Hackers break Kindle DRM

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/23/amazon_kindle_hacked/

by shrike • 17 years ago

51 19 17 years ago

theregister.co.uk

shrike• 17 years ago

Exploit code is here - http://pastie.org/753699

barrkel• 17 years ago

It looks like the hard work is done by a different script, mobidedrm by Darkreverser, and this script just pulls the file path out of a running instance of the Kindle PC app. I presume the Kindle app is creating a temporary file on disk which mobidedrm is then able to reverse, rather than decrypting the original file, otherwise there'd be no point in writing a Win32 debugger in Python. (It's also pulling out a couple of more bits of info.)

The technique is very sensitive to the version of the Kindle app. It's currently using the hash of the executable to choose which breakpoint locations to set and hook, which are hard-coded virtual addresses.

lemming2• 17 years ago

I believe what the script is actually doing is extracting the Mobipocket PID - K4PC uses a different PID for each book.

theschwa• 17 years ago

Still waiting for an e-book torrent site.

awa• 17 years ago

I don't think ebooks make a strong case for torrents mainly because of their small size and the sheer number. Emule or IRC have been traditionally strong channels for ebook sharing.

kierank• 17 years ago

You've ignored Rapidshare (and other clones)

oconnor0• 17 years ago

It seems that, from what I've seen, when the media being torrented is small & numerous large collections are made - for example 1000s of SNES games.

fredoliveira• 17 years ago

oh, it exists.

quizbiz• 17 years ago

Care to elaborate?

mjsergey• 17 years ago

its not a torrent site, but http://a.aaaarg.org/ has a bunch of continental philosophy/economics pdfs (some are scans and some are ebooks).

jrockway2• 17 years ago

OK, but it's been broken for ages. There is a simple python script floating around that you can run on Kindle books to turn them into .html files. The decryption key is just your Kindle's serial number (which I believe is available via USB, so typing it in is not strictly necessary).

If you don't have a Kindle, that might be a problem though. But I think Amazon lets you "register" a Kindle, so you can just make up a serial number, buy books, and decrypt them.

Basically, the DRM scheme is just a joke to keep publishers happy. If your eyes can see something, it can be copied.

lemming2• 17 years ago

Actually, K4PC uses a different scheme - the book key is not encrypted in the same way as for normal kindle books. I believe each book uses a different Mobipocket PID, and what this new script does is extract the PID for a particular book and then invoke the original script using that PID.

Also, the PID is not the kindle serial number, but can be calculated from it. There's another script around to do that.

robin_reala• 17 years ago

This was posted as a comment on the original article. No idea if it’s true or not, but it’s an interesting insight:

As one of the engineers who worked on Kindle, I'd like to point out that most people at Amazon are pretty anti-DRM themselves - it's the PUBLISHERS who insisted on it, and we put in DRM so as to keep THEM happy, because without publishers, there are no books to sell. We knew full well that the device and DRM would be hacked eventually - the hope was that we could just stay ahead of them for long enough to prove the feasibility of selling books in this way to publishers.

po• 17 years ago

In a similar vain The Register states:

"Once upon a time, Apple laced its iTunes-purchased offerings with similar DRM restrictions that evoked major headaches when trying to do something as simple as transferring songs to a new PC."

…as if Apple came up with the the idea to begin with. I think most people reading know the parties that insisted on having DRM in the iTunes Music Store, but it is still misleading, lazy reporting.

As someone who has worked in media, I can state with authority that the majority of engineers know DRM is merely a futile speed bump. Sometimes a speed bump is just fine with the lawyers. They'll take it.

fa• 17 years ago

Many Kindle books, especially technical ones, are in the so-called Topaz format with embedded fonts which nobody has been able to reverse-engineer or break DRM for. I don't know if this breakthrough changes that---doesn't seem like it.

bioweek• 17 years ago

It's ironic, if there were a reliable way to break the DRM, I'd be incented to buy lots of Kindle books at even above the paperback price.

right now I just can't stand the idea of paying almost as much as a real book for something that I can't share and will die with my kindle in a couple of years.

Hackers break Kindle DRM

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