AACS DRM cracked by BackupHDDVD tool?
Can it be? Is Hollywood's new DRM posterchild AACS (Advanced Access Content System, see more here) actually quite breakable? According to a post on our favoritest of forums (Doom9) by DRM hacker du jour muslix64, his new BackupHDDVD tool decrypts and dismantles AACS on a Windows PC.
Context & Ripple Effects
AACS is the copy-protection scheme Hollywood built into its next-generation HD disc format, and studio willingness to release high-value films on the new medium rests on it holding. The challenge did not come from a security firm or a commercial piracy operation: it surfaced as a tool called BackupHDDVD posted to the Doom9 forum by user muslix64, and per the report the claim that it decrypts AACS on a Windows PC is still unverified.
First-order effects
- If BackupHDDVD performs as muslix64 describes, ordinary Windows PCs gain the ability to decrypt AACS-protected HD discs, voiding the copy-protection guarantee studios require before shipping their catalogs on the new format.
- Because the crack is currently an unverified forum claim, Hollywood and hardware makers face a verification problem before they can respond at all.
Second-order effects
- A confirmed break would force the AACS backers into a revocation-and-update cycle across every licensed player and PC drive, dragging the whole HD disc hardware ecosystem into a patch cadence the format was supposed to avoid.
- Studios weighing exclusive high-definition releases would have to price in the risk that software-based protection fails early in the format's life.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — a decryptor escaping into hobbyist forums faster than keys can be revoked — it tests whether any software-enforced DRM on open PCs can survive contact with a motivated community, shaping how much protection Hollywood trusts to software versus locked-down hardware.
The trend: Next-generation disc DRM is entering its first public arms race between Hollywood's AACS and the decryption community organized around forums like Doom9.