This week, Microsoft began requiring customers to validate their copies of Windows in order to use their Windows Update service. Crackers responded by circumventing the check and within days.
Windows Genuine Advantage Cracked
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Adam Scheinberg
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These crackers are getting faster and faster.
You dont need to ctack GA, you can simply disable it on IE…
here
http://home19.inet.tele.dk/jys05000/
🙂
no more comments………………………………….
If people want to steal your product, they’re going to steal it one way or the other.
Considering how easy it was to circumvent Microsofts GA, how can anyone trust the company to deliver genuine security on current and upcoming operating systems.
That’s only one of the cracks. There was another one released a couple of days ago.
it was either deliberately easy – for the usual reason that MS would prefer people to use pirated windows than something not windows.
or it was yet another security blunder of disturbingly huge proportions.
personally i go with cock-up every time.
MS just don’t ‘get it’ about security – if the company focussed on producing good product instead of making money in the short term things might improve – but then again – monopolies are notorious for producing crap – what we have here is the trabant of operating systems!
it was either deliberately easy – for the usual reason that MS would prefer people to use pirated windows than something not windows.
Or maybe MS did it that way so they can find out who has disabled the GA and then send the feds to their house in the middle of the night
I assure you … whatever the reason is, it was not made so easily cracked on purpose.
Hey, we can all get a good laugh at the lack of security with M$ or the ease at which the protection can be cracked, but remember this:
Software piracy is wrong, software piracy is illegal, software piracy harms free and open source software.
That’s right, if you or your friends or families use pirated software that means you are a) breaking the law and b) not using free and open source software.
So, pay up or preferably join the free and open source software revolution.
I agree. Whether or not you’re a Microsoft fan, stealing is stealing.
However, I do find the whole validation / product activation thing a real pain. IMHO ther are legitimate reasons for running software that fails these validations. Several that I have come across in my professional life include:
1) Lost installation media and activation codes.
2) Badly configured PCs supplied with system restore disks rather than original media.
3) No media whatsoever supplied with a PC.
4) Code on sticker on side of PC that does not match the installation media available at client]s site – eg. OEM code, retail media.
For some reason, my current desktop machine fails the validation for reasons that completely escape me. I installed it myself from legal media with a proper activation code. I emailed Microsoft about this, but their response was just to thank me for my comments!
So, I expect I will start digging around on the hackers sites for a hack any day now…
-Kramii.
Piracy is wrong and illegal however, stealing is not all the same.
The argument to consider Intellectual Property copying stealing is dependant on proving that there is lost value from the owning party. To prove this, most argue that since you pirated it you won’t buy it: Very true. However, would you have bought it had you not pirated it? Many argue that yes, you wanted it, and since we’re in a fairy tale land where people buy all that they would like if it were free then yes the owning party lost a sale from your piracy.
However, if this were true, the Record Companies would probably all own their own countries by now because they’d be so fabulously wealthy
.
But, in reality, and this can be statistically shown, people do not buy all that they pirate. Therefore, there is no one-to-one gain to loss ratio like there is with physical theft: So, the loss to society is different and therefore the crime is different.
Stealing is not stealing.
Q.E.D. (This isn’t really a very complete proof, but there have been more complete proofs along these lines written; and this is a news forum not a court room or published paper.)
There is also another reason I can think of: you bought your computer in the country where you lived. Then you moved to another country where they speak a different language and you want to sell your computer: How do you solve this problem?
(unless of course you sell it to somebody who wants to use an open source OS)
It remembers me how easy the other guy cracked Apple’s iTunes DRM. How can you trust a company that gets cracked to easy like Apple?
It remembers me how easy the other guy cracked Apple’s iTunes DRM.
That wasn’t that easy as you are trying to make it look.Everything is possible and depends on your subject knowledge and programming skills.But it’s a big difference if you have to write a program yourself or in the WGA case de facto only have to feed GreaseMonkey a few script lines.
Wont this bypass stop more people from giving linux a chance?
Probably not. If someone wants to pirate Windows they’d probably use it without updates if no hack was found.
For giants like Microsoft, Piracy is one of the best ways to advertise their products and make everybody adopt it.
For some reason, my current desktop machine fails the validation for reasons that completely escape me. I installed it myself from legal media with a proper activation code.
Have you tried to call the MS toll-free number?You only have to provide the operator your product code and you get a activation code.I had to do that once when i went amd64 (different mobo!).
Look who posted the crack on BooingBooing. It was Cory Doctorow the Canadian science fiction writer and European representative of the EFF.
The only reason I used a cracked version of windows for so long, before actually buying is due to the fact my family simply can’t afford to plunk down $100 for a new os every couple of years. Microsoft charges a ridiculous amount for their office program as well.
Thank god you don’t use Apple otherwise you would be spending 100$ every year for incremental updates…
“The only reason I used a cracked version of windows for so long, before actually buying is due to the fact my family simply can’t afford to plunk down $100 for a new os every couple of years. Microsoft charges a ridiculous amount for their office program as well.”
So use an alternative. There are MANY free/free OS’s and Office suites out there. And anyone who has the tech-savvy to find and use a key-cracker without losing their system to malware can install a new OS/software.
I can’t afford to watch a movie every week (DO you know how many films are released each month?? How am I meant to keep up??) so I sneak into cinemas. Oh, no I don’t, I save up, I miss some films, and I watch cheaper films and TV films.
