Windows Vista Keygen a Hoax

[ThePitt]

The author of the Windows Vista keygen that was reported yesterday has admitted that the program does not actually work. Here is the initial announcement of the original release of the keygen, and here is the followup post in which the same author acknowledges that the program is fake. Apparently, the keygen program does legitimately attack Windows Vista keys via brute force, but the chances of success are too low for this to be a practical method. Quote from the author: 'Everyone who said they got a key is probably lying or mistaken!

Source removed due to warez.

Edited March 3, 2007 by shockz

[.Neo]

awwwwwwwww :p

[Smigit]

he isnt just covering his own back now is he? This comes after he said the "exploit" was discovered as an accident while he practiced his coding *cough*

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

hahaha

Yeah brute force will work, but it will take forever, it would be quicker to get a job delivering pizza's and earn enough to buy it legally.

[br_]

technically, it could theoretically get the right key the first time it tries it and could theoretically get the right key in a year. the reason why it because it uses random keys and just sees if they work. the chances, however, of it working are very slim. the reason why is because it tests all letters a-z and all numbers 0-9 (last i checked. the product keys don't use all of those so it might've been modified not to). that gives it 36²⁵=808281277000000000000000000000000000000 possible keys. now it's not gonna test them all, but at least an xp key has many less characters. iirc, it only uses 26, so that means 26²⁵=236773830000000000000000000000000000 combinations. it's a much smaller number. that leaves us with 808044503000000000000000000000000000000 keys that, if vista uses the same character set as xp, are definitely invalid. if it's left to run forever, however it will check them. not only that, but it's much more complex than just having the right letters, of course, so there's not nearly that many valid keys, making the number of invalid ones much bigger.

[Larney]

There are OEM "hacks" coming out now anyway so some worthless little bruteforce keygen is quickly going to become unpopular.

[gertin]

There are OEM "hacks" coming out now anyway so some worthless little bruteforce keygen is quickly going to become unpopular.

The OEM hack is also 100% working and it only takes like 5 minutes to apply it. Vista even passes WGA afterwards.

[XerXis]

yeah well, who believed that anyways :p

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

the "bruteforce" crack is a fake... not that i have been researching or anything

[jamend]

technically, it could theoretically get the right key the first time it tries it and could theoretically get the right key in a year. the reason why it because it uses random keys and just sees if they work. the chances, however, of it working are very slim. the reason why is because it tests all letters a-z and all numbers 0-9 (last i checked. the product keys don't use all of those so it might've been modified not to). that gives it 36²⁵=808281277000000000000000000000000000000 possible keys. now it's not gonna test them all, but at least an xp key has many less characters. iirc, it only uses 26, so that means 26²⁵=236773830000000000000000000000000000 combinations. it's a much smaller number. that leaves us with 808044503000000000000000000000000000000 keys that, if vista uses the same character set as xp, are definitely invalid. if it's left to run forever, however it will check them. not only that, but it's much more complex than just having the right letters, of course, so there's not nearly that many valid keys, making the number of invalid ones much bigger.

There are only 24 possible characters per digit in a Vista key, so it's more like.

24^25 = 3.20096586 * 10^34

[zzap]

Why would users report that they tried and successfully got the key if they didn't? I wouldn't see the point of users lying about it.

[Olemus]

Why are people boggling my mind with maths ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh run away mathss

[Toology]

Why would users report that they tried and successfully got the key if they didn't? I wouldn't see the point of users lying about it.

They could lie just be be bragging pricks. "OLOOL!!!111! iN j00r f4c3 m$11!!!" It's sad but it's very probable.

[zzap]

Bragging that they used someone else's method and it worked? I don't really see anything to brag about there... but you're probably right.

[Malisk]

Heh, I thought it sounded weird in that other thread where I brought up the math example... There's just so insanely many combinations with these characters and one of 36 (26+10) values for each character, that the few MS may have actually activated is like a drop in the ocean.

There are only 24 possible characters per digit in a Vista key, so it's more like.

24^25 = 3.20096586 * 10^34

Hm, do they only use 14-16 letters in the alphabet or so? I can imagine 0 and 1 of the digits are skipped due to similarity with O and I.

[Trong]

Heh, I thought it sounded weird in that other thread where I brought up the math example... There's just so insanely many combinations with these characters and one of 36 (26+10) values for each character, that the few MS may have actually activated is like a drop in the ocean.

There's 26 letters (uppercase A-Z), and then you have 0-9 for 10 more, for 36 in total.

At least the keys I've seen seem to suggest there can be either of A-Z and either of 0-9 in any position.

No, MS doesn't use all of them. I know they seem to like Z and Q a lot though.

[MrCobra]

There are OEM "hacks" coming out now anyway so some worthless little bruteforce keygen is quickly going to become unpopular.

The OEM hack is also 100% working and it only takes like 5 minutes to apply it. Vista even passes WGA afterwards.

All you need is a modified BIOS with the proper id tables applied to it, an OEM key and the OEM license file from the disc and it passes WGA and doesn't even need to be activated.

[Malisk]

No, MS doesn't use all of them. I know they seem to like Z and Q a lot though.

OK, so they only use around 14-16 letters or so; like half the alphabet?

Because they definitely use a number of digits. I can imagine 0 and 1 are skipped however.

[pikablu0530]

All you need is a modified BIOS with the proper id tables applied to it, an OEM key and the OEM license file from the disc and it passes WGA and doesn't even need to be activated.

Actually the latest OEM "hack" doesn't require actual modifications to the BIOS, it loads an OEM BIOS environment at boot. However it seems like it doesn't like laptops.

[amrinders87]

All you need is a modified BIOS with the proper id tables applied to it, an OEM key and the OEM license file from the disc and it passes WGA and doesn't even need to be activated.

OEM requires a license file? I thought it was just like usual, but difference license terms. Is the license so manufacturers like HP, Dell, etc. do not have to activate?

[MrCobra]

OEM requires a license file? I thought it was just like usual, but difference license terms. Is the license so manufacturers like HP, Dell, etc. do not have to activate?

Yep. It works the same as if you had bought a Dell or another OEM system that doesn't need activation on the end users part.

[Leo Natan]

Actually the latest OEM "hack" doesn't require actual modifications to the BIOS, it loads an OEM BIOS environment at boot. However it seems like it doesn't like laptops.

That method also disables floppy disk drive...

New method installs a driver and fools Vista into thinking you have the required BIOS table.

[NoneAvail]

Ahh, this seems like a BIG one for Microsoft, First Time Stop thingy, and now this one.

I guess the pirates are always ahead of us.

I'm happy I have a legit Key and Don't have to worry about this. It's a big hassle if your trying to use a pirated software, one day it works, the next day, your system won't boot.

Edit: wrong Topic to post at... lol... I was going to post one in the OEM thingy.

[Tantawi]

I knew it :p