How to Increase the Security of Digital Rights Management Systems Without Affecting Consumer’s Security

The paper starts with a description of the fundamental principles of modern Digital Rights Management Systems. This is the basis for the discussion of their most important security aspects from the provider’s view on the one hand and the customer’s view on the other hand. The second half of the paper focuses the new DRM standard from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and its implementation on “open” systems like Windows. The security anchor of the OMA DRM is the device private key. As long as no trusted storage facilities for open systems work effectively, techniques for software obfuscation could be a solution. Therefore the obfuscation of the device private key and its secure download is described. Currently on Windows PCs there is no chance for a full tamper-proof solution, but the authors try to make the job of an attacker as hard as possible, without affecting the consumer’s security.