I don;t understand people who think “I can’t afford it so I abuse the system” is an excuse. It is their reason, but it does not excuse them from their wrong behaviour.
and Vista is the Next
Microsoft can make their update secure if they want to. They could do tons of other things that would bring the Feds directly to your door. But the purpose of this change is not to catch consumers who knowingly installed a pirated version of Windows. The purpose of this simple verification process is to catch resellers who preinstall pirated versions or bundle fake versions (that look extremely authentic) of Windows with new PCs. In these cases, the consumer believes they are using a legitimate copy of Windows while they are not. They will go to the Microsoft website and see that the reseller ripped them off.
The only thing that gets accomplished by DRM, whether Apple’s FairPlay or MS’s Genuine Advantage, or copy protection on CD/DVD is to inconvenience legal users. It does not slow the copyright violators (I won’t call them pirates) down, it simply becomes a pain to use what I own the license to in a fair and legal manner.
I’m thinking that the vast majority of Windows users will not know about this crack. It works fine, but compared to the “regular” user, to the OSNews and other computer site crowd, people “out there” won’t even know about this. MS will have already put the pressure on the magazines not to publish it, and MOST people don’t read computer magazines.
I’m pretty sure that MS doesn’t even care. OF course, they MIGHT find a way to fix THIS thing and then someone will have to find a crack the same day again!
Just put KDE 3.4.2 in and it works great, if anyone wants to know (suse 9.3).
That’s true. About three fixes to three cracks and it becomes far too confusing for 99% of people; which is what Microsoft wants. I don’t think they care about intelligent pirates, they’re concerned about casual pirates. Intelligent pirates are actually beneficial to them. They’re the kid down the street who “knows computers.” Microsoft doesn’t want to lose (I hope) the kid down the street. They want to keep the kid down the street from helping all his neighbours not pay; but they still want to keep that “Windows community” going.
I think even more importantly, they want to stop piracy in other countries… Whole companies who’ve pirated all their copies of Windows and Office. That’s what really hurts their pocket book.
if those damn stupid no-good so-called ‘hackers’ would write some useful Open Source software, instead of cracking Microsoft’s silly protections.
Thank god they aren’t my children (luckily I’m too young for that anyway).
No one is going to switch to Linux because of this. Sorry.
I know it’s hard for most of you to belive… but for most people, a minute sitting in front of a computer is a minute wasted. Most people don’t want to spend the time to learn a new OS and learn all of the free versions of the programs they’re familiar with on Windows.
Remember, this is how normal people think:
Why learn Linux when you can just use Windows for free?
Why learn new programs when I already know how to use MS Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, AutoCAD, and whatever else people use?
Why learn new programs when I already paid good money for the programs I have? (or why use free programs when I’m already using pirated versions for free)
Why learn a new OS and it’s programs when I can go out and meet girls, go to baseball games, hang with friends, read a book, etc.?
So why are they switching to Mac and firefox?
Why[1-4].?
You have to call someone for assistance to many.
My parents got an exeptual high telephone bill lately while they haven’t broken their usual calling pattern.Me being fed-up with administrating and maintaining windows installed Linux with a hardened kernel+toolchain and a set of very restrictive firewall rules.Additional i recommended them to get a low budget asdl subscription as well instead of their current 56k modem.The only thing i told them was to put the machine on once in a while on x am or pm in order for the box to get in sync.
Voila,chances are reasonable i’m on vacation as their admin for a few years to come:-)
-Good installed and hardened Linux system is very durable,that’s at least as important as a durable hardware,case.-
WGA was made so I couldn’t install IE7 under Crossover. When is there going to be a crack so Crossover reports that it is a Genuine version of XP?
When is there going to be a crack so Crossover reports that it is a Genuine version of XP?
With what can you alter what’s being reported.Thank god for the client-side apps and java-scripts.
They should pay us. If it was not for them, we could have been getting BeOS with every Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, etc that we bought. By force, they kept alternatives out of the market and forced us all into submission.
Therefore M$ should pay us everytime Winblows says it can not delete a file because it is being used by another program, as well as all other major bugs that should have been fixed 15 years ago.
No one is switching to Mac either, at least not in the real world.
Firefox is a totally completely 100% different story in every possible way… and they’re not switcing because of Genuine Advantage.
Firefox requires absolutely no effort to learn aside from downloading and installing it. People are using it because they’re tired of adware/spyware… so at least it solves a REAL problem instead of just catering to Microsoft hating dorks and their ideals.
My parents got an exeptual high telephone bill lately while they haven’t broken their usual calling pattern.Me being fed-up with administrating and maintaining windows installed Linux with a hardened kernel+toolchain and a set of very restrictive firewall rules.
Great, maybe you could come over to my house and do the same thing
Any OS is a breeze when you have a guru to set it up and/or show you how to use it. Probably, Linux gurus aren’t that easy to come by.
“Any OS is a breeze when you have a guru to set it up and/or show you how to use it. Probably, Linux gurus aren’t that easy to come by.”
Not that I consider myself a guru, but my experience is the opposite: I offer people to install and mantain linux for them: at the best they are lukewarm, at the worst they don’t want to know.
Unless you’re a total retard you’re either using a PC with Linux or BSD or switched to Macs years ago. Only a complete idiot would use Windows.
What’s the point of this crack if only SP1 and SP2 users are receiving security updates????
As far as i know, Service Packs cannot be installed on machines with invalid keys. And, if they are not installed, security updates don’t appear on WindowsUpdate.
Does anybody know if this problem can be circumvented?
Service Packs can be installed on XP machines that have
generated Volume License Keys. Windows Genuine Advantage flags these as invalid also.