A few months ago, a handful of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs protected by AACS 2.0 DRM were cracked. In October, Russian company Arusoft released a tool called DeUHD that was capable of decrypting dozens more titles. Now a list of 72 AACS 2.0 keys has been leaked, covering titles not previously broken (fixed) by DeUHD:
The keys in question are confirmed to work and allow people to rip UHD Blu-ray discs of movies with freely available software such as MakeMKV. They are also different from the DeUHD list, so there are more people who know how to get them.
The full list of leaked keys includes movies such as Deadpool, Hancock, Passengers, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and The Martian. Some movies have multiple keys, likely as a result of different disc releases.
The leaked keys are also relevant for another reason. Ten years ago, a hacker leaked the AACS cryptographic key "09 F9" online which prompted the MPAA and AACS LA to issue DMCA takedown requests to sites where it surfaced.
This escalated into a censorship debate when Digg started removing articles that referenced the leak, triggering a massive backlash.
Thus fas[sic] the response to the AACS 2.0 leaks has been pretty tame, but it's still early days. A user who posted the leaked keys on MyCe has already removed them due to possible copyright problems, so it's definitely still a touchy subject.
Ultra HD Blu-ray stores H.265 video on optical discs with capacities of 50, 66, or 100 GB. The original Blu-ray discs stored H.264 video on 25 and 50 GB discs.
Previously: Apparent Copy of an Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc Appears Online [Updated]
More "Cracked" Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases Appear Online
Russian Company Claims to have Cracked 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray DRM
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An alleged copy of an Ultra HD Blu-Ray disc has appeared online, leading to speculation that AACS 2.0 has been cracked:
While there is no shortage of pirated films on the Internet, Ultra-high-definition content is often hard to find. Not only are the file sizes enormous, but the protection is better than that deployed to regular content. UHD Blu-Ray Discs, for example, are protected with AACS 2.0 encryption which was long believed to unbreakable.
A few hours ago, however, this claim was put in doubt. Out of nowhere, a cracked copy of a UHD Blu-Ray Disc surfaced on the HD-focused BitTorrent tracker UltraHDclub. The torrent in question is a copy of the Smurfs 2 film and is tagged "The Smurfs 2 (2013) 2160p UHD Blu-ray HEVC Atmos 7.1-THRONE." This suggests that AACS 2.0 may have been "cracked" although there are no further technical details provided at this point. UltraHDclub is proud of the release, though, and boasts of having the "First Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc in the NET!"
[...] If the encryption has indeed been broken it will be bad news for AACS, the decryption licensing outfit that controls it. The company, founded by a group of movie studios and technology partners including Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft and Intel, has put a lot of effort into making the technology secure.
"Atmos" refers to Dolby Atmos (see PDF list).
[Update: It is fitting to note that one of our most prolific story submitters happened to garner submission number 20,000! Congrats and many thanks to Takyon, and to all the rest of the SoylentNews community who have made this achievement possible. --martyb]
Following the release of an Ultra HD (3840×2160 resolution) copy of Smurfs 2 last month, two new Ultra HD Blu-ray films have been released. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs can store 50-100 GB of H.265 encoded content, with 10-bit color depth, high dynamic range, and a wider color gamut. While the AACS 2 encryption protecting these discs may not have been cracked, it seems to be ineffective:
There's quite a buzz among movie pirates who have an eye for high-quality video. After the first Ultra HD Blu-Ray disc leaked last month, two more releases have now followed. While some have rumored that AACS 2 encryption may have been cracked, a bypass is just as likely. And with the leakers themselves staying quiet, the mystery remains.
Up until a few weeks ago, full copies of UHD Blu-Ray Discs were impossible to find on pirate sites. Protected with strong AACS 2 encryption, it has long been one of the last bastions movie pirates had to breach.
While the encryption may still be as strong as before, it's clear that some pirates have found a way through. After the first pirated Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc leaked early last month, two new ones have appeared in recent days.
Following the historic "Smurfs 2" release, a full UHD copy of "Patriots Day" surfaced online little over a week ago, followed by a similar copy of "Inferno" this past weekend. The latter two were both released by the scene group TERMiNAL and leaked to various torrent sites.
