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Thursday, May 3, 2007
New AACS crack "can't be revoked"
A new crack for the AACS anti-copying system claims it can't be overcome by updating DVD players and other devices. AACS is the anti-copying system behind Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and other crippled high-def video formats. These systems rely on a "revocation" system that allows new discs to ship with the intelligence to refuse to play on devices that are known to be cracked. However, the new crack, which comes from the must-read Doom9 forums, compromises the system in a way that can't be stopped with revocation.
The last time around, a Doom9 poster named Muslix64 broke the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray crippleware by capturing a 16-byte key. The AACS Licensing Authority has captured headlines this week by sending legal threats to the sites that reproduced this short number, resulting in nearly 700,000 pages reproducing the number.
In addition to being irrevocable, the hack has the potential to make future decryption even easier. "This hack/technique enables us to figure out how the Volume ID is stored on the disc," arnezami explained. "It's very possible we would figure out [...] how the KCD is stored on the disc. Knowing that and being able to teach a PC drive how to read a KCD will open the door for what I called third-generation decryption."Link (via /.)
posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:34:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments
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