Eijah MEMBER_OF American Express
Eijah says that in 2007 he was responsible for American Express’s security portfolio.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I was in charge of American Express’ security portfolio.”
Episode
01 May 2018 Official episode · Official transcript
hacktivism research black hat
Eijah describes deriving and publicly releasing an AACS decryption key for HD DVD and Blu-ray content, the resulting anti-circumvention response, and his later work on secure communications and file-sharing projects.
Topics: AACS content-protection architecture, HD DVD and Blu-ray encryption, HDCP handshake and content downscaling, Digital Rights Management, Cryptographic key derivation, Process-memory scanning and manipulation, Process/code injection, Public disclosure of cryptographic keys, DRM key revocation and algorithm changes, Online takedown notices and key obfuscation, Secure file sharing and communication over insecure networks
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
No Sources heading on this episode page.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Eijah MEMBER_OF American Express
Eijah says that in 2007 he was responsible for American Express’s security portfolio.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I was in charge of American Express’ security portfolio.”
Eijah USES Xbox HD DVD Drive
Eijah bought and connected an Xbox HD DVD Drive to his computer.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I got curious and decided to buy one. I spent $300 and I plugged it in”
Eijah used an Xbox 360 with the HD DVD Drive to watch HD DVD content.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I had an Xbox 360 which, by the way, was a great gaming console. Somebody told me about this little-known peripheral called the Xbox HD DVD Drive. I got curious and decided to buy one. I spent $300 and I plugged it in and I could watch my video on – through my Xbox 360.”
AACS DEVELOPED_BY Advanced Access Control System Licensing Administrator
The episode identifies the AACS LA as the organization that created the encryption used on HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“The company that created the encryption is the Advanced Access Control System Licensing Administrator”
Eijah says he was a Java programmer while developing his decryption utilities.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I was a Java programmer at that time”
Eijah switched from Java to a C and C++ utility pipeline to obtain raw memory access.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I actually switched to a C and C++ utility pipeline just to be able to have raw access to the memory”
Eijah USES memory scanning
One of Eijah’s utilities scanned memory for patterns while attempting to recover the key.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“Another one would scan memory, look for pattern.”
Eijah USES process injection
Eijah says one of his utilities attempted to inject content into a process.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“Another one would try to inject content”
Eijah USES key derivation
Eijah says one of his utilities performed key derivation.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“and perform key derivation.”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release DISCOVERED_BY Eijah
The incident concerns the decryption key that Eijah derived while analyzing the protection system.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“Eijah ... find the encryption key”
“maybe that’s the key. Could that actually be the key?”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release CONTAINS encryption key
The incident involved Eijah finding and publicly releasing an HD DVD/Blu-ray processing or decryption key.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“This was the key that would allow someone to decrypt a Blu-ray movie and make a copy of it.”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release INVOLVES Blu-ray
The released key was described as enabling decryption of Blu-ray movies.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“the key that would allow someone to decrypt a Blu-ray movie”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release INVOLVES HD DVD
The episode describes the key as the first publicly released decryption key for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“the very first decryption key ever made public for the HD DVD and Blu-ray discs”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release INVOLVES Doom9
Eijah posted the encryption key on the Doom9 hacker forum.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“He decided to post the encryption key he found on a popular hacker forum called Doom9.”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release LEADS_TO The Pirate Bay
Jack describes a chain in which the key enabled ripping software, which led to copied movies being distributed through torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay.
Derived Confidence 94% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“Then they post and distribute the movies to torrent sites like The Pirate Bay”
HD DVD/Blu-ray decryption key release INVOLVES Sony
The release was expected to damage movie distributors such as Sony, and Eijah says he wanted to affect Sony.
Explicit Confidence 94% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“it would likely damage movie distributors like Sony, which is what he wanted”
Eijah says he was a lead programmer for Grand Theft Auto V with Rockstar.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Eijah EP 16 Details
“I was one of the lead programmers for Grand Theft Auto V for five years with Rockstar.”
Jack says Demon Saw is one of two projects Eijah created himself.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“Eijah is currently working on two projects he created himself; Demon Saw and Promether.”
Jack says Promether is one of two projects Eijah created himself.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 16 Details
“Eijah is currently working on two projects he created himself; Demon Saw and Promether.”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T03:45:11.337164+00:00