execs"

...how can content producers ever hope to compete pushing paid wares if stolen content is easier to obtain, view, and dispose of?

Liked ThePirateBay pic. Also, "An Education" is a nice movie!

The bad news, all the cracking successes won't help you when using the iPad: the VGA port is simply not accessible by third party players like VLC...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

You can always count on the Germans to turn a boring topic into a candy
HDCP cracked using $250 of gear and a lot of talent | The Verge

In other words: How to use the cracked HDCP Master Key at home by a DIY-er.

Nothing really to help pirates (not that they need any help). Just rub it in to Intel. And the conclusion:
"In the meantime, HDCP continues to bother only a single group of people: those who buy stuff legally."

Diogen.