Brendon Posted March 1, 2007 Report Share Posted March 1, 2007 IT LOOKS LIKE Microsoft's unhackable OS activation malware has been hacked. There is an active thread at the Keznews forums (account needed), and a summary on its main page about the crack. The method of attack has got to be quite troubling for MS on many grounds. The crack is a glorified guesser, and with the speed of modern PCs and the number of outstanding keys, the 25-digit serials are within range. The biggest problem for MS? If this gets widespread, and I hope it will, people will start activating legit keys that are owned by other people It won't take long for boxes bought at retail to be activated before they are bought, and the people who plunk down money for the mal^h^h^hsoftware for real get 'you are a filthy pirate' messages. Won't that be a laugh riot at the MS phone banks in Bangalore. Article HERE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDWAGON Posted March 1, 2007 Report Share Posted March 1, 2007 Talk about having nothing more to do than clicking on numbers ???? This has to be one of the dumbest types of hacks I have ever read about But i'm sure there will be many that will actually try it. Frank... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Highlander Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Talk about having nothing more to do than clicking on numbers ???? This has to be one of the dumbest types of hacks I have ever read about But i'm sure there will be many that will actually try it. Frank... man you should see the comments over this around, up and over 6 hours to get a key?, screw that, and also most virus tools say the download of the script has a pup virus in it to, who knows if it works?, but I'm sure there will now be a fast auto update to close that hole, Id say use at your own risk, and I'm sure it will end up being a Trojan or something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gi7omy Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 At a guess I'd say 6 hours per key (which mightn't work being already activated) is a shade optimistic. You have to remember that MS keys aren't 25 digits but 25 characters - 25 digits (0-9) have 10 to the power 25 possibilities (1 with 25 zeroes after it), but the MS keys are A-Z plus 0 - 9 - that makes 36 to the power 25 (and I'll leave that calculation to anyone with more time than sense) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malatekid Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 At a guess I'd say 6 hours per key (which mightn't work being already activated) is a shade optimistic. You have to remember that MS keys aren't 25 digits but 25 characters - 25 digits (0-9) have 10 to the power 25 possibilities (1 with 25 zeroes after it), but the MS keys are A-Z plus 0 - 9 - that makes 36 to the power 25 (and I'll leave that calculation to anyone with more time than sense) The number of possibilities enumerated above includes repetition of the same number or character. For example, the combination "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" is included in that count. If such combination is not included, the total count is really 36 less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gi7omy Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 True oh wise one - there are also other combinations that won't be used - like ABCDE-FGHIJ.... etc However - brute force algorithms will start at 00000... and work up to ZZZZZZ.... (whether the output is nonsense or not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerman Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Geez, math so early in my day. Let me find my calculator. I can't believe anyone would trust a hacked version of an OS. If you're going to steal software, steal something that has very little chance of halting your system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gi7omy Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Oh the OS itself isn't hacked Paul - just the key Anyway, hacked or not, I never really did trust doze - if I need to do something that I want real security for, I reboot into my nice, fast, locked down Gentoo Linux Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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