Vista brute force activation hack is a hoax?

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 5th March 2007

Vista's product activation servers aren't compromised yet, but you can generate valid product keys with the script.

The Vista brute force activation hack that turned up last week may turn out to be a hoax after the creator claimed that the hack was nothing more than a scam.

"Fact is the brute force keygen is a joke, i [sic] never intended for it to work. I have never gotten it to work, everyone should stop using it! Everyone who said they got a key a [sic] probably lying or mistaken!" said the creator.

However, there is a twist... Many sites, including ourselves, reported that the script was an activation keygen hack. In actual fact, it's a script capable of generating valid product keys and you've still got to get past the Microsoft activation servers.

ZDNet blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes claims that it's not quite a cut and dry hoax, as he has been able to generate keys that look like typical Vista keys. While he hasn't used the generated keys to activate his copy of Windows Vista, he believes that the incident may yield some interest in among the hacking / cracking circles.

If product keys can easily be created, there's a chance that activation keys can be too. If and when hackers manage to create activation keys, they're going to have to fool Microsoft's activation servers - who knows how long that's going to take. I'd guess that the chances of that happening aren't favourable to the hackers, and if Microsoft's servers were to be compromised, you can bet that there would be a fix in double time.

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