Blu-ray cracked too?

It's still early on to tell whether this is actually true, but HD DVD cracker muslix64 is back, and with the help of another anti-DRM cracker, Janvitos, claims to have also broken the Blu-ray's implementation of AACS. Although their protection does not yet account for BD+ copy-protection, they claim to have been able to implement the same key-grabbing known-plaintext attack as muslix64 used to crack HD DVD in order to successfully to crack Blu-ray without even using a disc or drive (apparently they just used a raw encrypted data file and nothing more). Unfortunately they haven't yet posted code for us to test this out, so we'll have to take their word for it for the time being.

[Thanks, Ken F]

[balagan @ Jan 20th 2007 12:14PM]

This rocks!

[Sean @ Jan 20th 2007 12:54PM]

While this isn't verified as of yet, I'm left wondering how much longer studios will spend years and millions on development of restrictive technologies hampering the end-user's experience just to have it hacked within months of bringing their product to market?

[Andy @ Jan 20th 2007 1:02PM]

"Although their protection does not yet account for BD+ copy-protection"

This is the huge part, folks, so don't get too excited yet. Both HDDVD and BluRay use AACS, so cracking BluRay's shouldn't have been a huge deal once HDDVD's is.

The real trick for BluRay is getting past the BD+ protection, since I'm sure most (all?) movies will be using it and the AACS hackage is worthless until you can get past it anyhow.

[Thierry @ Jan 20th 2007 2:13PM]

Not one Blu-Ray title out there has BD+ implemented yet. I repeat : BD+ is on 0 (zero) BR discs for now. Get your facts straight instead of buying the BDA's claims at face value.

[Joe Davenport @ Jan 20th 2007 1:21PM]

Good job guys! Thank you for spending your time to figure out the copy-protection. I have no desire to copy the movies, I am just getting tired of studios, riaa, etc. making it difficult for us to easily enjoy our media.

[Tony Rayo @ Jan 20th 2007 1:36PM]

PS3 games have been cracked for a while (although playing back these backups is not yet known, or at least is being kept a very close secret) but I imagine these don't have the same type of encryption as movies. It will be interesting to see where this all goes... *sigh* I am still mourning the loss of a single next-gen blue laser format :(.

- Tony R.

[Russell @ Jan 20th 2007 2:49PM]

What are you talking about? The only way any of these formats is going to take over from DVD is if it's cracked just as much as it.

[Andy @ Jan 20th 2007 9:07PM]

I do know that, but with AACS cracked but not BD+, you can't say that BluRay is cracked. Think they're not going to start using BD+ in everything if the BluRay AACS is cracked?

[2Perfect @ Jan 20th 2007 2:48PM]

Consumers: 1. Industry: 0.
Sadly, the cycle will just keep going. A new format will be made, more advanced, and higher levels of encryption and security, etc. Then a hero comes along, with the [sarcasm]strength to carry on[/sarcasm] patience to break it.

The funny thing here is, BD and HDDVD haven't even become the main format yet and they've already been cracked. Which is good and bad for both consumers and the industry.

1. The industry has time to change it.
2. The new encryption wasn't all that "unbreakable".

It will be sad if muslix gets caught :(

[david @ Jan 20th 2007 4:34PM]

the porn industry adopted hd-dvd. war over.

[Jeff @ Jan 20th 2007 4:25PM]

"The real trick for BluRay is getting past the BD+ protection, since I'm sure most (all?) movies will be using it "

Not until 2010 at the earliest. And probably not even then.

Ha, I remember when the AACS debate was raging, and I made a post on here such to the effect that any sufficiently annoying DRM scheme will always be cracked immediately, because there is *no way* to make a DRM scheme uncrackable if you want people to be able to actually use the product on the consumer end. A lot of people responded saying I didn't understand how AACS worked, that it could not be cracked with the same means as previous encryption schemes, that the keys would just be revoked, etc.

Allow me to finally (since I didn't after the HD-DVD story) say "I told you so."

If BD+ does get implemented, and I'm pretty convinced that it won't, then it'll be cracked too. There is no doubt about this.

DRM is on its last legs. I actually work for a media company and you know, a lot of these guys did really think DRM could be made basically infallible. That's what the DRM industry was telling them (and what else would they say? "Oh, you know, our DRM might get cracked, but please buy our product anyway?"). They never *really* bought the PR line that they were just trying to prevent casual piracy. Now they're seeing that again and again, DRM just doesn't work. They're spending huge amounts of money on this technology and it plain and simply does not do what they're paying for it to do. The content industry is starting to realize that now; it's a bad investment. It gets you a ton of bad PR to start with, it gets you a lot more embarrassing PR once it's cracked, and at that point it's then costing a bunch of money and accomplishing nothing.

