DRM or digital rights management. What is a DRM license and how to reset it on Android

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Digital rights management (DRM) is software or hardware that intentionally limits or complicates various actions with objects of copyright and related rights in electronic form (copying, modification, viewing, etc.) after they are sold to the end user. DRM was originally invented to combat online copyright infringement and maintain regular revenue streams from the sale of digital copies, but DRM now causes significant inconvenience to legitimate consumers and helps large companies stifle innovation and competition. software technologies copyright holders are eliminating the fair use doctrine and prosecuting (including through criminal prosecution) those who attempt to circumvent the fair use restrictions they impose in software.

Although DRMs are intended to prevent only unauthorized copying of works, they generally do not allow or limit any copying, including within the framework of fair use of works (including free and former proprietary works for which the exclusive rights have expired), because It is impossible by technical means to automatically distinguish “legal” copying from “illegal” copying.

DRM tools allow you to limit the number of copies and may also impose other restrictions, such as limiting the period during which the protected work can be viewed or played. DRM does not allow you to transfer legally purchased books from one format to another, or play/read them in another country in which the copyright holder does not provide appropriate support and service.

DRM IN US AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

The issue of protecting works from copying first became very relevant for corporate copyright holders with the advent of audio and video recorders, the appearance of which made media corporations noticeably nervous, because anyone had the opportunity to create a copy of a music album or movie without leaving home. In the US, this led to the so-called Betamax case, in which Universal tried to stop Sony from making recordable VCRs. The case was resolved in Sony's favor, setting a legal precedent that it is legal to produce systems that, in addition to having illegal uses (making illegal copies of films broadcast on TV), also have significant legal uses (recording TV shows for later viewing in a more user-friendly manner). time - this use was also found to be fair use at trial).

The popularization of computers, the development of the Internet and the general transition to digital methods of storing and transmitting information have only increased the concerns of copyright holders.

Today, DRM is used by many foreign companies in the field of selling digital content, incl. Amazon, Apple Inc., Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Sony, 1C, Akella, etc.

At the international level, the duty of states to provide “legal protection and effective means legal protection from circumvention of existing DRMs are enshrined in Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and Article 18 of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

In addition, DRM bypass is also protected by criminal law. The fundamental international normative act in this area, which forms the basis for many national laws of Western countries, is the Computer Crime Convention CDCE No. 185, opened for signature in Budapest on 23/11/2001. One of the principles of this Convention is the establishment of criminal liability for the acquisition and use of unlicensed software.

Representatives of the entertainment industry decided to slow down the development of file-sharing technologies for distributing and copying copyright-protected content by introducing DRM into the technology. This time, the object chosen was the most popular technology for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web in HTML-5 web browsers. The said initiative was announced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) under the name “Encrypted Media Extensions” (EME).

DRM (stands for Digital Rights Management) is not a single technology, but rather a class of technologies used by publishers to control digital content. For the end user, it might look something like this: an audiobook purchased digitally on a website plays perfectly on the computer from which the purchase was made. But after copying a book to another computer, it turns into a useless file that cannot be played by any player.

Real-life examples of the use of DRM technologies can be much more complex. DRM was originally developed to prevent digital products from being copied, but the next generation of DRM also provided tools to restrict viewing, printing, editing, and the like.

In an attempt to protect the interests of copyright holders, DRM has generated numerous complaints from people purchasing digital products. Inability to use purchased music on various personal devices repelled buyers. Eventually, publishers began to realize that they could sell music digitally without DRM protection—and even more successfully.

DRM technologies have received legislative support. For example, many countries have laws that prohibit circumvention of copy protection.

But one problem with DRM is that these technologies can prevent buyers from exercising their legal rights.

DRM license - what is it on the phone and on the computer?

For example, create a backup copy of a purchased work.

Without delving into the intricacies of legislation and the practice of applying certain laws in practice, we can propose a strategy that will be completely legal in most countries (Australia may be mentioned among the exceptions). You may make multiple copies for your own use or for reserve (but not for sale/distribution). Please note that making more than 10 copies may constitute commercial use, so excessive copying should be avoided. There are no hard and fast rules for making copies, so technically you could lose DRM somewhere in the process and end up with unprotected MP3 copies. However, using a program designed to remove copy protection may not be legally safe.

Luckily, DRM can also be removed using general software such as MP3 Recorder Studio. Simply start playing the purchased protected audio file using the appropriate program (iTunes, Windows Media Player or other), and capture audio using MP3 Recorder Studio, saving the audio directly to MP3. This process uses the built-in feature of sound cards to capture audio from within the device itself. Most sound cards provide a recording device called "Stereo Mix" (there are various variations of the name), this device allows you to capture whatever the sound card is playing. You may need to install the latest driver from the official website of the sound card manufacturer, since drivers installed automatically by Windows often disable and hide the device.

You can find more information about copying protected music using MP3 Recorder Studio in this article.

Method for protecting media content. Is DRM possible on the Web?