First there was Smurfs 2. Now there are three.
A Russian software company by the name of Arusoft may have cracked 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray DRM. All it requires is a PC with a Blu-Ray drive and a $235 piece of software.
At the beginning of this week a new mysterious company with a new mysterious software popped up, Arusoft with DeUHD. The company claimed that its software would be able to copy Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. In a statement to us, the company even stated that it considered AACS 2.0 to be cracked.
With a license of €200 ($235) there weren't many people who wanted to test and potentially lose their money. Therefore, the company handed out 5 licenses to randomly selected users and the first results are in.
To sum up the results: It works, but they don't appear to have cracked AACS 2.0 itself. Instead, the DeUHD developers appear to have found working keys for specific films.
Previously: Apparent Copy of an Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc Appears Online [Updated]
More "Cracked" Ultra HD Blu-ray Releases Appear Online
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Tuesday December 12 2017, @09:31AM (9 children)
The only secret that can be kept is the one that nobody knows exists. That is a lesson of history. And then there are still people who believe that secrets in plain sight can be kept secret.
Reminds me of the crypto-backdoor debate. Does anybody seriously believe that a secret can be kept secret?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 12 2017, @10:03AM (8 children)
But of course. As long you store it on a true write-only device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Tuesday December 12 2017, @10:22AM (2 children)
But then there still will be a person who knows the secret... The one who wrote it to write-only memory is vulnerable to attack and the secret can be retrieved by means of https://www.xkcd.com/538/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 12 2017, @12:35PM
Nothing a lobotomy can't solve.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sgleysti on Tuesday December 12 2017, @02:42PM
In the case where the information cannot be externally verified (e.g. write-only device), torture is completely useless. You tell them anything to make it stop, and they have no way to confirm.
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday December 12 2017, @03:15PM (4 children)
Signetics write only memory chip [repeater-builder.com]. Part 25120.
Some of the supply voltages for the part are interesting, especially VFF = 6.3 VAC.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday December 12 2017, @03:26PM
I used to have these in stock. Many black hole projects have been successfully completed with no remaining evidence present of their existence.
Maybe someone can check for and triangulate some Hawking radiation? Maybe this could locate my old projects?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 12 2017, @07:04PM
Bah. I'm more traditional, I'm using discrete fast monodes, get to write rates in the Gbps with a hand tied behind my back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by driverless on Wednesday December 13 2017, @01:34AM (1 child)
I need more write-only storage capacity than the 25120 provides, so I use Iomega ZIP drives.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:28PM
I still have a huge stack of those . . . somewhere. I remember seeing them not long ago shuffling books and computers around.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 12 2017, @03:10PM
So, are we getting close to the point where we can start paying for Bluray movies instead of downloading them?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by meustrus on Tuesday December 12 2017, @04:31PM (1 child)
Looks like the pirates will always be able to decrypt these disks. So the movies will always be on the Pirate Bay.
Meanwhile, the cat and mouse game the MafIAA keeps losing continues to hurt people who buy physical disks and want to load them into a digital library for personal convenience.
As long as the movies can be torrented, playing this stupid cat and mouse game hurts no one except the power consumers who are willing to spend huge sums of money on Hollywood content. I guess the producers like it to be easier for these power consumers to steal the content than to spend hoards of money on it.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday December 12 2017, @04:36PM
The MPAA holes are simply trying to hone everyone's cryptanalysis skillz by presenting interesting puzzle challenges to maintain everyone's proficiency.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday December 12 2017, @08:27PM (2 children)
> A user who posted the leaked keys on MyCe has already removed them due to possible copyright problems
Can you actually copyright a set of huge prime numbers? Do I need to check some kind of central US-approved registry every time I generate, duplicate, or reuse a key ?
Even Intel could trademark numbers. I'm pretty sure this First-happy SCOTUS wouldn't let **AA-client companies claim ownership of math, as long as no names were mentioned.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Tuesday December 12 2017, @10:00PM
Is it the embodiment of a "creative spark"? Or was it generated with no possibility of human crafting, a mere artifact of natural processes? :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @08:27PM
>Even Intel could trademark numbers.
No, they couldn't. That's why they came up with the "Pentium" name instead of using "80586."