Android DRM Hardware Abastraction Layer

Availability of rich digital content is important to users on mobile devices. To make their content widely available, Android developers and digital content publishers need a consistent DRM implementation supported across the Android ecosystem. In order to make that digital content available on Android devices and to ensure that there is at least one consistent DRM available across all devices, Google provides DRM without any license fees on compatible Android devices. On Android 3.0 and higher platforms, the DRM plug-in is integrated with the Android DRM framework and can use hardware-backed protection to secure premium content and user credentials. 

The content protection provided by the DRM plug-in depends on the security and content protection capabilities of the underlying hardware platform. The hardware capabilities of the device include hardware secure boot to establish a chain of trust of security and protection of cryptographic keys. Content protection capabilities of the device include protection of decrypted frames in the device and content protection via a trusted output protection mechanism. Not all hardware platforms support all of the above security and content protection features. Security is never implemented in a single place in the stack, but instead relies on the integration of hardware, software, and services. The combination of hardware security functions, a trusted boot mechanism, and an isolated secure OS for handling security functions is critical to providing a secure device. Read more...