Quite a large part of our projects is related to the storage and transmission of video content on the Internet. One of the questions frequently asked by customers is the issue of protecting content from illegal copying and distribution. There is a myth that there are software products and technologies that can ensure that video content cannot be copied and distributed by attackers. In our report, we tried to talk about existing technologies, their vulnerabilities and open and free analogues, which provide the same level of protection as closed and very expensive products.

Denis Eldandi: Good afternoon everyone! So, I’ll tell you how bad everything is with DRM technologies, and Alexander (Kistanov) will talk about how to live with it. Let's first - a brief introduction about what streaming video and DRM are. The idea of ​​streaming video is to play video or audio that comes from the network without downloading the entire file in advance, with fairly small delays and little buffering; it's called streaming. Streaming saves the user’s time and nerves, as well as traffic. Actually, this doesn’t happen in non-streaming. We will talk about streaming in relation to video hosting on the Internet, and as such - about streaming technologies such as RSTP, RTMP and HTTP pseudo-streaming.

With the advent of content on the Internet, this is especially true for content in high quality, copyright holders are beginning to worry about protecting it from illegal copying. Therefore, they are offered copy protection, which is called DRM. Officially stands for Digital Rights Management, Digital Rights Management. Although many prefer decoding Digital Restriction Management – ​​Managing digital restrictions.

In general, DRM is a way to prohibit and restrict the creation of copies of a work that are distributed digitally. Although, now some DRM system vendors say that the goal is simply to make it more difficult to create such copies. Most DRM systems use fairly strong encryption. To read encrypted information you need secret key. However, there is almost no sense in this, because for legitimate reading and information and for watching films, you need the same key as for illegitimate copying, for example. Actually, DRM systems try to hide the key from the user one way or another, but since the user part of DRM systems is completely in the hands of the system user, he is able to obtain the specified key using the so-called trusted client problem.

Another vulnerability, although less interesting, is that one way or another the film will end up at some point in analog form, albeit not in the cable to the TV, but certainly on the screen itself, and from there it can always be burned to disk, albeit with some loss of quality. The so-called analog hole is very vulnerable. And of course, there is very little enough complete systems DRM systems that would not provide media content in open (digital) form. For example, there is a very common method of “bypassing” DRM - removing the stream from the computer’s video buffer (if you were doing a screencast). On the other side, Windows Media Player, for example, uses various techniques to prevent this from happening. But the developers also do not sleep, and bypass them one way or another. Actually, I didn’t say anything new here, all this is known, there is an organization, a movement that talks about it (on the screen). But DRM vendors still say they're doing well.

The developers of RTMP thought about this. The RTMP protocol was originally developed by Macromedia for transmitting audio and video over the Internet between a Flash application and a CRM. It uses Port 1235 TCP and works according to a request-response scheme: the client requests a URL, and the server serves the video. The RTMP protocol has different varieties. For example, RTMPT uses HTTP as transport, and RTMPS uses HTTPS/SSL for encryption.

And there is the RTMPE protocol, proposed to protect content, and now the manufacturer calls it protected streaming. It should ideally “kill two birds with one stone” - protect (encrypt the stream) and verify the client. The idea was that only the correct client could receive the video, which would check on its side, not show it to “whoever doesn’t need it,” and it would be impossible to intercept the flow between the server and the client. RTMPE does not use SSL for encryption, the developers decided that it was quite expensive on the server side, i.e. expensive in terms of performance, and decided to make a homemade “thing” that would use temporary keys, and would use them to encrypt data. But in fact, since there is no verification of the authenticity of the server on the client side, you can easily arrange a Man in the middle attack on this protocol, where the “attacker” perfectly receives the content in clear text and stores it on his hard drive.

Also, their so-called client verification is based on a very strange algorithm: the Flash application calculates its own hash, takes its own size and sends it to the server. And the server allegedly knows, and if he arrived incorrectly, he would not give the video back. But in fact, it doesn’t cost anything to write your own separate client that would download and save data to disk. Of course, saving an RTMPE stream is a little more complicated than right-clicking and saying “save as”. But in fact, there are client programs that download anything via RTMPE. And if, of course, the developers set out to make illegal copying more difficult, then they probably achieved their goal one way or another, but it would be an exaggeration to say that their content is protected. What are the ways out of this situation? Alexander will tell you about this.

Alexander Kistanov: As was said, there are really no ways out, practically Any existing DRM solution does not provide a 100% guarantee that the content will be protected and safe. So, what should we do then? In fact, it turns out that there is no need to use any specific DRM solution. The fact is that all existing DRM solutions for web applications have disadvantages. In particular, for example, for some it is the limitations of the platform, for others it is the ability to use these solutions only on Windows and the requirement for resources; Also, DRM solutions often cost a significant amount of money. Again, they are quite difficult to master.

