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New Access cards for DirecTV

814 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Ray H, May 4, 2002

MikeKO

Discussion Starter · May 3, 2002

I just heard from DirecTV that they are shipping new and improved access cards. Does anyone know if these cards will finally manage to shut down the "test card" business?

Mike

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Originally posted by MikeKO
I just heard from DirecTV that they are shipping new and improved access cards. Does anyone know if these cards will finally manage to shut down the "test card" business?

Mike

I'm sure it will for some period of time. One hour to a few weeks.

Dave

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Ray H

· #3 · May 4, 2002

The new series (labled "P4", at least by the hackers) began shipping April 1st. According to Dan Collins over at DBSForums.com,

Quote:

The whole deal with the new cards is in the data stream. From what I've been told, the new system uses a paradigm that is very similar to the Kudelski system E* uses. It allows much more flexibility and makes a "crack" more of a moving target. Once the H and HU data streams are turned off, the hackers will find it MUCH more difficult.

If I'm interpreting Mr. Collins' comments corectly, it would appear that this "P4" card can work with the HU (P3) activation packets in the data stream as a temporary expedient while the swapout progresses without incurring the necessity of further compressing program content to accomodate a third activation stream. But once the card swapout is completed (DirecTV claims six months.) the H and HU activation packets will be turned off and the P4's dedicated activation streaming turned on. Then it should become distressingly clear to the signal thieves ("testers" is entirely too nice a euphamism!) what they're up against as, whatever the hackers think they're learning about the P4 during the swapout, will be out the window when the new activation packets enter the data stream. It took fully two years before the HU was cracked. Dan Collins also indicated in a previous post that the P4's security algorithm is several orders of magnitude more complex than the P3's was. (For those unfamiliar with math jingoisms, each "order of magnitude" represents 10X more, so two orders of magnitude would represent 10^2, or 100X more.)

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PTS

· #4 · May 4, 2002

Ray word has it that the P4 card has already been compromised. That did not take too long. Geez, I havent even seen my new card yet, and its been compromised already!

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Scooper

· #5 · May 4, 2002

Have they ACTUALLY cracked it, or are they just SAYING they have ? I can't imagine them putting a new card out that will be that easy to crack, especially when they start using the new cards activation packets exclusively. Things are just getting warmed up over this - I assure you.

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Ray H

· #6 · May 4, 2002

Re-read the quote I provided from Dan Collins. If the P4s out in the field now are "working" in their P3 compatibility mode, then any cracks the hackers are gleefully reporting in chatrooms and newsgroups (along with SatBizNews) may be temporary until the P4 dedicated activation packets are introduced that exploit the new card's implied built-in "gotchas". Anyone who's followed Dan Collins' reports over at DBSForums.com on DBS technical issues knows he's not given to hyperbole or idle speculation. (When he does speculate, he identifies his comments as such.) I suspect he knows more than he's allowed to let on.

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New Access cards for DirecTV

MikeKO

David Richardson

Ray H

PTS

Scooper

Ray H

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