HLS Streaming ( HTTP Live Streaming) is a streaming protocol that is used for the video content across computers and mobile devices. HLS encryption refers to video streaming using HLS protocol where the video files are encrypted by using AES-128 algorithms. The key exchange takes place through the secure HTTPS protocol and also allows for the usage of initialization vectors to optimize the protection.
You can protect your videos with 128bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) HLS encryption to protect your videos from unauthorize download attempts with tools and video downloaders such as Internet Download Manager. Making it by far one of the most secure platforms to stream and secure your videos and it makes sure that your videos are secured using the latest protection technologies.
How To Protect Videos Using AES – 128?
The HLS mentions only one aspect of key retrieval which is by using the URL from which the key can be loaded should be a part of the manifest file. Most often, we see a number of different approaches for protecting the decryption key:-
1. By Protecting the manifest:-
This is the way through which we can hide the URL to the decryption key. It does not provide more strong security as the URL might leak or could be intercepted on the network.
2. Using Authentic Cookies:-
Authentic cookies can be sent by the video player with the request key. This allows the server key to check which user is requesting the key. If the user is not allowed to access the stream, the key will not return back and the user who has proper authentication will receive the decryption key.
3. Using Signed URL(HLS Encryption):-
Signed URLs can be used for providing unique representation to each user. A user-specific representation will then contain a link for the decryption key which will contain an authentication token. The server can then check the authentication token and determine whether the key can be accessed or not.
Is AES-128 protection Safe?
The first question while dealing with video protection is “How safe is this protection?” AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm that is designed to be efficient in both hardware and software. This algorithm is adopted as the standard encryption algorithm by the U.S. government for encrypting sensitive data. The usage of AES encryption has recently become the part of common encryption and it might be safe to say this level of AES encryption will not able to replace soon.
