New AACS Crack Called "Undefeatable"

Tuoqui writes "With all the focus on the infamous hexadecimal number, people may be ignoring a bigger weakness in the AACS armor, which emerged two weeks ago. Some hackers have figured out how to crack AACS in a way that cannot be defeated, even by revoking all the keys in circulation."

Not a good start for the morning

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just enjoying my coffee, and suddenly I'm faced with an article about somebody's crack!

Got it!

[otacon]

Oh I know, don't use HD-DVD...there...defeated.

Undefeatable?

[Rik Sweeney]

Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

Huh, looks like the new strategy is issuing DMCA Takedown orders against anyone who suggests that it is undefeatable...

I reject your reality and substitute my own

[rambag]

"I reject your AACS crack and substitute my own"

Points finger of blame

[Rik Sweeney]

"No matter how many Private Host Keys they revoke we will still be able to get Volume IDs using patched xbox 360 HD DVD drives."

I hope the hacker isn't suggesting that this whole encryption key debackle is somehow Microsoft's fault, could you imagine the lawsuit?

Back to the grindstone, fellows...

[Kadin2048]

All apologies to those who feel that DRM is still a relevant freedom related issue... But I honestly feel that discussing this is just a drain on resources that could be directed towards more fertile topics.

Yeah, like arguing the relative merits of Linux versus Windows, or Apple versus MS ... we were getting so close to a breakthrough there, I don't know how we got off-track.

Re:Get 'em while you can

[boarder8925]

So if you're interested in this stuff, you might as well go out and get one of the MS drives or other first-gen drives, because I suspect the hacking possibilities may decrease over time; it's going to be these early drives which are the most hackable.

I'll buy one now in the hopes of selling it in a few years, when people will probably be willing to pay for a moddable drive.

Poor Sony?

[shawnmchorse]

I have to wonder if the huge amount of HD-DVD hack coverage lately is starting to make Sony wish that someone would spend more time hacking Blu-Ray. There's no such thing as bad press?

Re:Undefeatable?

[elrous0]

Funny, when you said "DMCA" I heard a loud thump. It sounded a lot like Kevin Rose's knees hitting the floor.

Oh, wait a minute...I think I hear a zipper too.

Maybe it's just me...

[thegnu]

I fully expect that they'll eventually just pot the circuit boards in epoxy or something

But wouldn't that make it hard to fry eggs on your XBOX? I mean, who are you kidding?

Re:Got it!

[elrous0]

I think you mean "effect," as in "Grammar Nazis are very effective at repelling women."

Re:Get 'em while you can

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll buy one now in the hopes of selling it in a few years, when people will probably be willing to pay for a moddable drive.

Good thinking. After all, what better investment over time than computer hardware. I can't even begin to imagine how much I could get for my Atari 800 now. And to think I paid only $1,000 for it! But I'm no fool. I'm passing this one down to my grandkids to help fund their college education.

Re:Get 'em while you can

[miskatonic alumnus]

If they start encasing circuit boards in epoxy then there is little doubt that people will soon be taking hammers and chisels to their HD-DVD players.

Then they really will be cracking them.

Thanks!

[Applekid]

Good, because now I don't have to admit I'm getting old and can't remember that 09 F-something something.

Re:Got it!

[WED Fan]

Sony has the added security feature in that in a few short years, like Betamax, MiniDisc, etc, the Sony backed format will fail, players and computer devices will disappear and the format will be safe from cracking. Security Through Undesired Format.

Well, what do you know. The inevitable happened.

[laughingcoyote]

Developing an overblown DRM system: Millions of dollars.

Hiring consultants to tell you it'll really, really work this time after firing all the ones who informed you copy protection is a cryptographic impossibility: Thousands of dollars.

Paying lawyers to send cease-and-desist letters to thousands of websites after the key leaks: $500/hour.

Watching yet another DRM scheme go up in flames shortly after its release: Priceless.

Re:Got it!

[An ominous Cow art]

Security Through Undesired Format.

