Technology Hackers claim to have cracked Microsoft's software licensing protection almost entirely

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.ghacks.net/2024/11/30/hackers-claim-to-have-cracked-microsofts-software-licensing-protection/

A team of hackers claim that they have cracked "almost the entire Windows / Office software licensing protection". The breakthrough allows them to activate "almost any version of Windows and Office" permanently.

Windows and Office installations require activation. This may happen behind the scene or when users enter product keys.

Workarounds and hacks have been available for a long time. One popular choice requires running a single line of instructions from a PowerShell prompt to activate Windows 8 or later, or Office.

The creators of the solution claim now that they have found ways to extend this to even more Windows and Office products.

Hackers claim to have cracked Microsoft's software licensing protection almost entirely - gHacks Tech News

Hackers have claimed that they have broken almost all of Microsoft's entire activation system for Windows and Office.

www.ghacks.net

 

[Dave Russo]

The cost of Microsoft 360 has been a bummer for me as I have contemplated a alternative or just dropping it as a renewal cost is in January, now with this news I am baffled, advice is appreciated, Thanks

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I bought my Microsoft 365 Family licence from a third-party reseller in The Netherlands for € 57.90, a better price than the € 99.00 that Microsoft charges.

 

[Marko :)]

And let me guess... Microsoft will do—nothing.

Microsoft is well aware of loopholes in their activation system which have been abused way before Windows 10 was released. They are well aware of MAS, it's hosted on GitHub which is owned by them. The entire script package is well documented on their website and is completely open source, so if Microsoft ever wanted to close the loophole, they could without any hassle. They could also suspend the developer's GitHub and issue cease-and-desist, but they haven't done a single thing. Not even issue a warning.

The funniest thing: Microsoft support uses MAS themselves to activate Windows on troubled PCs.

Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails

In an unexpected twist, a Microsoft support engineer resorted to running an unofficial 'crack' on a customer's Windows PC after a genuine copy of the operating system failed to activate normally. It seems, this isn't the first time either that a Microsoft support professional has employed such...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

So yeah... not gonna happen. Microsoft allows this because they want to keep their marketshare and for people to have legit version of Windows, even if they can't afford it. Don't get me wrong; they still earn money from sponsored apps and ads that come with every Windows installation. They just eased their activation system because now, instead of one-time payment, Microsoft has constant money flow, even from pirated users thus the reason why they don't care. Beside, majority of Microsoft's revenue comes from business users, not home users.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

And let me guess... Microsoft will do—nothing.

Microsoft is well aware of loopholes in their activation system which have been abused way before Windows 10 was released. They are well aware of MAS, it's hosted on GitHub which is owned by them. The entire script package is well documented on their website and is completely open source, so if Microsoft ever wanted to close the loophole, they could without any hassle. They could also suspend the developer's GitHub and issue cease-and-desist, but they haven't done a single thing. Not even issue a warning.

The funniest thing: Microsoft support uses MAS themselves to activate Windows on troubled PCs.

Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails

In an unexpected twist, a Microsoft support engineer resorted to running an unofficial 'crack' on a customer's Windows PC after a genuine copy of the operating system failed to activate normally. It seems, this isn't the first time either that a Microsoft support professional has employed such...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

So yeah... not gonna happen. Microsoft allows this because they want to keep their marketshare and for people to have legit version of Windows, even if they can't afford it. Don't get me wrong; they still earn money from sponsored apps and ads that come with every Windows installation. They just eased their activation system because now, instead of one-time payment, Microsoft has constant money flow, even from pirated users thus the reason why they don't care. Beside, majority of Microsoft's revenue comes from business users, not home users.

Now it will be simpler for Microsoft employees to active by phone XD

 

[RRlight]

Ok, the easiest way to understand this if I got it right: an extension/generalization of the current MAS method so that it can be applied to more versions and more possibilities.

 

[bazang]

Microsoft's licensing model supports terrorism and cyber criminals. Terrorists and cyber criminals just love that Microsoft does not disable hacked instances of its software.

