Slashdot Mirror
Activating Vista Enterprise Using a Spoofed Server
Ruvim writes "It has been mentioned in previous Slashdot discussions as possibility, and now it became a reality: Information Week reports that a spoofed server has been released that can be used to activate Microsoft's Vista Enterprise versions. It is being made available on several pirate Web sites and spoofs a Key Management Service server, used to activate a large number of copies of Windows Vista in enterprise environments." From the article: "Vista is the first version of Windows that Microsoft requires volume license customers to activate. Besides KMS, the Redmond, Wash. developer also offers Multiple Activation Key, which resembles the retail version's activation process. PCs activated using KMS must reactivate at least once every six months. The MelindaGates hack uses a VMware image of a KMS server to activate -- and keep activated -- a pirated edition of Windows Vista Business. 'Looks like Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0 is a big bust,' wrote a user identified as 'clank' on the PirateBay Web site Friday. "
Sounds like someone just stole a vmware image from their work that is set up as a kms (many sites are just plugging their KMS in as a vmware guest to get going).
I'm sure that Microsoft must have thought of that as a possibility. Since a unique product key is required to activate a KMS, why can't Microsoft just deactivate that compromised KMS key?
The prize being to 0wn the Microsoft security mechanisms, but more-so to do it before rival warez groups.
The warez groups aren't so much competing against Microsoft, but amongst themselves - for the sheer status of it.
Honestly, I'm going to laugh my ass off 6 months down the road when MS pushes out a mandatory WGA update, disguised as another 'critical update,' that nukes pirated installs. All these scam cracked/KMS/pirated Vista copies are going to lock-up, shut down and only be able to do one thing, display the phone number to call MS to purchase a legitimate key. Pirates have gotten by the initial flaws in the authentication system. Microsoft is going to change it, and quietly force everybody to reactivate from a legitimate source. Just wait... it's coming. If you really need a free, modern OS, rather than run something that clings to functionality through hacks, cheats, cracks and work-arounds, why not just bite the bullet and download a good desktop Linux distro? It's free. It's arguably more capable than Vista. How/where/when you play your media isn't decided by the AAs and to top it all off, you don't have to hack/crack/scam to get it to run.
The most surprising bit is that implementing cracks of this nature is nothing new. That's how cracks work for flexlm based products (Maya, ArcGIS.) You would thus think that MS would have learned from their failures and made a more resilient system. And by resilient I mean one that could last more than a week before being ultimately cracked.
You can set up your own KMS, assuming you're large enough to make it worthwhile. Failing that, MAK's can be made available that will activate from 1 to N machines much like the old Volume License Key.
:)
Or you can switch to Linux and/or OSX.
Let's hope that Microsoft fixes this problem very quickly. It is important that all Microsoft users pay every last penny for their habit.
It was inevitable that Vista Enterprise would be cracked in some way. Every version of Windows has been. In fact, I can't think of a single large-scale (scale as in cost) software that has not been cracked. No matter what any software vendor does, the dedicated pirates will always be one step ahead. Measures like product activation are only to stop widespread casual piracy, not piracy in its entirety.
I daresay you're sidestepping GP's points:
1) Linux does not run a critical set of games which he wants to play.
2) Linux apps lack the kind of application compatibility that he and his family are looking for.
Let's accept that a console is superior to a PC for gaming, and let's accept that Linux is preferable to Windows for general computing tasks. GP's two points are still unresolved: he wants to play that particular set of games (presumably not available on either a console or on Linux) and he wants compatibility for a specific set of applications (presumably Windows-only applications without equivalent Linux alternatives/ports).
An interesting twist from this is that the most feature-rich Vista Ultimate Edition may not be the most warezed one after all. Because these aren't supporting KMS activation, unlike Enterprise and Business who were both intended for this use. However, for a pirate, that may not matter much, as the benefits of Vista Home Basic/Ultimate (= home/entertainment-oriented software) is probably quite easily outweighed by already available software, often free.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Why anyone would run their business (or hobby) on a system that is subject to DeActivation
Hold on... Before we answer that we need to upload some more pictures to flickr.com. Then we need to update our blogs on MySpace and reply to some contact invites on LinkedIn.
And yes, an unfavorable change in the ToS on these sites is not as bad as deactivation. A complete loss of service appears unlikely at this stage; but you never know what might change. The bottom line? Unless you control your data, and store it in a format that can be easily converted to use with other Operating Systems or services, you are vulnerable.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Best Soviet comment ever...
