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The assumption is that they decompiled something and/or performed a classic cryptographic attack against the system and then reverse-engineered it. It is instructive to note that at no point in the paper do the authors describe how they came by their information. The paper is a sort of subtle jab - it supports the notion while demonstrating (without explicitly stating) that Microsoft's implementation is fairly silly and easily circumvented. The authors offer their support to the notion of Product Activation near the end of the paper - not surprising, given that they themselves are in the business of selling licensing technologies.
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For example, one could carefully step through the code looking for the decryption key. However, armed with this knowledge, a malicious hacker (or cracker) would have a much easier time of it. They won't give you the particular decryption key that they used for their research (and, in fact, they don't talk about their research much, and that makes me nervous). They do, however, give a fairly detailed and close explanation of what is going on under the hood. They claim that they are not presenting a complete 'method' for decrypting and encrypting the data fields required by Microsoft's much- heralded 'Windows Product Activation' methods. The authors of this paper have indeed gone to great detail to attempt to avoid legal action on the part of Microsoft. I must confess at the outset that I am an anti-Microsoft ' bigot' and have been for quite some time. Just posting the paper is well and good, but it doesn't add much other than increasing the security of the paper a small bit.
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This Paper is being posted here in an effort to ensure it remains free from the clutches of Microsoft's lawyers. Microsoft will not only be unable to prevent piracy or breaches of the EULA, but they will also make the life of honest users more difficult.
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It seems to me that it's only a matter of time that this system is defeated completely, either by pirated copies of the non-WPA version, or by handy H4x0rs finding a way to generate the registration keys with a key generator. In fact, the pirated version of the non-WPA encumbered XP has been available for some time in Morpheus for example, and the OS isn't officially released yet! Update 21 october, 2001: Well, it didn't take long. How long do you think it takes for this version to be pirated and distributed around the world? To combat this problem, Microsoft plans to issue special versions of the OS, which have the WPA disabled.
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It could be that something as simple as changing a DMA or IRQ setting might be enough to cause the HWID to change.Īnd what of larger companies, say the ones that have around 50,000 computers? According to this scheme they would have to buy 50,000 CD's to install Windows XP to every computer. It should be noted, though, that at this point it's still unclear what hardware features are used to calculate the HWID. If this tolerance is exceeded, you apparently have to phone in to Microsoft's tech support and explain to them just why your system has just changed. Fortunately, Microsoft has implemented a system called "tolerance", which dictates that the HWID is allowed to change to a certain degree. When you install the new board, the HWID also changes, and the the key used to register Windows is now invalid. The HWID is generated based on your hardware, so what if you change that hardware? Suppose you're deeply dissatified with the fact that Quake III only gives 50 fps, and that new GeForce 3 looks mighty fine. The HWID is sent to Microsoft along with a unique Product ID, which came with the CD, and based on these two numbers, they send you back a code you use to register Windows. You then have 30 days to register your copy of Windows via the Net or phone. When you install the OS, it generates a so called Hardware ID (HWID) based on the hardware you have installed. Let's assume you have just bought a new computer without an existing installation of Windows XP. Apparently their goal is to prevent users from using a single CD to install many copies of the software. Windows Product Activation is a technology devised by Microsoft for its new XP products.