HDCP (English High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection - protection of digital content with high bandwidth) is a media content protection technology developed by Intel and designed to prevent the illegal copying of high-quality video transmitted via DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI, GVIF or UDI interfaces. A protected video signal can only be played on equipment that supports HDCP.
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For over a decade, HDCP copy protection, developed by Intel, has been widely used. This protection is trusted by media corporations operating high-resolution digital video and audio businesses with a turnover of billions of dollars. Researchers from the information security working group led by a professor named Tim Güneysu from the Ruhr University (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, RUB, Germany) were able to check the defense system of the industry with relatively little effort using the so-called
Man-in- attack.
the-Middle "(MitM). They demonstrated their results at the international conference
ReConFig 2011 .
HDCP is now found in almost every HDMI or DVI compatible TV or computer. It serves to transfer digital content from protected media sources, such as Blu-Ray, to the screen through a fully encrypted channel. Sometimes there were concerns about HDCP system security. In 2010, the master key HDCP, which is designed to form a secret element of the encryption system core,
appeared on the Web . In response, Intel announced that HDCP is still an effective protection for digital content, and the production of HDCP-compatible chips using this master key must be very complex and expensive.
This attracted the attention of German researchers. “We developed an independent hardware solution based on a cheap FPGA board,” said Professor Tim Güneysu, who started work with his student named Benno Lomb. “We were able to intercept the encrypted HDCP data streams, decrypt them and send the digital content to an unprotected screen via an HDMI 1.3 compatible receiver. We used a commercially available ATLYS board from Digilent based on Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA, which has the necessary interfaces: HDMI and RS232 serial port for communication. ”
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Their research was not intended to find a way to create illegal copies. “Rather, we were determined to fundamentally investigate the security of the HDCP system and financially evaluate the real cost of its hacking,” said the professor. “The fact that we have achieved our goal with a material cost of around 200 euros does not mean that the existing HDCP system is secure.”
This MitM attack, in which the intermediary (ATLYS board) manipulates the information exchange between the Blu-Ray player and the TV without being discovered, does not represent much practical interest for pirates due to the presence of simpler alternatives. Scientists, however, provide a real threat to the security of critical systems, such as government or military. Although Intel is already offering a new security system, HDCP 2.0, due to backward compatibility, the found vulnerability will remain a problem in the coming years, the professor concluded.