{"id":73604,"date":"2023-06-18T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=73604"},"modified":"2023-06-18T09:00:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T09:00:37","slug":"sky-free-now-tv-security-hole-exposed-for-months-researcher-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=73604","title":{"rendered":"Sky \u2018Free NOW TV\u2019 Security Hole Exposed For Months, Researcher Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hole\"<\/a>Rightsholders consider piracy of live TV channels as one of the most serious threats to their business. <\/p>\n

Subscription channels often end up in IPTV subscription packages, sold to the public at a fraction of the cost after being obtained by pirates using both legal and illegal means. In some cases streams are obtained directly from broadcasters\u2019 official source servers, something that is surprisingly common and, with the right tools, not especially difficult either.<\/p>\n

Early this week, TorrentFreak was contacted by an anonymous source who explained how, in their words, \u201cone of the biggest broadcasters in Europe (and in the world) completely ignores how people can watch all of its live channels (in the UK, Germany and Italy) without even having an account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Telegram Groups Selling NOW TV Decryption Keys<\/h2>\n

NOW TV is a subscription OTT TV service operated by Sky Group. Launched in the UK back in 2012, NOW TV is also available elsewhere in Europe, including Italy and Germany. In January 2023, a researcher by the name \u2018Mark K\u2019 says he came across Telegram groups offering to sell decryption keys granting free access to the NOW TV service. <\/p>\n

This piqued the researcher\u2019s interest since Microsoft\u2019s PlayReady DRM<\/a> protects NOW TV streams in Italy and Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]here was absolutely no interest for me in buying the mentioned decryption keys just to test them, plus I didn\u2019t know if there was a sort of scam going on. But since I am a security enthusiast, I really wanted to know what happened behind a possible PlayReady leakage, so I decided to have a chat with the owner of the channel with the interest of getting technical details,\u201d the researcher explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to question how the keys were getting grabbed \u2013 if PlayReady was proven to be broken. He didn\u2019t want to tell me any detail regarding this matter, he just wanted to hard-sell the decryption keys making me a few offers; that until as a last chance, he provided me a URL, a key identifier, and a decryption key for an Italian channel: Sky Sport 24.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researcher said he tested the key, and it worked. Further research led to other sellers offering decryption keys for Sky services not only in Italy, but also Germany and the UK. \u201cSo basically all the Sky OTT packages available, for not more than $2000,\u201d the researcher added.<\/p>\n

Researcher Says He Quickly Warned Sky<\/h2>\n

\u2018Mark K\u2019 claims to have taken a number of steps to warn Sky of the security breach. In the first instance, he says he reached out to a Sky developer on LinkedIn back in January.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"sky-contact-1\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

After receiving no immediate response, the researcher began posting issues on BSkyB GitHub repos and, via a Twitter account, contacted Sky developers. (edited for clarity\/brevity) <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe day after this, I finally got a response. I got followed by an account named \u2018Sky Anti-Piracy Intel\u2019 (a freshly made one), which then afterward tweeted me saying to get onto DM to have a talk. Since the account was fresh, I was kind of skeptical in giving this information to a random. But then they confirmed to legitly be a division of Sky taking care of intelligence information regarding anti-piracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"Sky-anti-piracy\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

The researcher said that Sky\u2019s immediate request was for him to remove the information he\u2019d posted to GitHub, information he claims to have posted for the purposes of attracting Sky\u2019s attention. He says he immediately complied.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"sky-contact-2\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

After removing the information in question, an email from Sky thanked \u2018Mark K\u2019 for responding and advised that the information needed to be referred to the relevant departments. \u201cPlease be patient with us and we will get back to you shortly,\u201d an email received from ContentProtection@sky[dot]uk reads.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up email dated January 27, the \u2018Sky Anti-Piracy Intel Team\u2019 said, \u201cWe appreciate the removal Of the posts regarding the matter and hope you have a good weekend. We Will be in touch soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Contact With Sky<\/h2>\n

In another email supplied by the researcher, this time dated February 23, roughly a month after the initial communications with Sky, \u2018Mark K\u2019 appears to have offered more information to the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Sky Go platforms using Widevine are compromised, there are panels as well accessible for free around the internet setting up the streams. I\u2019d like to mention again that I am available for consulting. I didn\u2019t [receive any response] from you since my last report. So unless you guys are interested in getting updated on the matter, I won\u2019t message you anymore,\u201d the email reads. (edited for clarity\/brevity)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your intelligence,\u201d Sky\u2019s response reads. \u201cWe\u2019re unable to take you on as a consultant at this time however if the circumstances change, we will reach out to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Mark K\u2019 says that Sky misunderstood his offer to work for Sky as a consultant; in an email dated March 14, he informed the company that he didn\u2019t want to be hired or get paid. He also informed Sky that when he carried out checks on March 13, none of the exposed decryption keys had been changed.<\/p>\n

Mark K Appears to Run Out of Patience<\/h2>\n

In a follow-up email dated March 27, sent to a new correspondence address following a request from Sky, \u2018Mark K\u2019 provided more information and aired his frustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve warned you around 2 months ago, situation now is completely out of control. Looks like you\u2019re not caring at all in solving your piracy issues. Both satellite and NOW streaming platform of every country are broken and so far you haven\u2019t changed the decryption keys, makes me wonder in what way you\u2019re fighting piracy as you advertise,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be my last email, if in future I ever see you moving a finger to fix current issues then perhaps (if I have other information) I will update you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week the data Sky wanted to keep out of the public eye appeared very publicly on GitHub, along with clickable links that claimed to allow NOW TV channels to be viewed without a subscription, using only Microsoft Edge and a third-party website.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"sky-keys-kid\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Within hours the information was removed from GitHub. As far as we can see, the removal wasn\u2019t actioned in response to a regular DMCA notice, but that may become more clear in the hours to come. <\/p>\n

TorrentFreak contacted Sky\u2019s anti-piracy team and received a response from the company\u2019s communications team. Sky confirmed the links and encryption keys had been removed from GitHub but declined to comment any further on the emails, the researcher, or the alleged security holes. <\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

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Rightsholders consider piracy of live TV channels as one of the most serious threats to their business. Subscription channels often end up in IPTV subscription packages, sold to the public at a fraction of the cost after being obtained by pirates using both legal and illegal means. In some cases streams are obtained directly from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}