On Thursday 27 August 2015 03:03:14 Thomas Schmitt wrote: > Hi, > > the reason why i am insisiting in getting facts is that > i want to know whether drive firmware can get altered > by just inserting and reading a commercial Blu-ray disc.
Absolutely Thomas. All of those things look for a key in the private area of the disks leader, and if that key is found, will happily jump into the drives firmware update routine, updating, or bricking, the drive as that attacker wishes. We should keep in mind that it was Sony Music whose published cd's contained code to check the kind of drive it was being played in, and if the drive had a digital output such as the usual 40 pin atapi drive cable, then it was in a computer, and they bricked the drive. They blamed it on an anti-piracy effort, but to my knowledge they never paid for a single bricked drive, nor did they ever apologize to the public for damaging their stuff. The retailers who should have cared, just moved the known bad disks to the $9.95 sale bin. Some of that crap is still in the $5 bin in the middle of the aisle, so savvy buyers should leave them there. A huge hullabaloo at the time, a good fraction of a decade ago for those with short memories. And Sony's corporate people should take note that this person has never carried another Sony product of any kind to the cash register. Other gear makers make better stuff anyway. > I sincerely doubt that the drive firmware will do this, > but rather believe it is about software on the level > of operating system and application software. > (Both of kinds which i would not touch with fire tongs.) > > i wrote: > > > Are you sure that this applies to Blu-ray recorders in > > > computers ? > > > [...] > > > i get the impression that it only > > > applies to consumer BD players, and that "firmware" actually > > > means the operating system of the player, not the firmware > > > of the Blu-ray drive that's built into this living room > > > computer. Nope, read what I wrote above, the firmware in the drive is the attack target. > > T.J. Duchene wrote: > > Players > > like WinDVD 8 have had their AACS keys revoked, and with them the > > ability to play BD discs. > > But WinDVD 8 is MS-Windows software, not drive firmware. > > > Since I will > > not encourage you to break the DRM, the subject has no resolution. > > Just to be clear. I use BD and DVD drives for data storage, > not for watching videos or for copying what the seller does > not want to be copied. > DRM does not righteously affect me, therefore. > > > The consortium that lords over Blu-ray can and will "brick" you > > expensive players in the name of "copy protection." > > For now you only showed an example of MS-Windows software > which turns against you. Maybe you have paid for it. Then you > have reason to feel betrayed. But that's not even comsumer > player "firmware". It's MS-Windows. What do you expect ? > > > all I would have > > to do is program any BD drive to make an exact logical copy of the > > disc: copy protection and all notwithstanding. > > Would you be willing to share the knowledge how you program > a BD drive ? Some example SCSI commands would be a good start. > > > You're paying for it, and you will never be > > able to play it back on any device without their blessing, and if > > they want to, they can take that away at any time. > > What i burn on my LG GGW-H20L can be read on my LG GGC-H20L > (a combo joke), my Optiarc BD-5300S (growler joke), and my > LG BH16NS40 (all so civilized joke). > > I need no blessing from "them" because i am the one who > decides over the SCSI transaction dialog between my burn > software and the drives. > And i need no player software from "them" because i do not > play. At best i read what is stored on the BD disc. This i > do either by the Linux block device driver (e.g. read(2)) > or via SCSI transactions (which i decide how they should > happen via ioctl(SG_IO)). > > No "them" involved except LKML, FSF, Debian, their friends, > my own software, and the firmwares of the drives. > All other "theys" can keep their prescious bit patterns and > also may get knotted. > > > BD is not cost effective for everyday storage, so as far as Linux is > > concerned, BD is really a moot point. > > One BD spares you four exchanges of the DVD in the drive > when you make a large backup. > A BD allows to make incremental backups up to 23 GiB whereas > DVD+R DL allows only 8 GiB of poor reliablilty. > With reliable DVD media you are restricted to 4.4 GiB. > > Of course, hard disks are cheaper per GB. But they have other > needs when it comes to long term storage or rough transport. > Further they are large and non divisible. > > I would commercially compare BD media to USB sticks. > The sellers of BD-RE take care to stay cheaper than the > sellers of 16 or 32 GiB sticks. > > One big problem is that the burners deteriorate with time. > The begin to fail recording readable data. But this affects > only new recordings. The old recorded media do not die with > the burner that wrote them. > > > I believe no BD problem is so sincere as the problem of > USB sticks which can be programmed to emulate a keyboard. > > http://www.zdnet.com/article/usb-flash-drives-masquerading-as-keyboard >s-mean-more-byod-security-headaches/ > > So i have few scruples to put a foreign BD into my > drives but would not allow a foreign device to be > plugged into my USB sockets. > > > Have a nice day :) > > Thomas Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