But as we have shown, there is no particular point in using them. And almost the same thing can be achieved using some simpler solutions. For example, we usually do not use RTMP in our systems, delivering video files via the HTTP protocol. This allows, for example, a gigabit of traffic, and even more, to be sent from a fairly weak server. But how can this approach make copying files more difficult?

In fact, there are possibilities for this. In Adobe Flash, for example, starting from version 10.1, a functionality appeared that allows you to generate a video stream played by the player right on the fly. This is the append_bytes() method. Using it, you can quite easily write a simple solution to make saving files difficult. Videos are sent simply via HTTP, on the server side it is encoded on the fly using any stream cipher, and on the client side it is encrypted using a hard-coded key. It won’t be difficult for a programmer to write this, and it won’t be much worse than any existing DRM solution. This will make copying files difficult.

By the way, why, if it is so easy to copy content, are services that actually duplicate existing ones so rare?

This happens because serving the same number of files as on Youtube will require creating the same infrastructure as theirs, which is very expensive and difficult. A potential attacker is tempted to use content already on legal servers, but for his own website. This is possible if they buy paid account, access video in good quality, and after that they create their own website, where they use the video for their own purposes. However, this problem is quite easy to work around even with simple solution using the so-called URL verification using token, which is supported in one form or another by almost any HTTP server. The fact is that when we create links to content, we generate a token that contains information about the lifetime of this link and the IP address of the client for which it is valid. This approach practically eliminates the use of links to content for any illegal purposes.

Thank you very much everyone for your attention!

Questions from the audience:

— Does Warner Brothers know that DRM can be hacked? Why do they require DRM?

Denis Eldandi: Warner Brothers is well aware of everything. They demand DRM because they pay little attention to the advice of technical experts. Their decisions are more often made by some kind of management that has grown out of the “old school”, old type of information dissemination model. They are used to doing everything the old fashioned way and turning a blind eye to some problems.

— Could you tell us about Flash Access 2.0: how can you “open” it, and what are its weak points?

Denis Eldandi: It has a different operating principle - the license is checked on the server. It turns out that our content is always sold in encrypted form, and the key is the same as in your example.

In fact, "attack" Man in the middle could easily have been avoided. It would be enough to check the authenticity of the server, as is done in SSL/HTTPS. But the problem is that the client will always have the key that is needed to decrypt the content, and he will always be able to use it.

— Unfortunately, I’m not a big expert in Access. But what I read is some information: it is believed that if the content is not downloaded, but is watched online, then before receiving the stream we request a license from the content owner’s server. And this key also has a limited “lifetime”. It seems to be stated that if I do not use a “rag” copy of the video, in principle I will not be able to view the content a second time without obtaining a new license?

Denis Eldandi: What if you make a “client” that will use a good, correct key, but save it all to disk?

Denis Eldandi: You save the byte stream, the decrypted stream, to disk. That is, instead of sending it to the video card, you save it to a file. And the one who writes the program, who automates all this. What's the difficulty?

— Tell me, what is the work scheme anyway? I want to watch a movie, I'm going to ticket office and buy a ticket. The ticket is only valid for my IP address for 5 minutes. I send a request to the license server and receive a license to view encrypted content along the way. Or?

Denis Eldandi: You have decrypted the content. But instead of watching it, you saved it to disk in open form. And then they watched it 3 times and distributed the content to everyone.

What is DRM?

— Tell me, will Google Widevine win?

Denis Eldandi: What does it mean to win, in a business sense or in a technical sense? You see, who will win on the business side is more of a marketing issue. From the technical side, there is no one to win, because DRM idea Initially - strange.

- Good afternoon! I have been in the content market for a long time, and I want to say that all copyright holders have qualified personnel. They are all aware of what can be stolen, but they are gradually taking small steps towards protecting information so that their decisions will somehow work. It’s clear that the average person wants to watch the video for free, and the copyright holders want to get money for it. This is a normal struggle, and the only question is where it will lead. It was correctly said that either copyright holders will impose a method that will more or less work for everyone, or they will abandon DRM, as happened several years ago when Warner and Sony and other major majors abandoned DRM in relation to music. And they said: “Guys, we are not ready, because we have high percentage refusals from people due to the fact that they could not listen to anything at all, or the price was too high.”

It all depends on the situation with the trackers, when all fresh distributions are administratively closed. It seems to me that several departments of operators on trackers that turn off fresh distributions is a much simpler and more effective fight than implanting a DRM chip in the brain of each user, which then needs to be updated again (laughter in the audience).

Denis Eldandi: So how? Administrative methods do not work everywhere. For example, in America they can ban it and send a police squad. But normal people have already moved to other countries.

— Look: on the website rutracker.ru, for example, there are no fresh distributions. What is shown in the cinema cannot appear on the website, despite the fact that you can negotiate with the operator to make a digital copy of the film, because there is an administrative server barrier. As a result, it’s very inconvenient that you can’t get fresh content on the tracker, and the rights holders need at least some time to sell their film until the whole thing goes viral on the trackers.