I'll be surprised if DRM still exists in any meaningful form by 2015. And before you disagree, ask yourself if you were one of those people that thought AACS would never be cracked. If you were, then ask yourself why you continually seem to put a lot more faith in DRM than is obviously warranted.

[Arbee26 @ Jan 21st 2007 4:29AM]

@David, how many porno dvds have you purchased compared to how many you've downloaded? I think you put too much value on this one issue.

[Castle @ Jan 20th 2007 4:37PM]

So far only the volume key of Lord of War, not a player-key, was compromised; hence Blu-ray the format isn't so much hacked as a single title. It was supposedly cracked by Musilix64 from the Doom9 forums using WinDVD and a $800CAD PC Blu-ray burner where the title's volume key was extracted using the software player and basically allowing to extract the disks contents. This is not however a complete solution that would allow any future Blu-ray disks to be copied.

[2Perfect @ Jan 20th 2007 5:45PM]

I'm not sure but from what I read about the HDDVD crack, (this being similar?) all it takes is muslix to buy a copy of the certain movie, plug it in, get the key, and share it to the world.

Of course I'm far from being sure but that would mean any release is potentially distributable, so long as 1 person knows how to get the key.

[Castle @ Jan 20th 2007 4:42PM]

>>the porn industry adopted hd-dvd. war over.

Actually only one company, digital playground, adopted HD-DVD, not the industry as a whole; granted their press release made it sound like they were the industry. However, pornography is not a deciding factor like it once was during the VHS-era in the 80s, due to the fact that the internet is the biggest distributer of porn. In the 80s, VHS porn market exploded primarily due to the fact that the only other alternative was seedy movie theaters, VHS brought pornography into the privacy of the home, this is not the case anymore, and high-def porn may not appeal to as much people as many expect.

[Mr. B @ Jan 20th 2007 5:12PM]

Once again, raise your glass to history repeating itself.

[Keaton @ Jan 20th 2007 5:14PM]

The "Cracked" Blue Ray Disk Logo is SWEET!... It really is...

[SmilingAssassin @ Jan 20th 2007 5:41PM]

I love it! I have absolutely no need for it but it sickens me the hoops you have to go throught just to watch a movie these days. Sony is the worst about with the hellish HDMI crap. What idiot thought it would be brilliant to send the audio through the video cable. Let my sound system handle that! While your at it get the copy protection out of all my stuff and stop making me pay for your R&D to get it there. Why in the hell couldn't we just use fiber for video just like audio? Two skinny fiber cables would have been great.

[Castle @ Jan 20th 2007 6:02PM]

>>I'm not sure but from what I read about the HDDVD crack, (this being similar?) all it takes is muslix to buy a copy of the certain movie, plug it in, get the key, and share it to the world.

It doesn't work with all titles, primarily Warner-Brother releases, and after the publicity; very unlikely for future titles.

[Richard @ Jan 20th 2007 9:15PM]

Fight muslix64 Fight...Fucking Fight!!!

[tekdroid @ Jan 20th 2007 11:12PM]

I'd prefer to see Blu-Ray and HD-DVD packed, not cracked. Packed and ready to go back to its creator, after gathering dust on the retailer's shelf.

Want to kill DRM? Don't spend money on it. Don't spend money on supporting those putting it out. It's very very simple. Or you can continue whining about consumer rights abuses while lining their pockets...?

[pax @ Jan 20th 2007 11:23PM]

Actually, all hd-dvd and blu-ray titles in distribution are compromisable.
Hd-dvd was cracked first as there is more interest, yet blu-ray beign cracked makes for a more amusing industry scandal - consumers love to hate Sony.

As for BD+ ... solid media will be long gone before it has a chance to be implemented.
Even more so now that DRM just lost its last figment of credibility.
Investors, monday morning is the time to pull out of solid media and DRM.

Sony, this is for your root kit (and the ps3).

[Slocko @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:55AM]

Actually AACS hasn't been cracked. Each movie has to have it's key extraced on a compromised player by retrieving it from memory. That is not a crack. Last count there were 7 Bray movie keys available already.

As for BD+, no movie title uses that yet and i don't there are any players that support it, except maybe the PS3. Also, from the little I have been reading, BD+ will be a hacker's dream. Once hacked, they will have total access to the player, bypassing AACS totally.

[codigoeon @ Jan 23rd 2007 12:41PM]

[http://codigoeon.wordpress.com]

There is a very interesting thing to create own private copies from BD and HD-DVD.

Thank you.

[R-R @ Jan 26th 2007 1:45PM]

The only think worrying right now is TPM...(TCPA, etc)