Info Required on Digi Boxes

[Vittorio]

I am looking for some info on the pin configuration of the rs 232 link on the back of a sky digital box.

Iwant to beable to dump the firmware from the box so i can reverse engineer it. I know it is possible to get a pc to decode every channel on sky, by making some mods to the box but this is not for every one.

If anyone can give me any little bits of info i would be greatful.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Videoguard enryption is not unbreakable

 

[rolfw]

Hi Vittorio,

I've heard so many times that people have a friend of a friend, or know someone who can decrypt Sky, but that's always as far as it goes.

You say that you know it's possible, does that mean you've seen it done? With regard to the pin configuration, I'm afraid I can't help you, but I'd be very interested to know if you have the appropriate software to interrogate the box.

Rolf

 

[Vittorio]

I have seen Sky Totaly decrypted with the use of a high spec pc and it hard wired into the digi box. It was doing the decoding on the fly. I have had information about the boxes themselves, there is no cam but a eprom that holds the data.

The key to decrypting the videoguard is in the make up of the signal being received. This is why i want to dump the contents of the eproms and find out what signals are being sent to the card to validate it. I have seen a pay per view box running, but it is no where near accessing the other channels.

The key to unlocking the card is held in the box itself and the make up of the digital signal.

If anyone has the details of the pin connections on the rs232 port it would help speed up the process.

 

[2old4this]

I think all that blood's gone to your head, my friend :9

In any event, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. With respect, you are the thousandth person to claim to have seen something or other which hacks Sky - and yet not one shred of evidence has actually ever materialised.
Where did you see it? Do you have links to any related info? Schematics? Etc etc.

And can you be sure that what you were witnessing was Sky Digital? Just before Sky analogue went off air, the videocrypt system (latest incarnation) was fully compromised by the "no-operation" group using a so-called "heuristic" technique similar to that you describe (i.e. PC analysis of the video signal rather than any direct attack on the key encryption algorithms). I posted on that in this board a few months ago.
Presumably that technique could be extended to other systems too, but I've not yet heard of that happening.

On the RS232 question: if you have actually seen this with your own eyes, why don't you ask the person running it what the pin-layout of the RS232 is? Presumably s/he knows all the details.

Looking forward to hearing more on this,
2old

 

[Vittorio]

When I say hard wired I mean hard wired. The pc is connected via the rs232 port and then the cable coming out are solidered on to the main board in the box.

The encyrption used on sky can be created so if it can be engineered it can be reversed engineered.

The proof will be in the pudding wont it.

So all i can say is watch this space.

 

[rolfw]

This link may be of interest. http://www.radio-scanner.co.uk/cgi-bin/editor/print.pl?article=54

Rolf

 

[PoloMint]

Why not connect your PC serial to the digibox port and HyperTerminal to it?

 

[2old4this]

Vittorio,
If the RS232 port is wired internally to different points on the mainboard of the digibox, and you don't have that circuit diagram, then knowing the layout of the RS232 itself won't help you much (if at all).
Your observation that any engineered encryption system can be reverse-engineered is not true by the way - quantum encryption is a one-way process. But even in the more mundane world of satellite tv encryption systems, it's apparently not relevant in this case whether videoguard itself can be reverse-engineered - since what you seem to be describing is a fundamentally different approach probably bypassing the encryption system altogether.

As you say, we watch and wait. If you get more info please post.

2old

 

[2old4this]

in the meantime you might like to play with these...

http://nds.host.sk/myfiles/RS232Skybox.zip
http://nds.host.sk/myfiles/digi232ii.zip
http://www.ndsedu.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18

2old

 

[2old4this]

This story about mods to the digibox in order to enable all channels without a card, has also now sufaced in the international edition of the Polish satellite magazine Satkurier:
http://www.satkurier.com/hc/?id=116

Interestingly, there's nothing at all about that in the original Polish version...
http://www.satkurier.pl/hacker/

2old

 

[rolfw]

Looked at that article 2old, the only thing that worries me about the validity is the reference to the philips digibox. Are they using the term digibox as a generalisation for all digital receivers? I wasn't aware there was a philips digibox.

Rolf

 

[2old4this]

there isn't...
'nuff said...
2old

 

[Channel Hopper]

And its not even the beginning of April !

 

[BlueIce]

Videoguard can be cracked. Videoguard is used by Direct TV in America, and that has been cracked, so why is there a problem with sky digital?

Heres a link about it.
http://www.legal-rights.org/NDSandDTV.html

 

[Channel Hopper]

The legal report seems to be a year old

Surely NDS would have suppressed it by now

Is there any more up to date info ?

 

[BlueIce]

Channel Hopper, i've seen one of these site that sell them, and the card comes with something like a 3 year garantee. you can also buy a programmer for them on the site, i'll try and get a link.

 

[BlueIce]

What I don't get is that Direct TV uses videoguard and P3 NDS cards the same as sky, and it has been cracked, so why can't sky?

Notice on this website the SKY Unlooper and SKY programmer (under construction) is this sky digital?

http://www.caribdss.com/dtv/HUcard.htm

 

[ProDave]

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This unit has no limitations whatsoever as we do not believe in restraining you on a product you own and purchased.

This is NOT the Sky we know in the UK

 

[BlueIce]

What I am trying to get at though is that they all use the videoguard encrytion system(the same as sky digital), and they all use the P3 NDS card(The same as sky digital) so why can't we clone cards in the same way they do?

 

[rolfw]

If you read some of the reports about Sky's alleged cracking of mediaguard, it would appear and has been proved that the software on the card can be totally different, but still achieve the same result.

Because Sky UK have included box marrying processes in their card and what sounds like multi level encryption of the actual encryption, the card is proviing difficult to even read, let alone clone.

Rolf