Sounds like a good name for a standard. Perhaps we can use the French form of the acronym, STFU. :-)

Re:Not a good start for the morning

[spun]

If you see a post with a link claiming "You could pound away at this crack with a jackhammer and not defeat it," or "An even bigger crack," or even "Expanding the crack," DO NOT CLICK IT!

Re:Got it!

[Anonymous Coward]

According to MW it's "put-down" [m-w.com]

Re:Got it!

[Anonymous Coward]

An editor had clumsily rearranged one of Winston Churchill's sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, and the Prime Minister, very proud of his style, scribbled this note in reply: "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."

Re:Perhaps if this is proven to be true....

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Release HD movies
2. Wait for adoption
3. With ample support from a corrupt gouvernment, make it so that the only way to view the movies is to use a easily encountered but illegal circumvention tool
4. ???^H^H^HLawsuits
5. Profit!!!
(6. Be the first against the wall when the revolution comes)

Re:I reject your reality and substitute my own

[Pharmboy]

Oh, here's your problem: Your encryption has a big crack in it...

NeuroMPAAncer

[JudgeSlash]

The sky above the port was the color of bittorrent, tuned to a dead tracker.

"It's not like I'm leeching," MPAAse heard someone say, as he shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of Reality. "It's like my body's developed this massive plot deficiency." It was a Slashdot voice and a Slashdot joke...


Apologies to Gibson.

Re:Got it!

[IdleTime]

I think you mean:
Security Through Undesired Format - Intelligent Termination or STUF-IT..

Re:Undefeatable?

[d3matt]

darn... I'm wrong too. it's 128 bits... 32 Hex character=16 bytes=128bits

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Got it!

[bitt3n]

I think you mean "effect," as in "Grammar Nazis are very effective at repelling women."

I should think a true Grammar Nazi would prefer to be called effectual at repelling women.

Re:Undefeatable Crack?

[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

Whitney Houston vows to conquer the undefeatable the crack - more news at 11.

Re:Undefeatable?

[j-turkey]

"I swear you honor, my computer came up with it randomly"

I'm not certain, but I believe odds of 3.4e+38 to one qualify as "beyond a reasonable doubt."

To most, 1 in 2^32 doesn't look very remote. That's what, like 1 in 64, right? ;)

Re:Perhaps if this is proven to be true....

[j-turkey]

Tell me. Does this new definition of "pirate" include those who circumvent copy protection on products they legally bought?

In a word... yes. You're allowed to archival copies, but not allowed to circumvent protection to it.

Quite the scam, eh?

In that case, yarrrr, she is quite the scam, maytee.

Re:Get 'em while you can

[Anonymous Coward]

Scene: Antiques Roadshow 2137

Host: I'm sorry Mr. Quan, your antique laser rifle is only worth about $1,000,000.00.
Quan: Oh crap. That won't even pay rent these days. I'm going to go kill myself. [puts rifle to his head and fires]

Host: Will someone clean that up? ... Ok moving on to our next piece, a genuine Atari 2600 from the late 20th century. Mr. Kim, you say that your great, great grandfather paid $1,000 for this system in the 1980s?
Kim: Yes, and this particular unit is even more famous because he posted about it on Slashdot in 2007.

Host: Well Mr. Kim, I have a surprise for you! Your unit is now worth approximately $2,000. What do you think of that?
Kim: Can I borrow that other guy's laser rifle?

Re:Got it!

[Mex]

Wow, at least half the replies are trying to be funny. What happened to Slashdot, when did it become a standup comedian-wannabe forum?

It's cool to have some fun, but when everyone is cracking lame jokes about any theme, it just becomes tiring. In most threads, I have to skip about 5 to 10 "Funny" comments to find an "Insightful" or "Interesting". When did everyone become a comedian?

Re:Undefeatable?

[julesh]

$ `dd if=/dev/urandom of=File.txt bs=1 count=32 && cat File.txt`

09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0

$

"I swear you honor, my computer came up with it randomly"

It's worse than that. Your computer randomly came up with a shell command that produced it. The chances of that are... well... freakily low.

