
ARM Launches Hollywood Approved Anti-Piracy Processor - daker
https://torrentfreak.com/arm-launches-hollywood-approved-anti-piracy-processor-130603/
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tptacek
By which Torrentfreak means "a video decoding IP block that is aware of
TrustZone, which is fundamental security functionality for the whole ARM
platform".

Actually, no, that's not what Torrentfreak means, because Torrentfreak has no
idea what the hell any of those terms mean.

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MichaelGG
As tptacek points out, there's not much of a story here, this is just platform
security. It does puzzle me why there is so much marketing and fuss around it
though, as if a common source of leaks was "mobile video". As if somehow
everyone in the world would turn into a source because they have Netflix on a
Samsung phone. It's bizarre.

An effective anti-piracy system is a watermark detection routine embedded into
the video decoder, so that you can't use hardware acceleration if the device
detects the video isn't licensed.

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Zigurd
Ain't it great how "trusted computing" is never about trusting _you_? And how
the applications of trusted computing are never about, say, preventing your
medical records from being spread around to people you don't know about?

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timthorn
But it can be about you trusting your device. And the applications of trusted
computing are absolutely about preventing medical records from being
compromised, but that's not a sexy headline in the same way that DRM is.

~~~
tptacek
It is interesting to consider how content protection and platform security can
be two sides of the same coin; how systems that keep code you write from
snatching video frames from The Avengers can (often are) the same as the ones
that keep malicious code on your device from stealing your credit card.

~~~
Zigurd
Except that when you allow a third party to put code in a trusted element,
it's Big Brother Inside. It's like installing someone else's security camera
in your house. Odious.

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tptacek
I wonder if the rootkit developers feel the same way, since the technology
we're talking about (TZ) is designed to stop them as well.

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betterunix
Is there some reason to think that a rootkit could not _use_ this technology?
Do you have details about this system (which, to my knowledge, are
proprietary) that leads you to be believe it is something _other_ than a way
to reduce user control of their own devices (which could be a good thing for a
rootkit)?

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tptacek
It's a video decoding block that works with TrustZone. TZ is well-documented
and conceptually very simple.

~~~
betterunix
I have not been able to find anything other than marketing material; maybe I
am just looking in the wrong places. Can you provide a link to some technical
details?

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tptacek
Were you not looking on Google?

<http://lmgtfy.com/?q=trustzone+arm>

Read the first PDF on that page.

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simias
It was discussed here 6 hours ago:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5817984>

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daker
Sorry about that!

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kyle_martin1
And now it's our turn to break the DRM!

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fixxer
Break? There is always - and will always be - the analog loop.

This is a silly invention for media executives that do not understand (1)
their customers or (2) those __dedicated __to pirating their content.

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kunai
Relevant xkcd: <http://xkcd.com/129/>

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shmerl
Another DRM idiocy shoved onto the oblivious consumers. Users should know to
avoid these GPUs now.

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tptacek
It's not a GPU.

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shmerl
What is it exactly? An optional chip that you can unplug? It comes as one
package in the GPU.

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tptacek
It's a video decoder IP block; it's one of a large number of IP blocks you can
assemble like lego pieces to design an ARM system.

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shmerl
But you (as a user) can't make it optional, once it's there, right?

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tptacek
What exactly do you think this piece of technology _does_? I'm having trouble
articulating how optional it is. I think you might think this is something
that infects your operating system and watches your keystrokes.

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shmerl
Allows using an encrypted video stream not accessible to the user without any
means of disabling this obscuring?

