Vista OEM Validation Cracked

[Geoff]

The Inquirer reports that cracking group PARADOX has cracked Vista's activation model. The new crack results in an installation virtually identical to that of a legitimately activated license key, which means that cracked installs are eligible for Windows Updates and will pass WGA validation. From the readme:

Microsoft allows large hardware manufacturers (e.g. ASUS, HP, Dell) to ship their products containing a Windows Vista installation that does NOT require any kind of product activation as this might be considered an unnecessary inconvenience for the end-user. The basic concept of the tool at hand is to present any given BIOS ACPI_SLIC information to Windows Vista's licensing mechanism by means of a device driver. In combination with a matching product key and OEM certificate this allows for rendering any system practically indistinguishable from a legit pre-activated system shipped by the respective OEM.

[CyberNerd]

I'm sure this was a hoax?
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/03/1339209

[Midget]

PARADOX are an old school cracking group, I'm not suprised that they were one of the first to release a REAL solution to the Vista Activation problem.

[Geoff]

That's a different story to this one.

[CyberNerd]

it was all from the keznews forum, so I assumed the same exploit.

yeah PARADOX,Oracle,Fairlight - I had some good contax in my 1337 amiga days.

[Geoff]

The keznews forum is just a place where these hacks seem to get announced first.