gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » vista-brute-force http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:32:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Got no Vista key ? Bruteforce one !http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/02/got-no-vista-key-bruteforce-one/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/02/got-no-vista-key-bruteforce-one/#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:13:44 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/02/got-no-vista-key-bruteforce-one/ As if it would not be easy enough to circumvent the activation of Windows Vista some clever guys managed to bruteforce working Windows Vista keys. Bruteforcing simply means that the script is testing about 20000 keys per hour changing the product key to a possible working one if one is found. I’m not sure why Microsoft has no protection against this kind of attack but they surely will add some sort of protection soon – something in the like of banning IPs that check more than x keys per minute.

It seems that the process requires to replace the Software License Manager for Windows Vista – slmgr.vbs – with an altered version that makes the process possible. It is currently not possible to download the needed files from the website that published the method first. The forum does not accept new registrations at this point and the main page contains only a summary of the process without a download link.

I personally think that it is interesting that this method is working at all but would advise everyone to be very cautious about it.

source: keznews.com

Update:

Adrian corrected my assumption that the bruteforce attack would hammer Microsoft servers to check the keys. This is apparently not the case. Keys are generated on the local pc and the user has to try the activation with the key manually. This is the only time the Microsoft server is contacted.

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