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Posted by abran am 2004/8/13 21:33:34 Apple's wireless streaming technology for iTunes has been cracked to allow it support non-Apple software platforms.
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DVD Jon has struck again. This time, the Norwegian hacker has decrypted Apple Computer Inc.'s wireless music streaming technology.</td></tr></table>Norwegian computer programmer Jon Johansen released a program called JusteForte that defeats the encryption used on Apple's Airport Express on Thursday.
Jon Lech Johansen earned the nickname "DVD Jon" after he developed DVD encryption-cracking software that took him straight to hero status with the fraternity of hackers. That was five years ago.
Airport Express is a small base station that wirelessly connects a computer to the internet or to a local network. It also has an audio socket that can be used to link a computer to a conventional stereo or pair of speakers. This allows music stored digitally to be played remotely.
Until now, however, this feature has only been compatible with Apple computers and an add-on for Apple's iTunes audio software called AirTunes.
Encryption algorithms
Johansen figured out the secret encryption key used to secure the wireless link between a computer and an Airport Express base station and lock other systems out. His program, JusteForte, uses this key to send MP4 digital audio files from a Windows computer to an Airport Express base station.
Johansen has also published the encryption key online, opening the way others to design software that can access the base stations. He says Airport Express uses a combination of two encryption algorithms AES and RSA. But precisely how Johansen succeeded in cracking the key is unclear.
Cryptographic algorithms encode information by jumbling it up using mathematical formulas and a key consisting of a string of characters. Both algorithms have stood up to extensive testing, so Johansen is likely to have found a weakness in the way these algorithms are implemented rather than the algorithms themselves.
"There are lots of ways to break an encryption system," says Bruce Schneier, a renowned cryptography expert. "The lesson is that it's hard to do."
Now on his Web site (cheekily named "So Sue Me") he has published the key that Apple's wireless hi-fi bridge, Airport Express, uses to protect music streams.
Other hacks.
He has released another program along with the key and in effect has contributed to making it possible for other software applications other than Apple iTunes to work with AirPort Express. AirPort Express is a device that lets users broadcast digital music from Apple's online iTunes Music Store on a stereo that's not plugged into a computer.
As reported by The Register the first key removed the 'Fairplay' DRM wrapper from locked-music purchased from Apple's iTunes' online music kiosk. The second, called FairKeys, allowed users to retrieve their Fairplay keys from Apple's servers, saving people the hassle of authorizing and deauthorizing particular machines.
DVD Jon is supposedly a strong supporter of open source and has been against Apple's strategy that restricts Apple's hardware and software products to work only with each other. An example of this criticism is that on his Web site, Johansen praised RealNetworks technology that makes songs from iTunes compatible with the Apple iPod portable music player.
Apparently he says that the keys that he has provided simply restore rights that Apple and the recording industry giants removed when they devised iTunes Music Store. He has been warning citizens against accepting DRM music, as it obliges the user to enter into a contract in which the terms may change at any time.
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