Re:Got it!

[elrous0]

Good point. Now, quick, look over your head. Do you see something there? Anything? Feel a breeze, at least?

Re:At what point is enough just enough already?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I simply won't spend a penny of mine if Sony's name is on it.

As someone whose daughter put a Sony-BMG rootkit on my computer, I've refused to buy or rent anything with Sony's name on it for quite some time now. If a Sony movie that I want to see comes out I'll wait until a friend brings a copy over to watch. As to their music, well, I haven't heard anything from any of the major labels I like in a long time. WTF ever happened to rock? Did it really die? I mean, shit, all the young folks are still in the bars covering Zepplin and Ozzie and Lynard Skynard. Speaking of which, have you ever once been in a bar with a live band without hearing some drunk yell "free bird"?

Sony can kiss my nerdy old ass. I was a customer for literally decades, but they will never ever see another dime from this geezer. They, their CEO, their board, all their employees and every one of their God damned stockholders can and will burn in hell.

Note to mods: mod me as you wish, I'm AC. But this isn't flamebait, it's a fucking FLAME. If you're a Sony fan I hate you, too.

(Capcha="domicile", WTF is a nerd supposed to know about that? Gees, these capchas get harder all the time)

Re:Undefeatable?

[arodland]

no, 2^32 is 34. Didn't they teach you math? :)

Re:Got it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to be outdone, the MPAA is working with filmmakers to ensure that movies encoded onto BlueRay disks will be undesired long before Sony has managed to kill their superior format through stupid business practices. Leading the way is George Lucas who's company, LucasArts, has been the driving force behind many of the technological innovations in movies over the past 30 years. Says Lucas, "Our initial testing has been very positive. Test films like "Episode I" were almost unwatchable. And while the addition of a semi-coherent plot weakened the protection scheme from the two subsequent sequels, we've learned our lesson."

Lucas claims that his proprietary JarJar technology is showing incredible promise and that many of the summer's biggest blockbusters are planning to include this protection scheme. Yet the technology is not only effective for new movies. "One of our biggest markets is in the protection of older movies as they are released onto the higher definition formats. For example, we've added a 10 minute scene to 'Forrest Gump' featuring a conversation between JarJar and the title character which test audiences have indicated is 'more painful than child birth', as one woman put it."

Re:Got it!

[SleepyHappyDoc]

Security Through Format Undesirability

Re:Got it!

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe you meant "effects"

Re:Undefeatable?

[Lord Ender]

Sorry about the "slick," bub. I'm just bitter that I did the math right, yet you got all the karma.

And just to rub it in, Mr. +5, you tell me that you didn't even have to spend five years and $50,000 on an education to get where you are. psh.

Re:Got it!

[Tsagadai]

A French grammar nazi! They had a word for people like you, collaborator.

Re:Got it!

[JamesTRexx]

I'd say "You must be new here.", but then that would mean you bought that /. ID from Ebay.

Re:Undefeatable?

[j-turkey]

Sorry about the "slick," bub. I'm just bitter that I did the math right, yet you got all the karma.

And just to rub it in, Mr. +5, you tell me that you didn't even have to spend five years and $50,000 on an education to get where you are. psh.

LOL - sorry man. If it makes you feel any better, I actually did get an overpriced college education. I guess that they didn't teach me how to read carefully...or maybe I didn't pay attention during that part. :)

If it helps, I take no pleasure in karma whoring and will gladly renounce my +5 funny.

I hereby renounce the +5 funny on my post! It was totally lame because the math was wrong.

Re:Got it!

[Money for Nothin']

Sledgehammer, meet housefly.

Re:Got it!

[complete loony]

Yeah that can be annoying.
Then you have to skip the "how to change your reason modifier" and "having to skip some whining bitch" comments, and the inevitable "Then you have to skip the \"how to change your reason modifier\" and \"having to skip some whining bitch\" comments" comments.
[Connection lost; stack overflow]