Class Break of TiVoToGo DRM
Last week I wrote about the security problems of having a secret stored in a device given to your attacker, and how they are vulnerable to class breaks. I singled out DRM systems as being particularly vulnerable to this kind of security problem.
This week we have an example: The DRM in TiVoToGo has been cracked:
An open source command-line utility that converts TiVoToGo movies into an MPEG file and strips the DRM is now available online. Released under a BSD license, the utility—called TiVo File Decoder—builds on the extensive reverse engineering efforts of the TiVo hacking community. The goal of the project is to bring TiVo media viewing capabilities to unsupported platforms like OS X and the open source Linux operating system. TiVoToGo support is currently only available on Windows.
EDITED TO ADD (12/8): I have been told that TiVoTo Go has not been hacked: “The decryption engine has been reverse engineered in cross-platform code – replicating what TiVo already provides customers on the Windows platform (in the form of TiVo Desktop software). Each customer’s unique Media Access Key (MAK) is still needed as a *key* to decrypt content from their particular TiVo unit. I can’t decrypt shows from your TiVo, and you can’t decrypt shows from mine. Until someone figures out how to produce or bypass the required MAK, it hasn’t been cracked.”
And here’s a guide to installing TiVoToGo on your Mac.
EDITED TO ADD (12/17): Log of several hackers working on the problem. Interesting.
Pat Cahalan • December 7, 2006 1:23 PM
That didn’t take very long.