A randomized encryption algorithm for the MPEG-DASH digital rights management

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article addresses the pervasive issue of digital piracy in the movie industry. Despite substantial efforts to combat piracy, its impact remains significant, resulting in substantial financial losses for companies. Digital rights management (DRM) has been introduced as a countermeasure to counter this challenge. While the security of video applications, including commercial and military videos, has gained prominence in recent research, this paper focuses on enhancing the encryption algorithm and presenting encryption results. Specifically, it explores the AES 128 encryption algorithm’s vulnerabilities in the MPEG-DASH media file and proposes a randomized algorithm for video file encryption. To bolster security, the randomized approach leverages three robust algorithms: AES 256, Two-Fish, and Serpent. The randomized algorithm demonstrated significantly higher resistance to brute-force attacks than AES 128 CBC, as exemplified by a test scenario with a key length of 32 and 100 media chunks. By utilizing this combination of unbroken algorithms, the paper offers an efficient solution for offline-protected media storage, ultimately strengthening the security and privacy of the MPEG-DASH DRM system and mitigating the risk of media file piracy. The randomized algorithm consistently outperformed AES 128 CBC in terms of execution time across multiple media files, with the randomized algorithm completing the encryption process in 34,610 milliseconds for Media File 1, compared to AES 128 CBC, which required 59,910 milliseconds, showcasing a notable enhancement in speed.