CD-Copy Protection Killed by Shift Key

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By Mike Darrah
Published October 07, 2003 @ 08:37 AM

A flaw has been unravelled in the CD-Copy protection technology developed by SunnComm Technologies Inc. which is so simplistic, it requires the stroke of a single key to exploit.

The flaw, discovered by John Halderman (a Princeton graduate student), in SunComm's MediaMax CD3 software invokes a work around solution to disable the "autorun" encrytion software on a protected disk. Quite simply, by holding down the shift key when accessing a CD in Windows, the encryption software designed by SunComm to encrypt the contents of that compact disk simply fails to ever execute.

In stopping this auto execution, the software which is designed to install a proprietary driver to access the contents of the CD is cancelled.

The technology, used in Anthony Hamilton's "Comin' From Where I'm From" was released from BMG into the US market earlier this year. The CD fails to work at all on a Mac or Linux based computer due to the disc copy protected design.

BMG claimed to be aware of the exploit, stating that the technology was designed to be a "speed bump" for users who wish to copy the CD rather then a full fledged lock down of that CD due to their desires to not cripple the CD's playability and flexibility.