Windows Vista "Brute Force Keygen" a hoax

engadget.com — It sounded too good to be true, and it turns out it was. KezNews forum frequenter "Computer User" confessed last night that his Brute Force Keygen hack for Windows Vista is a scam. "Fact is the brute force keygen is a joke, i never intended for it to work. I have never gotten it to work, everyone should stop using it! Mar 3, 2007 View in Crawl 4

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mobilehavoc Mar 4, 2007

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I find it ironic that with all the anti-Microsoft sentiment out there, people get very excited about there being a way for them to use Microsoft's newest OS on their systems. Actions speak louder than words.

dacheetah Mar 4, 2007

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I'd give slightly better odds than that...For a start, windows codes do not use O or 0, since they are so easily confused. (Or at least of the several dozen legal codes I've seen, and dozens more illegal codes for XP, I've never seen a single O or 0)That means our base pool is ont 34^25 = 1.93630125 x10^38I'd also suggest that there may be a larger valid pool as well, they'll need to make sure they have sufficient keys so that they can easily differentiate between the 37 difference standard licences (Home [basic|premium][standard|oem|academic], etc...), as well as the fact that there will be bad (blacklisted, or otherwise broken) keys, I'd say they'd have at least 5,000,000,000 (not a big difference in the long run).So I'd say the overall chance is closer to 2.58224282 x10 ^-29.(or 1 in 258,224,282,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)But unlike the lottery, you can generate these at a much higher rate than you could afford to buy lottery tickets.There is a small, but real chance that someone will find a working key of some sort.

teabagger Mar 4, 2007

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I think it is real (though improbable) but the guy is suffering from a Microsoft driven sphincter clench...He sphincter is telling him to run like Brave Sir Robin....

Closed Account Mar 4, 2007

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lol paradox FTW

cquinnd Mar 4, 2007

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One question I have not seen asked in all this debate and review, is this a linear attack or a random one? If it is a random one, then the arguments about the time it is possible to take to generate what seems like a valid key can be taken more into consideration (especially if MS bothered to log the keys they have actually distributed so far; and flag any that fall into the "valid" range, but have otherwise not been sent out to any customers).If it is a linear attack (starting at 0 for each key and working up) then the people finding a "valid keys" or two are also probably finding the same keys over and over again. Which is also going to trigger some flags when activated.

quadcore Mar 4, 2007

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Didnt I tell you? Hah!

dagooh Mar 5, 2007

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For the first time it pays off to be lazy and not try stuff the minute it beaks the news.Now off to not try the paradox crack even if it probably works.

Closed Account Mar 5, 2007