One hacker’s claim: I’ve accessed Blu-Ray’s AACS

There have been too many reports lately about Blu-Ray getting hacked. But since its a new format and is poised to dominate, we figured we all can’t have too many of these. Like this one for starters: another hacker is claiming to have finally cracked the disc format and its AACS.

Now, for those people who are not so much into techie stuff, AACS stands for Advanced Access Content System. It is actually a standard for content distribution and Digital Rights Management (DRM). Accordingly, this very system restricts access and copying of disc formats. So basically, our hacker is saying he had figured it all already with few minor setbacks.

Before we continue, the Read link below takes you to a place you’ve never been before. Nah, just kidding. It links back to the guy’s original post which details the directory structure of one Blu-Ray disc. Anyway, the guy, which goes by the avatar Janvitos, mentions that Blu-Ray is tougher to crack as compared to rival format HD DVD.

According to Janvitos, this format which is being supported by the PS3 has the tendency to use just one key instead of many. This is a problem especially when trying to search the memory dumps since we are looking for a single 128 bit key rather than 8, 11, or even 60. His exact words:

One of the other major drawback would be the lack of clues residing inside the CPS Unit Key File (Title Key File). The Title Key File for the HD DVD format has plain text strings (such as VPLST000.XPL) but the CPS Unit Key File has none. The file is mostly comprised of zeros and the encrypted key.

He promised that he will continue to work on this on until he fully cracks the system. Janvitos for his exploit, used a US$ 800 CAD Blu-Ray burner and tinkered with movie “Lord of War”. He used WinDVD to play it as PowerDVD BD doesn’t work for him. Finally, he employed WinHEX to go through the disc’s memory.

There have been too many reports lately about Blu-Ray getting hacked. But since its a new format and is poised to dominate, we figured we all can’t have too many of these. Like this one for starters: another hacker is claiming to have finally cracked the disc format and its AACS.

Now, for those people who are not so much into techie stuff, AACS stands for Advanced Access Content System. It is actually a standard for content distribution and Digital Rights Management (DRM). Accordingly, this very system restricts access and copying of disc formats. So basically, our hacker is saying he had figured it all already with few minor setbacks.

Before we continue, the Read link below takes you to a place you’ve never been before. Nah, just kidding. It links back to the guy’s original post which details the directory structure of one Blu-Ray disc. Anyway, the guy, which goes by the avatar Janvitos, mentions that Blu-Ray is tougher to crack as compared to rival format HD DVD.

According to Janvitos, this format which is being supported by the PS3 has the tendency to use just one key instead of many. This is a problem especially when trying to search the memory dumps since we are looking for a single 128 bit key rather than 8, 11, or even 60. His exact words:

One of the other major drawback would be the lack of clues residing inside the CPS Unit Key File (Title Key File). The Title Key File for the HD DVD format has plain text strings (such as VPLST000.XPL) but the CPS Unit Key File has none. The file is mostly comprised of zeros and the encrypted key.

He promised that he will continue to work on this on until he fully cracks the system. Janvitos for his exploit, used a US$ 800 CAD Blu-Ray burner and tinkered with movie “Lord of War”. He used WinDVD to play it as PowerDVD BD doesn’t work for him. Finally, he employed WinHEX to go through the disc’s memory.