For software such as Linux OS, the community has long been aware that terrorists and cyber criminals use everything in the FOSS space, but those communities are willing to accept it in the name of "Individual Digital Rights."

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Microsoft's licensing model supports terrorism and cyber criminals. Terrorists and cyber criminals just love that Microsoft does not disable hacked instances of its software.

For software such as Linux OS, the community has long been aware that terrorists and cyber criminals use everything in the FOSS space, but those communities are willing to accept it in the name of "Individual Digital Rights."

Not sure how the licensing supports terrorists if it wasn't free by piracy they would have used a different os anyway and it's known they usually use more secure measures of communication even at one time I remember console was used by some terrorists as mean of communication But that's usually terrorists in the west world The ones close to Israel use stuff like pagers , encrypted walkie-talkie (didn't work well ) and those in Gaza that have more experience with Isreal have reduced a lot the use of tech for a lot of the communication but they still use and idf have access to all the communication via a radio frequency no matter how much encryption terrorists use
Btw governments to this day use Israeli tech to hack iphones ,PCs etc
So it doesn't matter what os or encryption they use anything done remotely will be accessible to government sponsored attack especially ones that have the knowledge to break into the most secure systems (Israel hacked nuclear sites , Kaspersky labs and many more diffuclt targets many may never be known because of self termination algorithm)

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Microsoft's licensing model supports terrorism and cyber criminals. Terrorists and cyber criminals just love that Microsoft does not disable hacked instances of its software.

For software such as Linux OS, the community has long been aware that terrorists and cyber criminals use everything in the FOSS space, but those communities are willing to accept it in the name of "Individual Digital Rights."

If there wasn't a way to pirate Microsoft products people would have moved to ther os systems like hackintosh , Linux , chrome os and a small percentage of those that used to pirate windows would actually pay a license

Only reason I use a licensed version of windows is because it came with my pc and I don't have an issue with using other os systems I have used a little Mac os and did use for like a year plus Linux on my main PC (actually loved that it uses bash the same language I always used on my iphones terminal and some of the directorys are somewhat similar as gnu is a bsd copy and iOS is kinda based on bsd fork )

 

[TairikuOkami]

Illegally activating products was never an issue, keeping the account active is. MS can simple ban the account and remove all the files without notice. Good luck with that.
I had a few games removed from steam activated using cheap keys, but since I finished playing them, no problem, but I would never buy a cheap valve key from 3rd party.

 

[bazang]

If there wasn't a way to pirate Microsoft products people would have moved to ther os systems like hackintosh , Linux , chrome os and a small percentage of those that used to pirate windows would actually pay a license

People that pirate any software are criminals and they should be pursued and prosecuted as criminals.

The FOSS community is anti-establishment and many of the members support terrorism.

 

[zidong]

Steam now shows that you don't own games
When I pirate games/software, I technically don't steal them. I am just borrowing the license.

HWID activation survives OS reinstall and BIOS flash.

 

[Marko :)]

Microsoft's licensing model supports terrorism and cyber criminals. Terrorists and cyber criminals just love that Microsoft does not disable hacked instances of its software.

For software such as Linux OS, the community has long been aware that terrorists and cyber criminals use everything in the FOSS space, but those communities are willing to accept it in the name of "Individual Digital Rights."

So Signal supports terrorism and cyber criminals because they support encryption? Tor Project was literally created by the US army, does that mean the US army supports terrorists and criminals?

Just because criminals use something, doesn't mean the owners and the developers of the product support them. There's always a trade off; it's impossible to make an app secure and private at the same time.

We can make every app unsecure, unecrypted and criminals may still get away with the crime(s). But that's not even the major problem here. It would be employees having access to messages from ALL users, including the ones that didn't commit any crime. And there were a billion cases of this being abused.

Illegally activating products was never an issue, keeping the account active is. MS can simple ban the account and remove all the files without notice. Good luck with that.

