User agent spoofing with Chromium for Netflix, etc.

retrogamer

retrogamer

I'm making this thread to see if anyone else has been playing around with spoofing an IE user agent with www/chromium, and if so, what websites are working. I got the idea to try this after reading that Netflix now works on Linux via HTML5 (through EME DRM extensions). http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/netf ... rt-plugins So far, the only website I have gotten working this way is Snag Films http://www.snagfilms.com/ But, just the fact that you can watch free movies without Flash this way is pretty nifty. Anyway, my main question is this: Could someone with a Netflix subscription try this and see if it is working on FreeBSD as well? I'm guessing it should, I'm just hesitant to fork over my credit card information to find out. I'm still trying other free video streaming websites as well, and will update this thread if I find more.

Also, for reference, this is how you can spoof the necessary user agent with www/chromium
User Agent Extension

With everything ready the last step is to modify the user-agent string of the browser to pretend we’re accessing Netflix from a platform it likes.

Modifying the UA string can be done in a number of ways but the easiest way is to install the free User-Agent Switcher Extension from the Chrome Web Store:

User Agent Switcher Extension for Chrome

Installing this will place new icon in the right of the Chrome toolbar. Right-click on this item and select ‘Options’. We’ll now add the required HTTP agent with the following string (thanks to Mat Enders for these steps):

Name: Netflix Linux
String: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/38.0.2114.2 Safari/537.36
Group: (is filled in automatically)
Append?: Select ‘Replace’
Flag: IE
Click to expand...
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/netf ... rt-plugins
 
This is what I get with just the UA setting altered (when starting a movie):

Code: 
Whoops, something went wrong...

Missing Component

We cannot find all the required components to play Netflix on this device. Please visit chrome://components, locate the WidevineCdm component, and click the "Check for update" button.
For additional assistance resolving this issue, please visit our Help Center.
https://help.netflix.com/support/14759

I don't have that component.

Code: 
If you have checked chrome://components and WidevineCdm was not listed, follow the troubleshooting steps below to resolve the issue.

Check to make sure you are using Chrome from Google. Note: Chromium is not supported.
 
I mentioned the Nathan VanCamp method in another thread a couple of weeks ago. That didn't work for me and Netflix wanted the Silverlight plugin. After a few attempts, I didn't bother anymore.
 
It's too bad that doesn't work, but I appreciate the response, anyway. At least I figured out that Snag Films can be used this way, I'm going to keep experimenting and will try to find out if any of the other free, ad based sites will work as well. The fact that one such website will work, but Netflix won't, does strike me as interesting. Apparently there isn't any unified approach to implementing HTML5 DRM yet.
 
JX8P said:
Having inspected the Chromium source code relating to WidevineCdm at https://chromium.googlesource.com/c...hird_party/widevine/cdm/widevine_cdm_common.h, I've come to the conclusion that to get it working would require something like nspluginwrapper will have to be built. Unfortunately the CDM modules are native code, and are built only for Windows, Linux, and OS X.
Click to expand...
On that note, Netflix announced today that Linux support is going to be official. http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/19/netf ... _truncated
Linux users, you've been very, very, very, very, very, very patient. And now, your patience is being rewarded with Netflix support on your OS of choice. For the longest time Netflix relied on Microsoft's would-be Flash competitor Silverlight. But, of course, support for the plug in was practically non-existent on the open-source OS. Now, with Silverlight fading, and Netflix embracing the power of HTML5, your wish of watching flicks in your favorite distro (be it Ubuntu, Mint or Arch) may finally come true. Paul Adolf from Netflix posted a message to Ubuntu developers, telling them that, "Netflix will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed."

So what is NSS? It stands for Network Security Services which is a joint effort of Mozilla, Google and RedHat. They're nothing you'd normally interact with as a typical end user, but they're helpful for developers building applications where security is paramount. (And protecting the streams of intellectual property provided by movie studios and television networks is a pretty high priority for the folks at Netflix.) The current stable version of Ubuntu (14.04) is running a slightly older version of the plug in, but it should make its way to the OS soon via a security update. And the next version, due in October, should carry the newer NSS when it ships.

Crafty Linux users have been able to work around Netflix's restrictions with hacks, but no average person wants to tinker with their browser's user-agent. With the shift to the new HTML5 player, the world's most popular streaming movie service will officially supported on desktop versions of Linux. Of course, Netflix already works with plenty of Linux-based devices (see Android, Roku, Chrome OS, etc...), so this really shouldn't come as a huge surprise.
Click to expand...
 
D4rkSilver said:
This would be awesome if it also meant easier Netflix access on FreeBSD as well. :OOO
Click to expand...
Well, it seems to me it should. If something like nspluginwrapper is written for that code, it should be doable. I just thought it was worth posting, since writing something like that wouldn't be the best idea unless Linux was actually a supported platform (which it now is). There was a lot of speculation Netflix might start blocking the user agent workarounds for Linux, what with their CEO being a former MS board member, but thankfully that didn't happen. If a wrapper is written it should work going forward.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top