HLS AES Encryption

HLS AES encryption refers to video streaming using HLS protocol where the video files are encrypted by using AES-128 algorithms. There are many types of encryption algorithms, the most commonly used method for HLS is AES-128.

1. What is HLS AES Encryption?
2. How to use HLS AES Encryption?

What is HLS AES Encryption?

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a block cipher that encrypts and decrypts data in 128-bit blocks. As AES is a symmetric key algorithm, there needs to be a secret key that’s used for both encryption and decryption. That means the broadcaster encrypts the video using the key and the viewer’s browser decrypts it using the same key.

How to use HLS AES Encryption?

Ant Media Server uses external key_info_file URL for segment encryption. The first line of key_info_file specifies the key URI written to the playlist. The key URL is used to access the encryption key during playback. The second line specifies the path to the key file used to obtain the key during the encryption process. The key file is read as a single packed array of 16 octets in binary format. The optional third line specifies the initialization vector (IV) as a hexadecimal string to be used instead of the segment sequence number (default) for encryption. Changes to key_info_file will result in segment encryption with the new key/IV and an entry in the playlist for the new key URI/IV if hls_flags periodic_rekey is enabled.

Key info file format:

key URI
key file path
IV (optional)

Example key URIs:

http://server/file.key
/path/to/file.key
file.key

Example key file paths:

file.key
/path/to/file.key

Example IV:

0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF

Key info file example:

http://server/file.key
/path/to/file.key
0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF

Firstly, you need to add settings.hlsEncryptionKeyInfoFile parameter into your application’s configuration file. Let’s assume that you’ve already running Ant Media Server v2.4+ on your server then we’re going to use WebRTCAppEE for enabling HLS AES Encryption.

1. Open the following file with your favorite editor

/usr/local/antmedia/webapps/WebRTCAppEE/WEB-INF/red5-web.properties

2. Add AES Encryption URI Path by following property to the file above

settings.hlsEncryptionKeyInfoFile={FULL_PATH_OF_DIRECTORY}/hls_aes.key

3. Restart the Ant Media Server

sudo service antmedia restart

4. Publish any stream and check <AMS-FOLDER>/webapps/WebRTCAppEE/streams/streamId.m3u8 file. You should see EXT-X-KEY parameters as below:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:2
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:16
#EXT-X-KEY:METHOD=AES-128,URI="keypathURI/hls_aes.key",IV=0x00000000000000000000000000000000
#EXTINF:1,970000,
streamId_0p0016.ts
#EXTINF:2,010000,
streamId_0p0017.ts
#EXTINF:2,050000,
streamId_0p0018.ts
#EXTINF:1,970000,
streamId_0p0019.ts
#EXTINF:2,090000,
streamId_0p0020.ts