Posted on 02/01/2007 6:21:11 PM PST by Space Wrangler
A Romanian-born programmer claims to have developed code that can bypass the Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology in Windows Vista. Writing in his blog, Alex Ionescu said that for over a year, he's been working on a method of getting around Vista's signed driver requirements and that he's recently succeeded.
As you might know, Vista requires that all drivers be digitally signed so that they can be properly authenticated to the OS. The 64-bit version of Vista requires what Microsoft calls Kernel Mode Code Signing (KMCS) in order to load kernel-mode drivers.
Vista also includes a technology called Protect Media Path (PMP), which essentially is a way to enable secure playback of "next-generation premium content," such as high-definition DVDs. The idea behind PMP is to prohibit access to unencrypted premium content to prevent the user from making copies that aren't approved by the content publisher. In order to facilitate trusted interoperability with premium content, any components placed into the PMP must be digitally signed for use with PMP.
Ionescu said that his code does not load any unsigned drivers and that he uses a special boot flag when starting Vista. He intends to release sample code that partially demonstrates his discoveries, but he won't release code that bypasses Vista DRM out of fear of being prosecuted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
"Later this week I will release some safe, generic, proof of concept code that targets what I believe is a flaw in the Code Integrity/Driver Signing model.... Because this code will require an initial reboot [of the operating system] Microsoft does not consider it to be a flaw from a security standpoint. And because [the code I intend to release is] so generic, it has absolutely nothing to do with DRM or PMP. That being said, I'm sure someone with knowledge of the PMP implementation might be able to use this as a very smart building block of the entire code that would be required [to bypass PMP and DRM]," Ionescu wrote.
Read an article earlier today at: http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2007020102926RVDT Where the author came down on the side that for content playback, Linux beats Vista. Apparently Vista would not let him play back a genuine, store-bought CD into a digital output interface. Yet another reason to ah "dislike" Microsoft, Vista, and DRM in general.
Hmm, I just downloaded another Linux distro - Simply MEPIS last night and it cost me, um, hmm. Well, I guess a few pennies for electricity and about 25 cents for the CD-R.
I've been playing around with Knoppix, Suse, Red Hat Fedora Core, and MEPIS. All for basically nothing. All include complete office suites too. (similar to MS Office) My system has been a MS free zone for a couple of years now, and I'm not looking back...
I think I'll follow you very soon
There are digital out jacks on many CD players and transports: coaxial, TOSLINK, or AT&T glass. This is necessary if you want to use a separate D-to-A converter.
So who is MS kidding?
The neat thing about knoppix is you can DL the ISO image, burn a CD, and boot the CD. You don't have to commit to installing Knoppix - you can try it out on any machine with a fair amount of RAM. I've booted it from CD on something as minimal as a 6 year old laptop with 192 MB of memory, and a blazing P-III at 800 Mhz. ;-)
I tried beryl out on a 2.8 GHz P4 with 512MB - very nice.
Same here, I will never go the Vista route.
I was just mentioning it as a FYI.
What is interesting though, is that the foundries for the mass productino of DRM'ed material, such as HD-DVD and BluRay pressing factories, HD-DVD and BluRay disk manufacturing, HD film camera manufacturers capacity, and the like, still haven't been built yet for the most part.
HD-DVD, BluRay, Windows DRM, are already possibly all cracked. New technology breakthroughs have already made HD-DVD and BluRay obsolete, and I just don't see the financial incentives for component manufacturers to go along with this ride. Especially if Chinese manufacturers start producing hardware without DRM restrictions (HDCP chips).
I'm going to sit this one out as long as possible. Hopefully forever.
Thanks. I think I will open up a torrent on 5.1.1
In the meantime, I'll stick with XP and 2000 on my machines.
I have been tired of Gates since windows 95!
XP is a decent product though
Several of my clients (major energy and pharmaceutical companies) have absolutely NO plans to convert to Vista. Especially with problems already showing up. Some business computer suppliers here in the upper Midwest are still offering XP, even 2000. At least the older OS's work, Vista does not. Will Vista turn out to be a disaster like ME.
This is where I don't like Vista - the automatic micromanaging of code, to the point of deleting programs that the new OS for some reason (if any) deems "improper". I deal with a lot of custom programs that are client specific (including realtime process similation, as in heat and material balance in refineries and chemical plants). This would be a major headache if one of these got wiped out.
Hey, Allen Bradley/Rockwell Automation - you doing anything with Mac OS-X or Linux?
Couldn't even upgrade to IE7 - incompatable with a lot of stuff I use every day in my business. No way am I upgrading to Vista.
I aint gonna put snoopware on my PC, let alone pay for it!
Wow! this is gonna suck worse than ME and 95
They'll have to smuggle in daily bug fixes as well. The initial install is just the start of a long stormy relationship with Microsoft. I don't load bootleg Microsoft products anymore since everything is reported to Bill. Mediaplayer phones home the names and times of any porn videos watched, it's all reported. Bill has far more powers of observation than the NSA.
You should invest in a good firewall to allay your fears.
If you have the ability to work on it, Jetico has a superb firewall that will block all 'phonehomes' from various pieces of software.
One of the systems integrators that I work with (they do my HMI applications - operator interfaces for industrial automation systems) found that IE7 gums up their applications. IE7 got automatically installed on my system, however I was able to get back to IE6. Microsoft has really stepped in it, and I think Microsoft is going to wind up pissing off a lot of business users.
It's the truth, too!
ping
"cheap boxed wine"
But you repeat yourself....
(sorry about the monitor)
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