I am in no way advocating DRM as a user, because to me it is obvious that it is a problematic system. In addition to the fact that you have to pay money, although I easily pay for movies in the cinema, there are many problems with DRM: it is bad, and at the same time it is only for Windows. The question is different: people come to me as a technology supplier and say: “we have the option of distributing Avatar 2 via the Internet 2 days before the cinema, but we can only be allowed to do this for the presence of DRM.” And I say: “Sorry guys, there is no DRM.” As a result, the contract is lost and money is lost.

Denis Eldandi: Yes, so it's easier to say: Adobe promised that RTMPE is reliable, so we will do everything.

And everyone does this, just those present: don’t tell the copyright holders anything that we discussed here, and everything will be fine. (laughter in the audience)

Denis Eldandi: Are there any more questions? Thanks everyone!

WMV video format is very widely used in video delivery. However, many WMV videos are locked with DRM copy protection, such as videos downloaded or purchased from Windows Media Player Center, Zune Marketplace, Amazon Video On Demand, BBC iPlayer, Blockbuster, etc. Thanks to the license DRM protection, you can only play videos through the specified media players.

Then you can look for ways remove DRM from WMV files, so you can play purchased movies in any media player without restrictions. Well, what you need is a professional WMV DRM removal software that can help you achieve your task easily and quickly. Here Video Converter Ultimate is recommended remove DRM protection from WMV video files. It integrates full DRM removal function, DVD Ripper, Video Converter, DVD Creator, Media Transfer, as well as video editor and YouTube Downloader.

DRM in audio and video

With it, you can get rid of WMV DRM protection and convert protected WMV to any popular video formats such as MP4, MOV, MKV, FLV, AVI, etc., and even burn to DVD for playback on DVD players and TV!

Just getting the DRM removal tool and DRM crack from WMV is as easy as ABC!

Remove DRM protection from WMV video files with ease

Download and install this smart DRM converter, install and run it. Then follow below Quick Guide to deprive WMV DRM license protection.

1 Add DRM WMV video

Click the "Add Files" button on the left top corner and select the WMV protected files you want to crack DRM and convert. You can also drag and drop files onto the panel's target source. As you can see, the added video can be viewed on the right and you can freely take pictures of your favorite movie scenes.

2 Select output settings

Video Converter Ultimate supports up to 160+ format and media players like AVI, WMV, MPEG, MOV, MKV, FLV, MP4, etc., and 100+ video presets for iPod, iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, BlackBerry, etc.

Open the Output Format download list drop to select the output format you prefer.

To change video settings, click the "Advanced..." button to configure video and audio encoding settings and save them as your own profile.

3 Start removing DRM from WMV

The last step is to click the "Convert" button to start removing DRM copyright protection from WMV and converting WMV to the video format you like. After conversion, you can click the "Find Target" button to access the converted DRM-Free WMV videos directly. Now you can enjoy your movie anytime, anywhere using any player!

Here is a video tutorial on how to remove DRM from WMV.

In this manual we will describe the process of unlocking and backlocking Bootloader using an example Sony smartphone Xperia SP, without losing DRM keys, if you don’t need them, you can continue reading by skipping " #2 COPYING THE SECTION WITH DRM KEYS" and "#2.1 RESTORING THE TA-PARTITION". We will also mention the process of obtaining ROOT in one click, which is suitable for absolutely any smartphone running Android.

We will need:
- laptop/netbook or PC running Windows OS

The smartphone itself with a battery charge of at least 50%

USB cable

fastboot program
-flashtool program

Attention! This procedure may result in refusal warranty service. In case it was these actions that led to the breakdown of the device.

Warning: Companies such as Svyaznoy Logistics CJSC will find a reason to refuse you a refund or warranty service. And in the end they will say that the reason that your phone is smashed to smithereens (although this is not a warranty case, but it will do for an example) was the modified firmware installed on it.

Important to know: If the phone is found to have a manufacturing defect. An unauthorized change in software and a manufacturing defect of a smartphone are not in a cause-and-effect relationship, since an unauthorized change in software in no way affects the manufacturing defect, especially if it is mechanical in nature.

If you still decide to continue despite the risk.

Warning: Before unlocking your device, it is recommended to backup all data stored on internal memory phone. Data on external map memory will not be affected. Each manufacturer has its own programs for creating backup copies. Check with your manufacturer for details. Or use third party program from GooglePlay

The bootloader unlocking procedure differs for each manufacturer. I will describe unlocking Bootloader using the example of Sony Xperia SP. For all smartphones Xperia process unlocking the bootloader is the same and no different.

Attention! When you unlock Bootloader, you lose DRM Keys. DRM - Digital rights management, which translated into Russian means the following: "Technical means of copyright protection" DRM is one of the means of protection. If you install official firmware to a phone without DRM keys, then half of the phone’s proprietary software will stop working, since it is tied to the very keys without which it refuses to work.

DRM keys are stored in a special “TA section”; below we will describe the process of creating a backup copy of this section in order to save the keys.

