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[FYI] (Fwd) DVD cracks
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) DVD cracks
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 22:59:42 +0200
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: PA Axel H Horns
- Reply-to: horns@t-online.de
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
------- Forwarded message follows -------
To: cryptography@c2.net
Subject: DVD cracks
Copies to: proff@iq.org
Copies to: aucrypto@suburbia.net
From: Julian Assange <proff@iq.org>
Date sent: 01 Nov 1999 18:14:46 +1100
[from ntk]
Just when you thought you'd wait forever for a free DVD
player, along come two cracks at once. The first was the
leaking onto the Linux LIVID player mailing list of the DVD
Content Scrambling System code used by the Jon Johansen's
cracker for Windows, DeCSS. Bits of the code was already
written and GPL'd by Derek Fawcus - which means that the rest
of the code could end up under GPL - hence the leak. More
importantly, though, it also meant that the CSS decryption
algorithm was now open to public scrutiny. It only took a few
hours to confirm what everyone's been suspecting for a while.
The CSS decryption system sucks. It works by storing a whole
bunch of keys on each DVD. Industry overseers, the DVD Forum,
hand out one matching decryption key to each manufacturer: if
any of these company's equipment got cracked, future DVD
disc's were to be pressed without this key, making the crack
(and that company's hardware) unusable with new movies. Quite
whether the Forum would ever dare to carry out this threat
against its own licensees is unclear. It's a bit moot now,
though, since open cryptanalysis of the CSS algorithm showed
that it was possible to brute force *all* of the current keys
in a few days. In order to preserve the system, the DVD Forum
would have to disable all keys, turning every hardware player
sold so far into a pile of scrap iron. Boy, these Hollywood
guys are *smart*, aren't they?
http://livid.on.openprojects.net/pipermail/livid-dev/1999-October/0005
48.html
- the story in a nutshell
http://livid.on.openprojects.net/pipermail/livid-dev/1999-October/0004
30.html
- next round: let me see you wobble those
tracks
------- End of forwarded message -------