My bicyles
"You can flip over a screwdriver to pound in nails, but why not just use the hammer?"
because the screwdriver manufacturer hasn't installed a "Feature" that makes the tool cease to function, forcing you to call the hammer manufacturer to ask permission to regain use of that hammer you bought. All the while knowing that at some point, the hammer manufacturer is going to decide they want to sell their new hammers, so they will stop giving permission to the old hammer owners to keep using their purchased hammers.
The real question would be, "Why would you buy a screwdriver, when you can rent a hammer?"
The DRM module doesn't block unsigned drivers, allowing injection of attack code.
The license module has been spoofed, which means it's not protecting Microsoft's revenue.
Does Vista protect anything other than media restrictions imposed by producers?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
99% of the games? You're kidding right?
Something tells me this would have been one of those occasions where posting as an AC would have been a wise choice. Personally, I don't find a bit of Slashdot karma worth having the Long Baton of Microsoft forcefully inserted into an exit-only part of my body.
;)
But, your call. I thought it was easy enough to find just by going to the top of the Top 100 list for Windows software at TPB
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Wow, should Slashdot should castrate anyone who is against the notion of copyright law? Either make file sharing legal (the democratic method) or put the 50+ million people who do it in jail (the fascist method). I think we are headed toward the fascist method.
its VMWare, just take snapshots and rollback?
Once I "buy" something, I should be entitled to use it as I see fit, without being at the whim of whoever I purchased it from. The "licensing" and possible de-activation (by no longer providing activation) of software is a crock. It's akin to buying a new car from Ford, and then after 3 years being told that you're no longer allowed to put fuel in it or drive it, even though it does everything you want it to do.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Would you feel the same way if MS found a loophole in the GPL that allowed them to start lifting code wholesale?
MS has a certain motivation for developing software, and they protect it through technical and legal means.
You'll find that most people here are perfectly in favour of MS enforcing their rights via legal means (as long as they don't use strongarm tactics to do so... discovering somebody has unlicensed copies of windows because of a tip-off is one thing, requiring a contract that enables them to randomly audit a company's offices is another entirely).
We do object, on principle, to enforcement of legal rights by technological means. This is largely because the technological means are (a) inconvenient to legitimate users and (b) don't always work quite the way the should.
Windows Activation is inconvenient because it:
* Requires you to give information to MS that you might not want to give them, and which they have no legal right to.
* Requires you to effectively get permission from MS if you want to upgrade your computer's hardware multiple times (or reinstall your copy of Windows on a different machine, if your existing machine fails, etc...)
* Has made MS extend the Windows kernel so that it will not run versions of certain programs that haven't been signed by Microsoft. This means that I can no longer rip Windows apart, replace WINLOGON.EXE with a custom program that does what *I* want it to do, and not log in via an MS-approved process. Not that I've ever done that, but I kind-of liked the fact that I could if I wanted to (it's not as well documented as replacing 'init' on a Linux system, but there is information about how you would go about doing it out there -- but that's irrelevant now, only MS can do it).
If you don't agree with what they do, then fine, don't use their software, but how is pirating a copy of Vista any different from helping yourself to GPL code without giving anything back?
It isn't. But who said anything about pirating Windows? I have a legitimate copy of XP on my machine. Label stuck to the case, and all. Do I run WGA? Fuck no, I don't want to get involved with that; I don't want to get involved with something that will complain if it isn't able to validate my copy of Windows through some completely undocumented process that may or may not be correct for any given installation. Perhaps multiple people are using my activation code -- I have no way of knowing if anyone's flipped my laptop over and made a note of the number while I wasn't present. But then, despite having that activation code, I didn't use it last time I reinstalled Windows. Why? Well, the copy of Windows that was supplied with it only installs from a system restore disc that wipes all data on your hard disk. I didn't want to do that, so I installed from a regular retail edition of XP. Which I then had to hack to make activation work, because I'd already activated a machine with its key.
Another piece of software I use validates itself against an encrypted key that has a copy of my network interface's MAC associated with it. Fine, except for some reason the damned process occasionally causes the thing's driver to crash while its performing the validation. So of course I've hacked it, despite having a perfectly legal key.
It isn't only pirates who are concerned about Windows Activation, WGA and other copy-prevention mechanisms.