This year has not been kind to the folks who manage the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) copy protection system used to prevent unauthorized copying of both Blu-ray and HD DVD tites. First, enterprising computing enthusiasts found a way to bypass AACS copy protection using keys obtained from the WinDVD software player. That crack was widened, and the AACS confirmed that valid title codes had been obtained for existing high-definition movie releases. The AACS recently announced it has expired the known-cracked codes, meaning they won’t work in newly-minted players and software, and newly released high-definition titles won’t work in compromised players; as part of that update, Corel mandated an update for WInDVD which addresses the security compromise.
Tag Archive: AACS
AACS Crack Widens to All High-Def Titles?
Back in December, an enterprising programmer found a way to extract volume keys from HD DVD movies, and even the AACS backhandedly confirmed its system had been compromised. Since then, volume keys to roughly 100 HD DVD discs (and even a handful of Blu-ray titles) have become de facto public knowledge and enthusiasts opposed to DRM make “backup copies” of their high-definition media.
AACS: High-Def DVD Copy Protection Cracked
Although there’s been much debate during the last few weeks whether a cracker using the name Muslix64 had successfully broken AACS copy protection on HD DVD discs would bear out, the feat appears to be legitimate: in a brief statement, AACS LA has confirmed that AACS title keys have been successfully ferretted out, distributed via the Internet, and used to decode protected high-definition movie content. AACS spokesperson Michael Ayers described the crack as having “sobering possibilities,” but described its impact as limited at the moment, in part due to the limited HD content available on the market and the current impracticality of sharing mammoth high-definition video files via the Internet.
Companies Investigate Claim of AACS Crack
We all knew it was just a matter of time until a credible attempt to crack the encyrption used in high-definition DVDs emerged…and that time may be now. A programmer working under the monicker Muslix64 has posted a video, a Java-based program for Windows called BackupHDDVD, and details of how he successfully copied several films, including Warner Bros. Full Metal Jacket and Universal Studios Van Helsing, promising to follow-up with more source code and materials on January 2, 2007, to enable users to copy a wider range of movie titles.
