Japan’s “B-CAS” smart card system has been completely cracked, allowing free viewing of almost all the country’s premium satellite and cable channels.
The hack involves the complete compromise of the “BS Conditional Access Systems” smart card system which regulates the vast majority of Japan’s cable and satellite broadcasts.
These smart cards are distributed with all TVs and tuners in Japan, and their unique IDs must be registered with satellite and cable providers in order to decrypt and view all but free terrestrial digital broadcasting.
The hack potentially allows free viewing of all channels the user can receive with their dish or line, including all premium channels.
All that is required is a vulnerable card, a card reader, and the software required to rewrite it (unsurprisingly, this was developed and distributed illicitly over 2ch).
At first only a small minority of the regular cards were vulnerable, triggering a “B-CAS lottery” as eager otaku each bought up large numbers of cheap or second hand TV tuners in order to maximise their chances of getting one, but it only took days before the vulnerability was further exploited to cover the majority of cards in circulation.
Commercially selling the hacked cards or directly promoting their use would likely constitute an easily prosecutable crime, but it may be legal for individuals to take advantage of it.
More significantly, as there is no direct method by which someone using a hacked card to receive premium broadcasts can be detected, there is apparently no method by which a crackdown could be effected.
As the cards cannot be remotely revoked the only way of resecuring the system would be to completely redesign and reissue all of the millions of ordinary cards in circulation, a process which would likely take years.
The B-CAS system was first compromised in early 2012 – although as this involved illicitly importing specially created “Black CAS” cards from shady Taiwanese dealers for $500-$1000 each there was a very limited impact. As buyers could not have recouped the purchase costs in the time it took for the regular hack to appear, they are currently the subject of some ridicule.
Although a very serious technical blow to the grip of Japan’s broadcasters over their airwaves, the relative complexity of the hack, general reluctance of Japanese to engage in such shenanigans, and the likelihood that many of the people now hacking cards would never have paid for access in the first place (“I bought a tuner and hacked the card – only to realise there was nothing worth watching!”) will probably limit the impact.
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Doesn't matter. Who watches TV anyway? We have internet.
Yeah !
You people do realize that the animu you watch (except OVAs and movies obviously) were first recorded from Japanese broadcasts before ending up on the internet, do you? And that ATX is Pay-TV?
There's always BD releases.
Anon 13:36 is right.
You people would whine about everything. Who were the guys who whined about tv programs being cancelled on TV? Now some random anon comes up with the argument "just buy the BD".
Fuck you, hypocritical bastards.
The anime you guys are watching are mainly TV downloads, BD versions are only released afterwards.
Just because it's aired on TV first doesn't mean we have to watch it on TV.
TV-Version is censored anyway. No point in watching that if you have access to better stuff. And that's where the internet plays a major role....
Bluray would be a good option if they weren't so hideously expensive. It's not like how it is in the West where most Bluray are priced criminally low (unless it's a well known TV show, where they mark up the prices to Japanese-levels)
I wouldn't mind anime tv airing disappearing. That would mean that all the shows would be ripped from BD. Now some are forgotten as there is already a tv-rip out.
@6:39 it first aired on TV bro. if no one watches and records, then you'd cry bitch
"You do realize that's worse, don't you? [...] It's not like you're recording a broadcast program for later viewing."
Geez, if you say you only download anime that aired on TV then you hear how that isn't any different from ripping DVDs, because the TV-stations get their money from advertisment which, even if we would watch that, isn't aimed at us (non-japanese).
And now (a point where we have forgotten all about TV/DVD/VHS) when we say, okay, just fuck it, and go with the BDs, because it's the same either way, there suddenly is a difference? No, there is not.
As long as there are japanese otaku willing to pay lots of money for their anime-fix nothing will change. So.. thank you japanese otaku who are willing to pay lots of money o/ Really, I mean it. Because I wouldn't pay.
but downloading a BD iso takes a chunk out of bandwidth.
@6:24 you realise that p2p systems like perfect dark are used in japan, and people distribute blu-ray isos illegaly using it since forever?
@6:14 You do realize that's worse, don't you? Blu-ray is paid-only. It's not like you're recording a broadcast program for later viewing.
do you realize that only one person here is spelling "realise"
People who either have sucky bandwidth or slow internet speeds. Or the people who post the raws online.