Attention! DRM Keys for each phone are Unique. Even if you have two completely identical (assuming the phone models are the same) smartphones in front of you, the keys of one phone will not fit exactly the same phone. The DRM key is different, as are phone numbers or IMEI.

What does saving the TA partition give us?
- conservation DRM keys
- maintaining performance Mobile Bravia Engine 2 / X-Reality
-maintains the functionality of other applications on official firmware

#1 STARTED. GET ROOT

#2 COPYING THE SECTION WITH DRM KEYS

1) Download latest version BackupTA from GutHub, to do this, click on one of the buttons "Source Code" on the program page.
2) Unpack the downloaded archive to the root partition of the system (WITH:\)
3) Connect your phone to your computer in USB debugging.
3.1) Menu > Settings > About phone.
3.2) At the very end of the list, repeatedly click on "Build number" until you get developer features
3.3) Congratulations, you have received developer features.
3.4) Menu > Settings > Developer Options, then in the middle of the list, pay attention to the item "Debugging"
3.5) Check the box next to it "USB Debugging"
4) Return to the folder where you unpacked the downloaded archive and run the file Backup-TA.bat
5) Click Enter.
6) The program asks the phone for permission to debug via USB. We give a positive response to the message on the phone screen.
7) The program asks the phone root rights. We give a positive response to the message on the phone screen.
8) A window for selecting commands in the program has opened.
9) Select number 1 - to save TA section on your computer
10) Confirm the selection of the command with the " Y" on the keyboard
11) Wait for the end of the saving process
12) Press any key to continue, then the command selection menu pops up again as in step 5. Press the number " 5 " to exit the program.
13) Next, go to the folder Backup-TA > backup. There you should see an archive like " TA-backup-20140803.105506"
Recommended: save the resulting archive in a safe place.

#3 UNLOCKING BOOTLOADER

Attention! During Bootloader unlocking, the phone will be reset to factory settings. It is highly recommended to save backups important files.

It will be described below official way unlock presented by Sony for developers.

1) Go to the official page for unlocking Bootloader"a [UNLOCKBOOTLOADER]
1.1) Select your phone model, then enter your valid e-mail, put a tick under it and click on the “Submit” button
1.2) Then you will receive a message to your e-mail with a link, click on it
1.3) Next you will have to enter the first 14 digits of your IMEI (only the last digit is not entered)
1.4) Congratulations, you have successfully received the unlock code for your Bootloader.

2) Download the program FastBoot (with ADB driver) [link ]
2.1) Unpack the resulting archive to the root of the disk, it should look like this: "C:\fastboot"
2.2) There is also a folder in the archive usb_driver. It must be moved to the folder fastboot whose directory is described V clause 2.1.

3) Turn off the phone.
3.1) Load into FastBoot MODE
3.1.1) To do this, press and hold the “Volume +” button and, without releasing the button, connect the USB cable.
3.1.2) If it lights up BLUE LED release the volume button.
3.1.3) You have successfully booted into the mode FastBoot MODE.
3.2) Next, in theory, Windows should request drivers, but in practice this does not happen often; if this happens, you need to point to the folder usb_driver, the result will be: "C:\fastboot\usb_driver".
3.3) If this does not happen, go to Start, right-click on the item "Computer", further "Properties", in the upper left corner select "Additional options systems", in the window that opens, look for the tab "Equipment" in it we find the point "Device Manager", click on its button.
3.4) In the window that opens "Device Manager" need to find "S1Boot Fastboot" he may be at the point "Other devices", if there is no such thing, then we go to "USB controllers" we find a point there "SEMC Flash Device"
3.5) Right-click on "SEMC Flash Device", further: Update driver > Search for drivers on this computer > Select a driver from the list already installed drivers> Install from disk > Browse.

Attention! During driver installation, a Windows Security warning may pop up. Click on: "Install this driver anyway." If you have installed the drivers once, then re-installation for other procedures that require the same drivers that we installed is not required.

3.6) In the Browse window, go to the directory "C:\fastboot\usb_driver"(section 3.2) and select the file android_winusb.inf
3.7) Then from the proposed list select "Android Bootloader Interface", click ready.

All preparations have been completed and we can proceed directly to the unlocking itself. Bootloader"a. For this we need a program fastboot, which you downloaded and unpacked in advance.

Attention! Commands are entered without quotes.

4) Go to the directory "C:\fastboot"(clause 2.1.) and holding left button "Shift", right-click on the file "fastboot.exe" and choose "Open command window"(This may not be as easy as it seems, if it doesn't work, try again)
4.1) The command line opens. In it we enter the following command: "fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version" if in response you get a value similar to the following "0.3" - everything is in order, you can move on to the next point.

