[Infowarrior] - Hackers release workaround for Vista's enterprise activation

[Richard Forno]

 Hackers release workaround for Vista's enterprise activation
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/12/8/6229

Back in September, Ars discussed two ways that Microsoft volume licensing
customers could activate Windows Vista. One method, the Multiple Activation
Key (MAK), required that machine keys be authenticated against Microsoft's
servers either through one centralized machine or individually. The second
method, a Key Management Service (KMS), only required a centralized server
that clients could activate against every 180 days. The server itself would
host the keys, not the client machines.

While the KMS is intended to benefit system administrators with several
on-site clients, it turns out that the service may also benefit those
looking to pirate Windows Vista‹at least for now. Reports are circulating
around the web claiming that a group of hackers have used a VMWare image and
a VBS script to simulate a local KMS which can generate valid Vista product
keys. Because Vista's Home and Ultimate editions cannot work with a KMS,
they cannot be pirated. On the other hand, both Enterprise and Business
editions of Vista can easily be activated with the

 "Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates" workaround.

APC Magazine, who first reported on the hack, explains how it works:

    The download is a VMWare image, and the idea behind it is that you
download and install VMWare Player (a legal free download), boot the image
and use some VBS script (supplied with the activation server download) to
have the client Vista machine get its activation from the local server. And
that's it ‹ no communication back to Microsoft.

Although this hack shows that Vista can be tricked into activating, it is
still just a workaround for enterprise activation. Ultimately, I have to
believe that Microsoft will find a way to prevent this from happening in the
future. Plus, even a system activated with this method must be reactivated
every 180 days and cannot go through any sort of Windows Genuine Advantage
check without some tampering.

Not to downplay the fact that there is now a way to pirate Vista, but in
some ways, Microsoft should be happy that someone had to create a KMS in
order to fool Vista into activating. Inevitably, Vista's product activation
was going to be circumvented. To quote APC's James Bannan, "the fact that
it's taken the acquisition of a KMS server shows that Vista activation is
still holding strong in its own right." Would you agree?