And 2ch bitches at us for "not paying for stuff."
It's kinda funny that this has turned into thieves complaining about thieves complaining about thieves. No wait....it is tremendously funny in an ironic sort of way.
Its funny too, since all we do is download stuff they watched for free before this anyway.
Though the B-CAS card crack /was/ created by a foreigner.
By the way, I'd love to see technical details of how the crack works; the actual crack itself is useless to me since I live in Europe, but I love the mathematical bits. What I've found on the web so far, is that the crypto itself is weak, although without direct access to the crack's code it's impossible for me tell if that helped.
Since it's a government issued standard I have a feeling it's probably a lot less involved then that used to crack DTV satellite.
I've always found it ironic that they call us foreign thieves, when it was them that scanned or encoded whatever anime manga show and uploaded it for the entire global community to enjoy.
"when it was them that scanned or encoded whatever anime manga show and uploaded it for the entire global community"
If you ask 2ch, I bet they'd blame it all on Koreans and English teachers.
Well, that's true anyway
And you should add Chinese as well...
Oh no, they just don't like the fact that disgusting foreigner have access to the some materials as them. But in the end, they are just hypocrites.
Yup, they're no different than the hypocrites over here at SanCom.
What makes people from sancom hypocrites? We don't complain to foreigners about how they steal our stuff. Whichever country that may be.
LOL. Sancom NOT hypocrites? You hearing yourself.
Just give me an example, will you?
>(“I bought a tuner and hacked the card – only to realise there was nothing worth watching!”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4wYOxe8HFE
"The hack involves the complete compromise of the “BS Conditional Access Systems” smart card system which regulates the vast majority of Japan’s cable and satellite broadcasts."
'Nuff said.
I thought American TV was bad, until I moved to Japan. I've never had my TV on so little, and this is after finally having an HD after wanting one in the states for years. They're sincerely amazed at how many channels I got on DirecTV. Sometimes you don't realize how good you had it until it's gone.
You can get a media server for somewhere between $50 and $80. It will be able to playback whatever you download (save for 10bit encodes), and with a couple of hard drives full of content networked to it, it'll become the most awesome tv channel ever.
Really? When I was living over there I used to constantly watch just about anything A-TX aired.
It really is the ultimate channel.
Another interesting note all terrestrial broadcasts in the US are in the clear in that there is no form of encryption or even copy protection in the signal.
IF they got the US broadcasts of HBO & Showtime, anything else would be better. Seriously, these days all I watch is HBO HD. The rest of TV can fuck itself.
The TV stations and MPAA would be going apeshit if this happened in the US. They would have FBI ICE FCC local police hunting down the individuals
oh don't worry, with the makers of this card owning a US based website, I'm sure the MPAA, FBI, etc will all be involved eventually.
FBI, not likely MPAA possibly, ect most dubiously.
Bull Shit - Conditional Access Systems
Yah the idiot who decided a B-CAS card should be required to receive all transmissions in Japan should be dragged out into the street and shot.
At least that is what would happen in the US if someone forced such a requirement.
Fuck TV. Period.
Cable channel is using C-CAS, not B-CAS
They'll just switch to the American method. "You have to put this in your monthly contract and it'll cost you an extra $40 a month even if you don't use it."
I hope to see hilarious apologies from the television companies.
"as there is no direct method by which someone using a hacked card to receive premium broadcasts can be detected"
here in the uk it can be traced back on a subscribed service like BT,Virgin etc because they check if your viewing a locked channel and if you've subscribed to it if not they give the police a call as its an offence here.
i would have thought they'd have a similar system in Japan O.o
How about posting a link to the software if it can be found on 2ch?
People still pay for TV? Lol, I havn't for around a decade now. No point in paying for TV when you have the internet. Might as well download it free and not have to endure those fucking annoying commercials. Not to mention being able to pause/rewind/play/tune in whenever I want.
"Just buy the BluRay"
That's a bunch of shit. They won't produce the BluRay discs if the show isn't popular on tv. Idiots.
Just goes to show you, never tell a coder something is uncrackable, we just take it as a challenge...Sony made this mistake multiple times with lulzsec...Sadly, they keep on prodding the bull.
okay, where can I download the software?
I have a b-cas card, will go to akihabara to buy card reader. Now just need the software :D