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. "
In Mysterious Future, Vista Activation Spoofs You!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Information Week reports that a spoofed server has been released that can be used to activate Microsoft's Vista Enterprise versions.
And you don't even need a separate computer. You can spoof the activation from the same machine.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
And you came into this conclusion because... Microsoft has such a good track record in security?
Let's hope that Microsoft fixes this problem very quickly. It is important that all Microsoft users pay every last penny for their habit.
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.
Me too. But I'm going to DIE laughing when it turns out they nuked thousands of legit copies along with the pirate copies.
I don't object to paying for software, but there is no way in hell I'm going to put up with the vista activation bullshit.
Fooled me once (XP) shame on you. Fooled me twice (and tied me up and kicked me a few times (Vista)) shame on me.
Inconceivable!
If your OS choice rests solely on 'which plays WoW' then you probably have bigger issues than I'm qualified to help you with.
What does Microsoft do for government customers like the CIA/NSA/DIA? Some of those networks are completely and totally isolated from the public Internet.
I imagine Microsoft must provide them with a KMS that doesn't itself require activation, which can be run on a secure, closed network. I imagine it's not widely publicized...
My bicyles
Well, I was with you until you started gushing over Linux. Don't get me wrong, I like Linux too, but I yearn for the day that people don't end a comment about Microsoft with, "Why don't you just run Linux? It's so great!" That may be true, but this is Slashdot - we know that already!
"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?"
Being against annoying and imposing DRM and copy protection doesn't mean you support piracy. Two people do not equate to the whole of Slashdot, the free software community, or, in fact, all of the world.
... idiot.
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.
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.