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WinXP Keygen Foils Product Activation
Bill Gates' Friend's Brother's Roommate writes: "The Register has a story on a working key generator that produces 25 valid Windows XP Product Activation Keys in a few hours. As author John Lettice summarizes, 'So the question as regards keymaking software is whether or not Microsoft has any way to differentiate between generated keys and the ones it has issued itself. If not, this generation of WPA is now surely toast.'"
Don't they have some kind of database with all the keys in it.. (after all, a lot of games out there such as anything newer by blizzard works that way)!
That means you probably could get 25000 keys in one hour if distributed.net was setup to do that. Even DES is harder to crack. That should tell you something about the extent of Microsoft's understanding of security issues if they can't even protect their own bread and butter correctly.
It all depends whether or not Microsoft keeps a world-wide database of valid product keys for each and every version of Windows XP sold. I used to work for an employer that had a system that registered EACH and EVERY serial number of a product BEFORE it was sent out to distribution. We could track the usage and blacklist any of the "products" we wanted. The system even was smart enough to detect fraud based on a number of criteria (like if two serial numbers showed up at the same time). any serial numbers that existed that weren't in the database were blacklisted automatically.
I have to wonder if Microsoft has done this? I mean, logging every single serial number for every copy of WindowsXP produced everywhere in the world...and then maintaining it. That's a tall order, even for them. I think they'd get more bang for the buck by blacklisting every copy of XP that uses that "FCK" serial that was distributed like crazy.
By allowing me to decline their license and give me the refund they promise if I do so, I don't see why I should accept it and activate periodically.
ncftp -u xpkey -p xpkey -P 6473 24.22.15.128
I was wondering about this after I heard the story somewhere else first, ( hoho ).
Most people not paying for XP are either going to be using the crack on the "trial" version or downloading the corporate version from their fave p2p network.
Thinking about the 2nd scenario, the corporate version requires a key, but doesn't need activation. The key is printed on the back of the cd case and every corporate version.rar I have seen has the same key- starting, (amusingly) "FCK..."
Anyway- the corporate versions of Win2000 didn't need a key- they filled it in for you (unless I am getting mixed-up with other MS software of the same period).
So, the big question is: Why does the corporate version need a key? MS knows it is damn easy to write it down, so there's no security there, but if MS wants to check the key when the system connects to the internet, checking against a database (oh look, 3 million people all using the same key!), then isn't this a similar hassle to product activation, only done sneakily with no dialogs ?
Presumably if you install the corporate version with the "FCK..." key and never connect to the internet then it will never hassle you or expire or need to be activated, but if you do connect to the net then it *could* be sort of activating itself by checking the key with microsoft. If this turns out to be the case then you could always block it with your favourite firewall, since as this would be a sneaky check they could hardly deactivate your machine if they couldn't connect...
Then again, we all know that MS loves home piracy and the product activation is just to stop small and medium businesses from using one cd on their whole lan.
graspee
I couldn't tell from the article, but I assume you would go through the "I don't have internet access so I'm 'talking' on the 'phone' to a 'representative' of 'Microsoft' who has 'provided' me with this 'key'" process.
Otherwise, it'd be pretty useless.
What if someone using this keygen generates my key that has already been activated? It will look to Microsoft like the key-in-question is being installed on a different computer with different hardware. Then the next time I go to re-install XP my legitimate key won't work.
No, I don't want to explore the Recycle Bin.
Uh, they havent started doing that with win2k, win98, winme, or any of their other products, why would they start with xp ?
The only thing even vaguely close is the ms office update that refuses to install if its running with a known bad serial number, but that doesnt disable anything.
My theory is that the damage is already done. Messing up the OS isnt going to make the person buy a real copy, it'll just make the person reinstall the same insecure pile of crap they installed in the first place, and then ms will get blamed again because stupid people dont know how to secure their illegal boxes. It's in Microsoft's best interest to let people with stolen versions update their OS, so if nothing else, they dont have software pirates spreading things like Nimda.
Video for Online Dating Profiles
It was cracked. Big deal. Everyone is saying "Now we can use this and won't have to register it with MS!" or "They probably have an archive of keys and can see the fakes, who will then be arrested!"
No. Here's what I say: So what?
Great, it's cracked. You know what? The number of people who will wind up using the crack is probably insignificant to MS.
Newsflash! There have been anti-activaition cracks from day one with more efficiency than this. How about the cracks that allow you to never register? How about buying a version of XP Pro that doesn't require activation (Corporate(expensive) or Academic)? How about pirating one? I looked on hotline the day of XP's release and there were already several servers claiming to have the Corporate Version of XP Pro.
To top this all off, how many people will really use this? I'll give you a hint: proportionately few. The vast majority of people who will upgrade to XP either don't know or care that there is a hack, or are businesses that have to have legitimate software (activation and all). Well, I suppose they don't have to, but most businesses consider it a good idea.
So that's my thoughts. It's cracked. It's a great feat and all, but the number of illegal copies of XP isn't going to suddenly, dramatically surge.
Good god, who here ever thought WPA was going to stop the pirating of MS software?
*prolonged awkward silence*
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Have you ever used WindowBlinds? It made my otherwise predictable and stable Win2K rather unstable and sometimes downright unusable. I used it for longer than I otherwise would have because when it worked, it really was a cool product. And even at that, I think I had it installed for less than a week before the stability issues just became too much. If you have used WindowBlinds, was your experience anything the same? And if you haven't, why not?
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
Because the MAC address is considered one of the few relatively static numbers easily associated with a particular workstation. It is not a normal event for a workstation to have a NIC changed, or for someone to perform a soft-update upon a NIC card, changing the MAC address. Indeed, MS Word used to embed the MAC address into documents as a (secret) form of identification.
-jerdenn