Possible errors and ways to solve them:
If you get an error "waiting for device" and is present in the device manager unidentified device, check the correctness of the steps 3 - 3.7 If everything is fine there, try restarting the program or changing the sequence of actions, i.e. first launch the program, then boot the phone into FastBoot MODE

If you get an error "getvar:version FAILED."- you need to boot into the program again without leaving the program FastBoot MODE To do this, follow the steps 3 - 3.1.3 and again the point 4.1

The next point is final, by completing it you will receive an unlocked Bootloader

5) Enter in command line team "fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0xCODE" CODE- 16-digit unlock code obtained from the Sony website. Congratulations! You have successfully unlocked Bootloader.

At that moment, I didn’t think about the page with the exploit, and instead of carefully analyzing the file and figuring out what the problem was, I simply deleted it. The only thing I thought about when I saw the unusual behavior of the system was that someone was promoting their site in a rather original way. Several years have passed, but since then I have not encountered such cases. After reading the article about the video virus, I decided that at least this time I would not miss the opportunity to find out how safe some of the most harmless and common files in the whole world are.

Video File

After the download was completed, knowing that other players could not play this file, I immediately opened it in Windows Media Player, and the first thing I saw was the message: “Download media usage rights”:

After this, a more convincing message appeared offering to download the License-Installer file which, by the way, had already been scanned by an antivirus and turned out to be 100% clean:

After carefully viewing the message, clicked on the “Download Now” button and, while waiting for some reaction from the antivirus, I saw a familiar window offering to download a file from the server license.compress.to:

And then the first question arose, if the server is indicated in the first window free-license.imgpop.com, then why does this wonderful file suggest downloading a license from the server? license.compress.to? To find out what the problem was, I visited both sites, hoping to find something tasty there, but as one would expect, I found nothing there.

DRM protection

It became much more interesting. Opened the page http://free-license.imgpop.com/venuf.php?id=Movie_0001.wmv which redirected (HTTP/1.1 302) to the page: http://free-license.imgpop.com/venuf/index.htm, and there I saw a familiar picture, only a little bigger, and even in the browser:

So far everything was going well and wanting to experiment a little, I decided to change the link from the video file to my own. But, seeing that after changing the line, even WMP could not open the file and not knowing what to do, he asked Google if he could tell what this line was, WRMHEADER version="2.0.0.0", which (among many others) I found using the Hex editor?

The answer was short and clear as daylight - I am dealing with DRM protection of video files. That is, I discovered that using legal and quite convincing methods, attackers can successfully and confidently distribute malicious files, since: firstly, not a single antivirus will detect that a video file is infected, and secondly, most users trust Microsoft will definitely launch such files.

Moreover, WMP is not the only player that can open DRM protected files. Full list I didn’t find any players, but I can say with confidence that Nero ShowTime supports DRM, only unlike WMP it reacts more carefully... only if you confirm the download of the license, the web page opens in IE (despite the fact that it is not the default browser ).

Now comes the fun part: if you change the file extension from .wmv V .asf or in .wma, nothing will change, that is, players will still play the media file and, what’s most dangerous, in most cases, .wma files will be opened in Windows Media Player. By the way, I forgot to say that after I opened the video file in the Hex editor, for convenience, I deleted unnecessary bytes and as a result the file size became 5.31KB.

Internet Explorer

I found information that you can hack DRM protection, but I didn’t do it. Firstly, I didn’t know whether it would be possible to change the link, and secondly, I chose a more easy way. In file hosts added the line:
127.0.0.1 free-license.imgpop.com

To the root local server created a file venuf.php and using WMP opened the video clip - after a few seconds the following message appeared:

Further, with the help alert(), decided to try to see if it supports JavaScript - as a result I got a blank page. I thought that it really didn’t work, but using my intuition, I quickly changed the function alert() on document.write(). The result made me smile: this time the page was not empty, which means Windows Media Player supports JavaScript.

Now, the thought that the media player can open web pages, and even supports JavaScript, haunted me. Wanting to find out what this extraordinary player is, I added it to the file venuf.php line:
echo $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"];
and even though I have MSIE 8.0 installed, I received the following message:

Finally, I decided to test one exploit for MSIE, written in JavaScript, which causes a denial of service in the browser. I added the exploit to the page, opened the video file and before I could blink, Windows declared that “Windows Media Player has stopped working”:

As you understand, when trying to play a video file, WMP was forcibly disabled, which means that it is vulnerable to an exploit designed for MSIE. I only tested one exploit, but it was enough to change my understanding of media file security.

Instead of a postscript

I was almost sure that everything would be the same as with Nero ShowTime, but curiosity made me click on the “Yes” button... Instead of launching IE, I saw the following:

I didn’t immediately understand what the problem was, thinking that anything could happen, but after a few seconds, I remembered what was in the file venuf.php The exploit code for MSIE remains. Next, using the variable $HTTP_USER_AGENT I found out that, just like WMP, Winamp uses MSIE 7 Internet Explorer for its purposes:

True, unlike Windows Media Player, Winamp does not warn where the license file will be downloaded from, but allows you to right-click and view source code pages... and also alerts are triggered for it:

Conclusion

Just don’t forget that not all users have other audio and video players installed. Also, I’m far from believing that the user who waited 2 hours (in best case scenario) to download the long-awaited file, seeing that it does not play, he will simply delete it, and no amount of “do not open files in this player!” will help.

