------------------------------------------------ Season7 -- MS-DOS Videocrypt smart card emulator ------------------------------------------------ 1994-06-19 -- Markus Kuhn This software allows you to connect your PC to a Videocrypt pay-TV decoder. Season7 can both listen to the data traffic between a card and a decoder and act like a card. This software also implements the hash function and the secret key that was used in the 07 series card used by British Sky Broadcasting on the Astra satellites in 1993 and early 1994. In that time, it was possible to watch these channels without a Sky card using Season7 (someone also called it OMIGOD), but with the introduction of the 09 card series, the secret key has been changed. So you can't use this software easily to watch Sky any more, but it still descrambles recorded program from before 1994-05-18. Season7 can basically also decrypt the Adult Channel (the same hash algorithm is used), but for legal reasons, the secret key of the Adult Channel has been removed from this version, because it is still in use. In order to use this software, you will need a Videocrypt decoder with a card slot (costs about 400 DM), an IBM AT compatible PC with at least a 12 MHz i286 processor, a serial RS-232 port and DOS 3.3 or higher and you will have to build a small interface circuit as described in the file ADAPTER.TXT. This interface may be operated in three modes: a) A PC listens to data traffic between a card an a decoder b) A PC talks to a decoder without a card and acts like a card c) A PC talks to a card without a decoder and acts like a decoder Season7 only supports mode a) and b), but the file ADAPTER.TXT also describes the additional circuitry (clock generator) necessary for mode c) operation. You can use Season7 to record the data traffic between a card and a decoder for a certain program. If you make this recording available to someone else, then it is possible for this person to replay the data to the decoder with Season7 and to descramble the same program later if it has been recorded in encrypted from on a VCR. The VCL Videocrypt logfile format supported by Season7 is especially designed for this purpose, because it only contains the part of the exchanged data needed to descramble the image. Other exchanged data like the card serial number is not stored in a VCL file. Technical details of the Videocrypt card protocol and the VCL file format are explained in the file DETAILS.TXT. IMPORTANT: It is illegal to watch pay-TV programs without a subscription in the countries in which a regular subscription is available (for the Sky channels, these are currently Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The legal situation in other countries is unclear, but as it is currently tolerated that e.g. in Germany and Sweden so-called pirate or clone cards are sold, using this software in other countries should be no problem at the moment. There is perhaps also no problem if you have already a regular subscription for the channels and want to use this software only for educational purposes. THE AUTHOR OF THIS SOFTWARE TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LEGALITY OF USING AND DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE. As far as the author is concerned, this software may be used and redistributed freely. How do you use Season7 ---------------------- You have to build an electrical interface between the decoder's card slot and a serial port of your PC. The file ADAPTER.TXT that comes with this package gives you more technical information about how to do this. Then start SEASON7.EXE and give as a command line argument the port number to which you connected your interface (default is COM2 if you don't give a number). E.g. enter SEASON7 1 if your interface is connected to COM1. If the text 'RESET' or 'Decoding ...' doesn't appear after a few seconds or if your decoder displays 'YOUR CARD IS INVALID', then please switch to an unscrambled channel for at least 3 seconds in order to cause a card reset in the decoder. This software has currently only been tested with a PACE VC100 decoder, but it is expected to work with all other decoders, too. Without further options, Season7 tries to emulate a Sky series 07 card. You can leave the program by pressing either q, x or ESC and you can activate and deactivate a debugging mode by pressing d. In the debugging mode, all data packets exchanged between the card and the decoder are listed. By pressing l you can write the last (up to 400) crypto messages to file VCLOG. As the log file time stamps are in universal time (UTC, formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time), you should define your local time zone in environment variable TZ. E.g. put 'set TZ=MET-1DST' in your AUTOEXEC.BAT if you live in the Middle European Timezone in summer (2 hours ahead of universal time) and use 'MET-1' in winter (1 hour ahead of Greenwich). On startup, Season7 shows you the current universal time. Please check whether it is correct, especially if you want to provide VCL files for other peoples. On slow computers (e.g. an i286 processor with 12 MHz is slow enough), the time needed for the debugging output might already be too long and the decoder will get a timeout and send a RESET signal. As the protocol is quite time critical, try to use only simple DOS (no DOS compatibility box in another operating system) and if you still have problems, remove unnecessary TSR programms that might steal time and interrupts from Season7 and try the e option. Season7 understands several command line options: d This activates the debugging mode which will print all data exchanged with the decoder on screen. Debugging mode can also be (de-)activated by pressing d while the program runs. p In the passive mode, Season 7 doesn't send any bytes, but listens only to the data traffic between a decoder and a real card. E.g. use 'season7 pd >logfile' in order to record to a file what's happening between a card and a decoder. o Write a VCL file that allows other peoples later to descramble the same program from a VCR. The file name is optional (e.g. 'season7 otest.vcl'), and if you don't specify one, Season7 generates one using date, time (hour rounded up by 5 minutes), satellite name and transponder number (VCmmddhh.stt). Season7 will ask you about the satellite, the transponder number and what you are recording and stores this information together with the time in the VCL file header. The 'o' option automatically activates the passive mode, so you'll have to connect a real card to the adapter (mode a), because Season7 only listens. Make sure you have set the system clock and environment variable TZ correctly. i Instead of emulating a Sky 07 card, use the specified VCL file in order to answer the queries of the decoder and descramble a program (mode b). Useful only for video cassette recorded program. e In the economy mode, no time consuming screen output and data log activities take place in the main loop. This allows to use Season7 on some very slow systems. You might want to try this option together with options wb0 and wa0. m This option suppresses the on-screen message with the Season7 version number, the time and the channel name. wa Allows you to specify the number of microseconds wait time between a reset impulse from the decoder and Season7's answer to reset (default: 30000 = 30 ms). wb Allows you to specify the number of microseconds wait time between the bytes sent to the decoder (default: 500). This value can be modified while Season7 runs by pressing + and -. The optimum wa and wb values haven't been determined yet for all possible processors and decoders, so please play around with wa in case of reset problems and with wb in case of unstable operation after a successful reset. While decrypting, Season7 shows you three hexadecimal numbers from the decoder's data packets. The second one is used to select the secret key in the card, so if this one changes, perhaps new codes have been activated. The third number identifies the channel and strange numbers there have been used by Sky in the past to confuse hacker cards. In VCL replay mode (option i), you'll only see at which position in the VCL file the current answer for the decoder query has been found. If the numbers bore you, better switch off the PC monitor in order to save power while watching TV. I wrote Season7 just for fun as a hobby project and I have no commercial intentions. Many other Videocrypt hobby experts and I periodically read the USENET group alt.satellite.tv.europe, so please post there a message if you have problems, questions, etc. regarding this software. Please don't contact me directly unless you have new technical information, and please understand that I don't have the time to give technical support to unexperienced Season7 users. I wish to thank the members of the tv-crypt mailing list for their valuable help. Season7 uses a public domain interrupt driven serial port assembler routine which has been published by David Kessner some time ago. Ask him if you are interested in the latest version of this serial code. This software was primarily written for European Star Trek fans outside Great Britain who don't have a chance to get a regular Sky subscription and have no other way of watching the undubbed version of their favourite SF series. I don't want to cause any harm to Sky and I even asked them for a regular subscription some time ago, but they refused to sell one to Germany. So they have to live with the consequences of attracting the interest of high tech freaks to the technical details of their access control system. :-) I developped this software and made it available to you at no cost and so I expect of course that if you improve, update or port this software to other systems, you will also make your work freely available to others.