CCC Event Weblog

Tonight the young Swiss music group “Europa” is bringing “new airiness” to the 28C3 in the form of a Gala. The main goal is to put in question the practice of the entertainment industry and alienate its conventions by overdriving them. It’s going to be an experiment you can become part of as spectators. Please watch the following teaser. [The teaser has been removed since the server hosting it was a temporary one located at 28c3. Check the vimeo link below or download the recording of the actual talk]

Video: http://vimeo.com/34302758
Link 28C3 Fahrplan: http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4832.en.html
Link Official Website: http://neueleichtigkeit.eu/

On Day 3 of 28C3, an absolute crypto highlight will be presented. A Person-In-The-Middle (previously known as Man-In-The-Middle)attack against HDCP-secured links. For those who don’t know, HDCP is a protocol for digital video links like DVI, Display Port and HDMI, that encrypts the content between your PC or Blue-Ray player and your digital TV or display. HDCP was invented so that the encrypted high quality video, as you can find it on a Blue-Ray disc or HD-DVD will never be unencrypted in it’s digital form on the way to the display. If those systems would be secure, this could prevent pirated high quality rips of these videos on the internet.

However, such systems have been broken, for example Blue-Ray discs can be ripped with a standard PC using the right Blue-Ray drive and a commercial software. Even HDCP has been broken in practice so far. I don’t know how it append exactly, but the HDCP master key has been posted on a public website on the internet, which I won’t link here. Using this key, you would be theoretically able to decrypt a HDCP secured link, and record the raw digital signal transmitted there. The practical problems are, that DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort are very high speed links, and no general sniffers and universal transmitters are available for a low price. In contrast to that, WiFi can usually be sniffed using the build-in WLAN adapter in a consumers laptop.

In this talk, a custom build hardware will be presented, that can be used to act as a Person-In-The-Middle on DHCP secured links, and can alter the signal transmitted there. The actual brilliant idea here is, that this type of attack does not allow you do record the transmission in clear, so that this is a non-copyright circumventing attack, and cannot be prosecuted using copyright enforcement laws. However, due to the open nature of the hardware platform, one may modify this attack to archive other goals.

A short summary from the abstract:

A system has been described that enables a man-in-the-middle attack upon HDCP secured links. The attack enables the overlay of video upon existing streams; an example of an application of the attack is the overlay of a personalized twitter feed over video programs. The attack relies upon the HDCP master key and a snooping mechanism implemented using an FPGA. The implementation of the attack never decrypts previously encrypted video, and it is incapable of operating without an existing, valid HDCP link. It is thus an embodiment of a bona-fide, non-infringing and commercially useful application of the HDCP master key. This embodiment impairs the equating of the HDCP master key with copyright circumvention purposes.

The slides are already available at: http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/attachments/2011_HDCP_MITM_28c3_bunnie.pdf

See the talk: Day 3, 18:30, Saal 1

Author: Erik Tews

Heads up everyone, voicebarf is up and running! Voicebarf provides you with the latest information about the 28c3 schedule. Even when the internet is down. Use your DECT or GSM compatible phone to dial the number 7666 (SOON), and voicebarf will tell you which talks are up next. You can even request a reminder, and voicebarf will call you back fifteen minutes before your favourite talk starts. Dial 8255 (TALK) to get the currently running talks. Dial TALK (8255) when a talk is just finished to rate that talk. Talk ratings’ importance for the content team can not be overestimated. The content team relies on your feedback to make the next year’s schedule even better. So do not hesitate to rate the talks you saw – be it live in the lecture hall or via stream, or afterwards on the recording. If you do not have your laptop at your fingertips – use Voicebarf, dial TALK (8255).

If you do not know about the Phone Operation Center (POC), check out their website (click here).

Why the name «voicebarf»? Because of pentabarf, the ccc conference planning software. Voicebarf was created by alech with a bit of help by hc. Since alech is busy with his talk this year, if you’ve got any questions about voicebarf, you may give hc a ring at 4321.

A small sidenote: The eventphone SIP stack is a bit instable ATM, so if you don’t get through at once, just try again ten seconds later!