Information AboutSafedisc |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SAFEDISC | |
| digital rights management | |
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SafeDisc aims to resist home media duplication devices, professional duplicators, and Reverse Engineering attempts. Though SafeDisc protection effectively prevents regular home users from creating functional copies of CDs or DVDs, it is quite easy for skilled Software Pirate s to bypass. The early versions of SafeDisc did not make the discs very difficult to copy. Recent versions can produce discs that are difficult to crack, requiring specific burners capable of burning the bad sectors and odd data format that are hallmarks of SafeDisc. Previous versions of SafeDisc were overcome by Loopback Mount software such as DAEMON Tools and Alcohol 52% . SafeDisc currently Blacklists such software, meaning that those who want to use this method must install additional software to cloak the mounter. Another potential attack on SafeDisc is to pull the encrypted application out of the archive it is contained in. All SafeDisc encrypted discs contain an ICD file, an encypted format used by SafeDisc to ensure that the original CD is loaded. UnSafeDisc circumvents and decrypts SafeDisc encrypted files by opening the ICD file format, decrypting it, and converting it to an EXE file. However each program requires a specific patch to enable full functionality. Version 1 was easy to copy. Version 2 inroduced "weak sectors" making it more difficult to burn a copy of the disk, this has no effect on disc images mounted in daemon tools or similar programs. Version 2.50 added ATIP detection making it impossible to use a copy in a burner unless software that masks this is used (Clone CD has the ability to do this). Versions 2.90 and above make burning copies more difficult requiring burners that are capable of burning the "weak sectors"; these drives are uncommon. Version 3.00 increased the difficulty of burning a copy even further. The current version in use is Version 4; little is known about it at this time. There is currently (as of 2006) no technique that can successfully burn a disc. Despite not being burnable, it can be defeated with the use of disk images. VULNERABILITIES SafeDisk installs its own Windows Device Driver to the user's computer, named ''secdrv.sys''. In addition to enabling the copy protection, it grants Ring 0 access to the running application. This is a potential security risk, since trojans and other malware could use the driver to obtain administrator access to the machine, even if the programs are running under a limited account. EXTERNAL LINKS AND REFERENCES http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/52 |
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