A new report Thursday alleges that Apple’s iTunes protections designed to prevent 4K video streams to be recorded or saved may have been cracked for the very first time.
That a 4K digital copy of the movie “Aquaman” surfaced on torrent sites in the WEB-DL format is a strong indication that whoever did it pulled a stream from iTunes, Netflix or Amazon.
TorrentFreak reports:
The title, ‘Aquaman.2018.2160p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.HDR.HEVC-MOMA,’ suggests that this is a 4K release that was decrypted directly from iTunes. This is something that has never happened before with a 4K WEB-DL.
A source believes that the file most likely comes from iTunes, suggesting there may be a vulnerability in Apple’s tvOS software. The file was almost certainly pulled from iTunes because Aquaman currently does not stream in 4K on Netflix or Amazon.
The pirate release appeared online shortly after it was listed for sale on iTunes so the timing would fit. Also, there are no 4K releases of the film on either Netflix or Amazon at the moment, meaning that it didn’t come from those services.
A source commented:
Apple has 4K only on Apple TV running tvOS. I assume they skipped checks, if the device is jailbroken, and someone just dumped the encrypted stream and decrypted it via what’s in memory as keys.
Interestingly, a pair of additional 4K Web-DL releases appeared online since the article went live—“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”—and those copies could be traced back to iTunes, too, based on the bitrate and channel layout.
If iTunes protections have in fact been breached, Apple’s engineers are surely working feverishly behind the scenes on preventing any further flaws.