UPD:

Protection

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which translates as “digital rights management.” Thus, the answer to the question: “DRM protection - what is it” will be: “It is a class of technologies that are used by publishers to control content.” This can be expressed in this way: an audiobook that was purchased digitally on the site will be played normally on the computer with which the purchase was made. But if you copy it to another computer, it will become an unnecessary file that cannot be opened by any player.

Real examples of DRM technologies can be much more complex.

DRM was designed from the beginning to prevent digital products from being copied. But the next generation of technology provided the tools to limit viewing, printing, and editing.

In an attempt to protect the interests of copyright holders, DRM protection has become the cause of a considerable number of complaints from users purchasing digital products. Inability to use purchased music using various devices negatively affected customer demand. As a result, publishers realized that it was possible to sell music digitally without imposing DRM protection. It will be even more successful. In other words, DRM protection even had a negative impact on sales of various digital products.

DRM protection - what is it?

Over time, these technologies were able to gain support in legislation. For example, a large number of countries have legal provisions that prohibit bypassing copy protection. In these states, debates about whether DRM protection is needed, how to remove it, etc., are essentially illegal.

But DRM also poses another complication because such technologies can interfere with users' ability to exercise their legal rights. That is why, in order to understand what DRM protection is, you need to realize that with it it is not possible to create backup copies of a purchased work.

Without delving into legislative practices on the application of various laws in everyday life, it is possible to propose a scheme for how to remove DRM protection, which will be completely legal in most countries. The only exception would be Australia. It is possible to create several copies for your own needs or for reserve, but not for sale or distribution. Please note that the process of creating copies of more than 10 pieces may be considered commercial use. Therefore, you should avoid copying more than normal. There are no clear restrictions on making copies. For this reason, it is technically possible to lose DRM somewhere in the process of obtaining mp3 copies that are not protected. But using a program that is designed to disable copy protection may be a violation of the law. Thus, when talking about how to bypass DRM protection, you should remember that you can only do this for your own personal purposes.

How to do this?

But it’s good that this technology can be removed using programs for general use that are not covered by DRM protection. How to remove it? The best example in this case is the mp3Recorder Studio application. To do this, you need to enable playback of the purchased audio file with protection when using the required program (WMP, iTunes or another). Next, you need to capture the audio using mp3Recorder Studio and then save the audio directly to mp3. This process will use the built-in function of sound cards, which allows you to capture sound already in the middle of the device. Most sound cards provide a recording device called “Stereo Mix”. However, different names are used. This device makes it possible to capture everything that is being played sound card. To do this, you may need to install the latest driver from the card manufacturer's official website. Typically, the drivers that Windows automatically installs most often disable and hide such a device.

“Digital copyright management” (or, more simply, copy protection systems) is supposed to protect copyright. But in reality, not only does it not fulfill its main function, but it also makes PCs accessible to hackers. How and for what reason does this happen?

Why do you need to remove DRM protection?

DRM systems can also be insecure. With the wrong options for implementing copy protection, it is possible to open holes in the computer's security system, which, in turn, would remain closed in the absence of DRM. The point here is that in order to block normal copy functions in the OS, rights management software packages need the broadest access rights to system files, and in fact take over control of such functions.

A good example of an unsafe implementation of this technology is the anti-copying system for audio CDs from Sony BMG. This rootkit was placed on a large number of audio CDs from a music label that is one of the most famous in the world. When such a disk was loaded into the computer's CD-ROM, the installation of the XCP program for WINDOWS began automatically. It was supposed to protect against copying of an entire album or the process of stealing tracks from a disc.

The XCP rootkit penetrated deep into the OS, and at the same time it installed completely independently. The ability to uninstall using normal methods was not possible. Also, during operation, it took up a large part of the memory and could cause crashes. But the most important thing is that absolutely nothing was written about this rootkit and its functioning in the user agreement (EULA). This is all despite the fact that almost no one reads such agreements.

But the most important thing is that the XCP rootkit created real threat for the entire system. For example, after its installation, all files that begin with $sys$ acquired the “hidden” mode. This was immediately used by virus creators. For example, the Breplibot Trojan, which was sent as attachments to E-mails, was detected only by antiviruses and programs. Such unsafe files were absolutely invisible to users.

How to disable protection

DRM protection on WMV and WMA files is done in stages.

These days, most downloaded audio and video files that are protected (WMP, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Bearshare, Spiral Frog) are DRM files.

The process of writing a file is not complicated. There is a free method to remove DRM protection from WMV and WMA files. This is done in two steps.

