Indian Shackles Microsoft's Anti-Piracy Program

cxotoday ^ | Jun 21, 2005

[phoenix_004]

Indian researcher, Debasis Mohanty has cracked Microsoft' much touted, impenetrable Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal copies of the Windows XP programme.

Mohanty has published a detailed proof of concept PoC on how Microsoft WGA validation check can be defeated.

This PoC explains how Microsoft WGA validation check can be defeated and any Microsoft product with the WGA validation feature can be run and installed on machines running pirated copy of Windows XP.

To bypass WGA validation check, one can run "GenuineCheck.exe" file on a machine running a copy of an authentic Windows XP for generating a key code. This key code generated on the machine running genuine copy of Win XP can be used to circumvent the WGA check on the machine running a pirated copy of Win XP.

Microsoft in its reply to Mohanty's mail specified that "The generated code is partly made up of a timestamp, which would prevent use after a short period".

However, he checked this on a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro and installed couple of public beta products and tools for testing purpose. They are still up and running since past 1.5 months.

[evolved_rage]

"The generated code is partly made up of a timestamp, which would prevent use after a short period".

Heh heh...timestamp....LOL.

[dglang]

I think Windows itself has been timestamped for many years to stop working at random intervals.