libaacs

libaacs is an open source, free and portable library software developed by the creators of the amazing and powerful VLC Media Player, and designed to implement the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) specification.

Features at a glance

Key features include portability, as the library can run on all mainstream operating systems (see below for supported OSes), offers cryptographic functions through the libgcrypt library, it is released under a free software license, respects copyright laws, and it’s crypto and DRM-related.

Depends on the libgcrypt library for cryptographic functions

In order to provide the necessary cryptographic functions, libaacs depends on the libgcrypt library. Furthermore, it doesn’t include any certificate or key, and encourages developers to hack it and contribute to the code.

Supported operating systems

The library also provides an easy way for developers to understand how the Advanced Access Content System specification really works. It is a cross-platform library that supports GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

Under the hood and availability

A quick look under the hood of libaacs will show us that the software has been written entirely in the C programming language and it is available for download for free as a universal sources archive, supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms.

Installing libaacs

To install the libaacs library on your GNU/Linux machine, you will have to first download the latest version from Softoware. Save the file on a location of your choice, extract it, open a terminal emulator, navigate to the location of the extracted folder and execute the “./configure” command (without quotes) to configure the program, and the “make” command to compile it, without quotes, of course. To install it, you will have to run the “make install” command as root (system administrator).

What is new in this release:

• Add support for gcrypt 1.6.0.
• Do not retrieve MKB using MMC commands during AACS-Auth

What is new in version 0.7.0:

• Add aacs_get_device_binding_id() and aacs_get_device_nonce().
• Add aacs_get_mk().
• Add support for bus encryption.
• Add support for device keys.
• Add support for internal keys.
• Fix reading PMSN.
• Fix reporting AACS version from AACS drive feature.
• Calculate bus key and use it to verify message authentication codes.
• Do not fail if VID is known but config file does not exist.
• Improve validating keys in KEYDB.cfg.
• Update KEYDB.cfg format (still backwards compatible):
• Host nonce and host key point are optional.
• Add device key UV values and masks.
• Build system updates.
• Drop support for compile-time PATCHED_DRIVE flag.

Requirements:

• Libgcrypt