WinXP product activation cracked: totally, horribly, fatally

I wonder how much sleep the XP development team is getting these days? <g>

WinXP product activation cracked: totally, horribly, fatally <http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20433.html>

With WinXP (and OfficeXP) giving your code to someone else is pointless anyway as it only works on your PC and even then it changes if you change any of the hardware. You may only need to re-enter the code if you change 4 parts of your hardware but the code will still be different if you

By 'code' I meant the CD-key. The CD-key is always the same, and if you activate over the internet then you need not call anyone.

Read the article that the Register link points to.

Hardly a valid example. Joe Sixpack doesn't use Windows 2000.

79.84% of all statistics are made up on the spot. The other 42% are made up later on. In Warwick - looking at flat fields and that includes the castle.

Actually, those savvy, professional pirates are exactly the type of hackers you want to stop, not the casual ones.

I Was a bit confused if this applies to both office and XP or just one of them. Does any one know?

: > : > WinXP product activation cracked: totally, horribly, fatally : ><http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20433.html> : >

: From the article:- : Tecchannel's report available in English here, or in German here) : demonstrates that WPA can be compromised via numerous hardware-related : routes; it all centres on the file wpa.dbl, which WinXP keeps in the : system32 directory. : This file stores information on the nature of the hardware at the time : of activation, and when Windows XP notices more than three items of : hardware have changed, it deletes it. Then you need to activate again. : You'll also, Tecchannel notes, need to activate immediately if you : installed more than 30 days (or 14 with RC1) ago, as that's when the : clock starts ticking. This, incidentally, is also the case if you do a : 'repair' to fix a bust system - not exactly friendly. : So first of all Tecchannel saved the file then started changing : hardware. Two items OK, but replacing a third - the CPU - triggered : the deletion. Although you'd think the CPU is only one component, it's : actually tallied up as two. : ^^^

I don't use windows at home, but could someone tell me if I had some hardware as my friend could I use his key?

No, because certain pieces of hardware have unique ID's, such as Hard drives and cd-roms and network cards.

OK, I understand now and yes you are correct but I expect some hacker will be able to either bypass CD key entry or make a CD-Key creation program (assuming they haven't already done this).

I expect internet actications to be logged and restricted to a certain number or re-activations before failing ( it may even pass an encrypted CD key as part of the hardware code sent back to MS).