Method to Bruteforce Vista key a hoax - kinda

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 3, 2007
Updated • May 30, 2013
Windows, Windows Vista
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Yesterday's news about a brute force program to generate Windows Vista product keys sounded like it could become a big issue for Microsoft. A program was created to generate and test Windows Vista product keys that could then be used to activate the operating system.

If true, it could have devastating consequences as it would enable anyone to generate and use product keys without paying for the product. The real danger here was commercial product piracy  as it could mean that pirates could ship copied versions of the Windows Vista operating system with legit working keys.Home users too would be able to use the program to brute force a key to validate their version of the operating system with a valid product key without having paid for it.

The author of the key-gen admitted today that the method that he posted was a hoax, sort of. While the method is indeed working, he admitted that the finding of genuine keys takes too long using it. He did not go into details here so that we do not know how long it takes on average to generate a working product key, but he made it very clear that it is not a practicable solution at all.

The question remains why the author admitted the hoax just one day after publishing the method.He mentioned that he did not want to risk a lawsuit which I think is understandable considering that Microsoft would have done anything to prevent the program from spreading further if it would generate valid product keys in little time.

It is not really clear how long it takes to find a valid product license key for Vista, or other versions of Windows for that matter. Some users might be inclined to give it a try nevertheless as it can very well happen that they are lucky and find a valid key fast.

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