James Delahunty
1 Jan 2007 4:22
As we reported a few days ago, a hacker known as Muslix64 released a tool called BackupHDDVD to rip video content from several available HD DVD titles. He also provided a video that you can watch here of the tool in action, showing how it copies the files to a HDD which are then played back. Testing of the tool and keys provided show that it does actually work, although not "perfectly".
Whether or not this tool can actually be used to make a full backup, or if it will lead to such tools, the fact that any decryption has taken place is obviously worrying the media companies behind the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) copy protection. While making tools to decrypt AES encryption can be done, it is the decryption keys getting loose that worries the media companies more.
The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. to protect optical disc formats made specifically for HD content, including Toshiba's HD DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray. A spokesman for one of the AACS companies (didn't identify the company) said that it was aware of the developments and was looking into it.
Jeff Moss, organizer of Defcon, the world's largest hacking convention said that it appears Muslix64 has found a real breach in the system. "Everybody is talking like it worked, and apparently it's not that hard," he said. "This will be the first trial run of how this (AACS) is going to work whenever a compromised player comes out."
AACS is also used to protect content stored on Sony's Blu-ray format.
Source:
Reuters