This is why you should never login with your real account on pirated product. NEVER. Make a different account you are ready to lose, or just use the product without any accounts.

I had a few games removed from steam activated using cheap keys, but since I finished playing them, no problem, but I would never buy a cheap valve key from 3rd party.

Were they used keys in question? In the EU, it's completely legal to sell used license keys, so if it was, you should have contacted Steam support.

People that pirate any software are criminals and they should be pursued and prosecuted as criminals.

The FOSS community is anti-establishment and many of the members support terrorism.

So we should only use commercial software and avoid free and open source? Like... there weren't a single company on earth that supported terrorism.

Toyota pickups are the favorite vehicles of terrorists. Does that mean Toyota actually supports terrorists and terrorism?

 

[Dave Russo]

Serial cart has Microsoft 2021 office professional lifetime for a very low price, (I had this before and it seems that its been erased from my Microsoft account, when ?sometime after getting a full paid version )has anyone deleted auto pay up to date version, and successfully started using the 2021 office? Thanks

 

[Sorrento]

The cost of Microsoft 360 has been a bummer for me as I have contemplated a alternative or just dropping it as a renewal cost is in January, now with this news I am baffled, advice is appreciated, Thanks

Mine was due last month, in the Office set-up site I said I was leaving & was given two free months, not a lot but better than nothing

 

[TairikuOkami]

The cost of Microsoft 360 has been a bummer for me

MS 365 Office online is free, you do not need to pay for it, unless you need some special features or storage. LibreOffice, FreeOffice or WPS will do just find for an offline PC.
If you need storage there are better alternatives, especially during Black Friday. I myself got lucky and I got 1TB lifetime IceDrive for $80. I have MS 365 Basic for basics.

 

[Sorrento]

I use Softmaker free as I don't need to bells & whistles 365 gives - But my other half needs full office 365 for her work, so for the time being I need to pay, however both my daughters are shared on the family edition so it don't work out bad.

 

[simmerskool]

MS 365 Office online is free, you do not need to pay for it, unless you need some special features or storage. LibreOffice, FreeOffice or WPS will do just find for an offline PC.
If you need storage there are better alternatives, especially during Black Friday. I myself got lucky and I got 1TB lifetime IceDrive for $80. I have MS 365 Basic for basics.

View attachment 286484

I've been using LibreOffice 99% of time for a few years, but just got an email after the fact that MS sucked $99 from credit card for 1 year MS 365. I was busy doing other stuff, and I'm guessing my wife uses MS Office...

 

[bazang]

So Signal supports terrorism and cyber criminals because they support encryption?

Yes

Tor Project was literally created by the US army, does that mean the US army supports terrorists and criminals?

Tor Project worked with U.S. DoD to track cyber criminals and terrorists on the Tor platform.

It is known that the U.S. Government can access Tor nodes.

Just because criminals use something, doesn't mean the owners and the developers of the product support them. There's always a trade off; it's impossible to make an app secure and private at the same time.

Resisting law enforcement and government security services who request access is the same as saying "We - everybody in this company - supports cyber criminals and terrorists."

Microsoft does support terrorism by permitting piracy of its software, whether or not is agrees with terrorism. Doing things that enable terrorism is the same as providing support. It is a cause-effect thing. Microsoft has known about this as has the entire FOSS community, but as I said - and nobody paid any attention to - M$ and the FOSS communities are willing to support terrorism and the killing of people because they put "individual digital rights" first.

Toyota cannot limit sales to terrorists, but Microsoft can do something about software piracy and shutdown use by software pirates, cyber criminals, and terrorists.

 

[simmerskool]

It is known that the U.S. Government can access Tor nodes.

I don't use Tor very often, but I did use it a few weeks ago (a whim), and within an hour or so (maybe it was minutes?) after using it, I got an alert that from my router's IDS/IPS that it blocked an attempted intrusion, and I typically get those alerts only about twice a year, so the alert shortly after using Tor (probably Tails) seemed like more than just a coincidence. I assume someone is listening at Tor exit nodes, but just a hunch