1. You need to burn the DRM WMA file to a CD or DRM WMV to a DVD.

2. You need to extract WMV and WMA with protection to the PC itself, after which DRM protection will be disabled.

Rewrite method

This method is the most popular and accessible. It consists of burning DRM WMA and DRM WMV files with a regular converter that converts recorded and unprotected files. Exactly according to the reason for this that such technology is easy to use, formats that differ from DRM WMA and DRM WMV will also be supported by converters such as SoundTaxi, NoteBurner and others. But this also has its downsides.

New technology

Hook Hook is an advanced technology that can be used to disable EPUB DRM protection. When comparing these programs with dubbing programs, it is this type that has noticeably fast conversion. However, it will not be easy to make it work with some of the DRM formats that have new high-quality encryption techniques.

After testing, the result was that DRM WMA and DRM WMV protection is simply removed using Digital Music Converter. This program can extract audio content from DRM WMV files. This program also supports other unprotected formats, such as: mp3, M4b, M4A, WAV, AC3, AAC.

Conversion steps:

1. First you need to add DRM WMA, DRM WMV or other files that are not protected.

2. You need to select the desired outgoing format.

What is DRM? Why do you need to remove DRM from WMA WMV files?

Speaking about the meaning of the term “DRM protection” (what it is - we generally discussed above), you need to know: these are programs that protect against copying and make it difficult to perform actions related to video and audio files. For example, if WMA or WMV files downloaded from WMP are protected with DRM, then it is possible to play them only using compatible devices. If every song had DRM, then the user would have to purchase this track on disk in order to listen to it using a player or car radio. For example, if tunes were purchased on iTunes and they are listened to on the iPOd, then due to the fact that they have already been purchased, the user will not need to perform this action again and again. You just need to remove DRM from the file, and you will be able to play it on iPod, Zune, PSP, CD player, PC and other devices.

Cautions

This method is not entirely suitable, sometimes it can even cause damage to the CD-Roma. WMP only has the ability to record DRM WMA and DRM WMV files. For other formats you will need DVD-Ripper.

Due to the long recording process, the conversion speed will not be better. During the recording process, much of the video or audio quality may be lost.

Today we will tell you about DRM protection. Find out what this DRM technology is and its license. We will try to answer the question: “How to remove DRM protection?” and “How to implement DRM reset?. Why regular users and critics don’t like DRM that much? All about the interesting decision to protect your products and copyrights.

DRM- abbreviation for Digital Rights Management and translated means “digital rights management.” It is another anti-piracy technology. DRM is used by copyright holders to control access to and copying of their works. In particular, DRM gives programmers, musicians and filmmakers the right remote control over how people will install, listen, view and stream them digital files.

So, DRM is a broad term that describes various technical means. Essentially, DRM is a digital lock on a file. These locks are called "licensed encryption keys." These locks contain complex mathematical codes that prevent unauthorized use or copying of the file. Those who pay or have some kind of “privileges” receive unlock codes.

In more severe cases, DRM - technical feasibility to remotely delete files. Surprisingly, the vast majority of customers in the US and Europe agree with this technology.

DRM protection is a rather ambiguous thing

The programmer or musician decides how and when you can use your files. You can even argue that the file you buy, in principle, does not belong to you. When people learn the truth about DRM protection and their civil liberties, many of them resent the fact that they no longer own their song, movie, or software.

One can understand the manufacturer; he has every right to protect and cover his costs for the production of each copy of his work. However, large number errors that arise in such a system makes you think about the correctness of its design. How to find out which files have DRM digital locks? Experience shows that the following types of files are protected:

• If you are using a WMA file;
• Do you need special software or specific music player for reproduction;
• The number of computers on which the program can be downloaded is limited;
• The number of attempts to burn a file to a CD is limited;
• You need a special password or login ID before you can run the file;
• Before you can play the file, you need to receive a special letter for this.

The delivery of DRM files to the user can be observed in various forms:

• Packaging - the lock is already built into the software, music or video file;
• DRM encrypted files are supplied directly by the manufacturer. As a rule, the transfer occurs through a web server and email;
• License - such locks are on all files that require a license to run, we can get it by paying for it.
• Partial license - such files include programs that we have encountered many times. These are various antiviruses, applications for converting or synchronizing your phone with a PC. The trial period can be in the form of a number of downloads, or in the form of a countdown of days after installation. After this period has expired, we are offered to download full version programs.

These types of locks are becoming more complex every day. Today MP3 files do not have digital locks. But accessing MP3 files is becoming more difficult every day. Companies such as Google and Apple have already begun to develop our Internet spaces for the opportunity to obtain maximum profits. Music services are being created for Android and iOS, where you can get access to high-quality audio recordings for a fee. But until the music market is completely captured, iTunes, AmazonMP3, GoogleMusic and other large music stores will offer their products without any digital rights management.

In the United States, a big scandal recently arose due to the fact that Amazon Kindle remotely removed books from the digital library of its readers. In our area, we are not particularly afraid of DRM protection; if we cannot download in one place, we will do it in another. But the current trend is leading to the fact that even the government is seriously interested in the possibility of “cleansing” the Runet of everything pirated and giving more digital rights to service providers.