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Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

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Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can DRM ever be perfect? It relies on your computer to be able to decrypt the data so it an never be "mathematically perfect" like regular encryption can be. Current DRM is all about shoving the decryption part as deep in to a chip as possible and betting on the fact that it is physically too hard to extract that info. So it will always be exploitable with some amount of effort.

The DRM implementation and algorithm could be "perfect" in a mathematical sense, but as you point out they tend to rely on a PUF in the silicon hardware. Currently very hard to extract but not completely so. However, say a system had a quantum based PUF then it could be unclonable due to QM. Such a system could still be potentially cracked by causing issues in the processor itself like with the ESP32s. Which was my p…

It doesn't boil down to economics at all. Even if you push a googolplex dollars into perfecting it. If you wanted you can still relatively easily snoop the electrical signals that control an LCD to reconstruct the video. This is not possible to encrypt and never will be.

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#92

From the repo: >It is my honest opinion that DRM is a malignant tumor growing upon various forms of media, and that people that either implement or enforce implementation are morally repugnant and do no good to society. With that in mind, I was sad to learn in May 2021 that the original extension would soon be rendered obsolete. I really can't agree more. I don't use, and never have, services that require DRM. I buy…

Let me see if I understand your position. "Laws are stupid because there are criminals who do crime anyway, and laws don't stop them." Does that sum it up?

Let's rephrase it. Corrupt laws like DMCA-1201 that use DRM to extend control over anything it touches are indeed stupid and even harmful to society.

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can DRM ever be perfect? It relies on your computer to be able to decrypt the data so it an never be "mathematically perfect" like regular encryption can be. Current DRM is all about shoving the decryption part as deep in to a chip as possible and betting on the fact that it is physically too hard to extract that info. So it will always be exploitable with some amount of effort.

The DRM implementation and algorithm could be "perfect" in a mathematical sense, but as you point out they tend to rely on a PUF in the silicon hardware. Currently very hard to extract but not completely so. However, say a system had a quantum based PUF then it could be unclonable due to QM. Such a system could still be potentially cracked by causing issues in the processor itself like with the ESP32s. Which was my p…

It could only be described as "mathematically perfect" in the sense that without the decryption key, the encrypted data is no more useful than random bytes.

But DRM fundamentally needs to have the decryption key available at the end user's device - which at least in my opinion, makes it better described as "provably mathematically impossible".

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#94
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand how it can ever be secure unless you let some DRM representatives basically come and do inspections. Fundamentally, you are going to show a video and play an audio stream. Fundamentally, it can be recaptured perfectly because it must be displayed and played perfectly. There is simply no way around it. DRM can only make life hard for the regular Joes.

> I don’t understand how it can ever be secure unless you let some DRM representatives basically come and do inspections. Oh god, that’s a level of hell I haven’t even imagined. I wonder if the future could ever become as dystopian as that for real. What it would take for that to happen, and how.

I don't know, but assume, that the movie studios do this for movie theaters.

Seems to work pretty well, since too my knowledge those are only ever leaked by audience members pointing a hidden camera at the screen (with all the quality issues that entails).

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that people who exploit L1 just never reveal how they do it, good luck with that. That's the beauty of the asymmetry against DRM, only a single decoded file (which will always happen) is enough for seeding to everybody.

This seems to be confirmed by the fact that most torrent sites have 4K copies of brand new streaming only content while no publicly known exploits exist. Since you are running the exploit locally without affecting other peoples machines, I imagine it would be close to impossible to work out what exploit they are using.

Are those actual decrypted copies of the original stream, though? Or did they just re-record the output? For the latter you'd only need to break HDCP, right?

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#96
post #47
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM is always pointless because the content has to be converted to analog form at some point. So, it gets decrypted in the DistrustZone, decompressed, then encrypted again before it goes over HDCP to your display, which then decrypts it to show it on the screen. Couldn't you capture the LVDS signal that the display panel receives? And even if you don't do that, isn't every version of HDCP cracked already so you could…

The last bastion of DRM is forensic watermarking (so they can trace the leaked video back to your device) and key revocation (so your device won't play any new content). These techniques are so complex that they aren't used much.

Watermarking is the kind of DRM I'm 100% okay with.

Please, sell me a watermarked but DRM-free video file that I can use with any player on any device. If I share it, you'll know it was me, but otherwise I have complete freedom. Win-win.

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#97
post #74

Can someone explain what's the point of DRM for video streaming when you can do screen recording so easily. It could make sense in books and games but why is netflix such a heavy proponent for it?

Depending on the solution,it might involve watermarking so that they can trace where the streams that end up on the internet come from and cut off those users. If nothing else, im sure it shows up in the analytics if someone's netflix account is 24/7 streaming every episode of every show without break. Although the real answer is probably: studios require it in their contracts and netflix has to play nice.

> If nothing else, im sure it shows up in the analytics if someone's netflix account is 24/7 streaming every episode of every show without break.

That would happen with or without DRM.

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#98
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why you're being downvoted, you're right. There are plenty of TrustZone exploits that allow extraction of L1 keys.

Pay NZ$20/mo for Netflix in UHD, or fuck around on pirate sites to make sure none of the people making the series and films I'm enjoying, while hoping that no-one has dropped an entertaining payload in the site ads or the files I'm downloading is "piracy is more convenient"? The downvotes are for a shit take disconnected from the reality of people who aren't determined not to pay for something.

> piracy is more convenient

It sure is when I can load an entire show on a Plex instance and can sync it on my mobile device without any arbitrary limitation (like how many episodes I can sync, or synced copies that expires after a while which I experienced abroad on Netflix).

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be confirmed by the fact that most torrent sites have 4K copies of brand new streaming only content while no publicly known exploits exist. Since you are running the exploit locally without affecting other peoples machines, I imagine it would be close to impossible to work out what exploit they are using.

Are those actual decrypted copies of the original stream, though? Or did they just re-record the output? For the latter you'd only need to break HDCP, right?

If the end user can't tell then it doesn't matter.

Re: Trying to extract Widewine key: A journey to failure

#100

From the repo: >It is my honest opinion that DRM is a malignant tumor growing upon various forms of media, and that people that either implement or enforce implementation are morally repugnant and do no good to society. With that in mind, I was sad to learn in May 2021 that the original extension would soon be rendered obsolete. I really can't agree more. I don't use, and never have, services that require DRM. I buy…

How do you feel about "effective DRM"? For example, an online RPG where you pay a monthly subscription to play with others in the same world.

You could play single-player, or reverse engineer it and try to create a private server and modified client to play with others who choose to use the same modified client, but unless the implementation is unusually poor, the "DRM" is pretty much unavoidable if you want to play on the official servers.

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