[MW Forums]

A Web site posted a tool Thursday that can apparently crack Windows Vista’s activation process by applying brute force — and lots of time — to come up with valid product keys. more

[icerabbit]

I read this was a HOAX.
http://www.engadget....-keygen-a-hoax/
Just some code that doesn't work.

[fribhey]

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I read this was a HOAX.
http://www.engadget....-keygen-a-hoax/
Just some code that doesn't work.

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i read that as well. this is either something different or the author of the story didn't actually check to see if it works and based the story entirely on a post by someone named "Computer User" on a forum.

[TheBoyKen]

If Vista is not activated within 30 days of its first-time use, it drops into a crippled state in which only the browser works, and then only for an hour at a time.
Blimey the price of running your own cybercafe just gets better and better these days doesn't it - they don't even have to run legit copies of the OS any more, plus they get the security that the machines cannot be tampered with by the customers /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[scotts13]

One tends to wonder exactly how much of the code in Vista is devoted to security. With all the stuff to protect Microsoft's revenue, plus the movie studios, the record companies, and a little bit to protect the end users - it's suprising the OS actually does anything at all.
Visualize a decade from now, when MS releases the perfect OS, which has absolutely zero chance of being pirated or allowing unauthorized play of media, or allowing virus infections. Problem is, when you get the box home, it's empty...

[mcseufer]

actually, when you get the box home, it has an Apple logo on the side of it.
You did say the 'perfect OS' - I couldn't resist. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Hawaiian717]

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it's suprising the OS actually does anything at all.

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That, in and of itself, is debatable. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Seriously though, brute force attacks are always possible. The trick is to make the keyspace large enough that the probably favors an average case scenario would take longer to find a valid key than you care to protect the information. For a product activation key this is harder because there are many valid keys, where as with encryption there is ideally only one.

[cato42]

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Seriously though, brute force attacks are always possible. . . . For a product activation key this is harder because there are many valid keys, where as with encryption there is ideally only one.

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For a product activation key this is harder than what? There aren't too many things that I'll attempt that shall likely take me months or years and millions or billions of attempts--at least--to achieve success. And that's if success is designated only as local key access approval.
Seriously, this isn't even news. Anyone with the wish to do something like this almost certainly already knew it was a possibility. <Yawn.> Somebody wake me up when there's something exciting to report.

[Hawaiian717]

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For a product activation key this is harder than what?

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Finding an encryption key or discovering a hashed password. I suppose "harder" isn't really the right word, since both are essentially the same (keep trying different possibilities until you find one that works). What I meant is since there are many valid keys for activating a product, you're more likely to find one that works sooner than with encryption or hashing where ideally there is only one. Sooner is still a relative term though, where we're dealing with "age of the universe" type time frames either way with sufficiently long key lengths.

[robb1068]

If the tool in question takes longer than my lifespan or to be more accurate, longer than the planet Earth's lifespan to produce a result, that really doesn't sound like a "crack" to me. Sounds like I'd have better luck with a room full of monkeys randomly hitting keys on a keyboard.

[harristype]

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A Web site posted a tool Thursday that can apparently crack Windows Vistas activation process by applying brute force and lots of time to come up with valid product keys. <a href="/news/2007/03/05/vistacrack/index.php">[more]</a>

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Kind of ironic that the Microsoft's programmers put more effort into copy protection than into the security of Vista itself.

[scotts13]

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Kind of ironic that the Microsoft's programmers put more effort into copy protection than into the security of Vista itself.

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Makes all kind of business sense. If the copy protection is cracked, they may have lost a Vista sale. If the legally purchased copy of Vista is insecure, they may sell a copy of Windows Live OneCare.