"Kayne Ian (Softlab)" wrote: > > Hey m8, > There was a thread on Vuln dev a bit back about the copy protection > in XP. I've just had a chat with a former colleague of mine, who gave me the > info in the msg below. It's up to you whether you want to post this on to > the list, thought I'd just let you decide. > > L8r > > -Ian > > Blue Boar wrote: > > Anyway, I let it through because there have been news stories that > > it has been cracked, and MS denies it. I was hoping for an answer. > > Second, I was hoping for a discussion of how the copy protection > > in XP products works. Yes, it's a bit off-topic for vuln-dev, > > and I usually toss such queries. However, this is going to affect a > > lot more people, and I think it's also going to touch on privacy > > issues. > > ---------[ SNIP ]----------- > > Hey, > Ok, today I have come across some extremely interesting information, > which will hopefully add a bit more to the discussions going on about this. > I was told this by a former colleague who now works for Microsoft doing > product testing - he's one of the people that makes sure everything works, > and helps OEM's deliver pre-built systems etc. > > Windows XP, Product Registration: > > This has been discussed in many places. The official story is as > follows. XP does require you to perform online activation of your product. > After installing the O/S, you have 30 days to register your system. If you > do not register, the O/S locks itself down. This means you have VERY limited > functionality, only enough to copy data off the machine and register the > O/S. Registration may be done in 2 different ways: > > In the first instance, you tell the O/S you wish to register, and it will > generate a key for you. More on this in a second. > > 1. No net connection. In every country, MS have set up a clearinghouse for > product registration. You will ring MS up, read out the key to them, and > they will in turn give you an activation key, which you type in > > 2. Net connection. They have a "3 click mechanism" to register your product. > The key is generated as above, and sent to Microsoft. They then send you > back the activation key, which registers your product. > > What is the initial key (I'll call this the ID Key, as it id's your system > to MS) comprised of? Apparently, it contains no personal data whatsoever. > Thats no name, company, address etc etc. It does however contain serial > numbers taken from hardware installed in your system. That means processor > serial number if available, BIOS revision, MAC address on NIC's etc etc etc. > This is combined with your COA (Certificate of Authority) number, and > encrypted somehow. This encrypted data is sent to MS, whereupon (I assume) > they perform some kind of hash on it, and send the resulting key (I'll call > this the Activation key, note these are names I've made up to try and make > this easier to follow) back to you. > > The ID key is then used by Microsoft to track your usage of the system. The > Activation key is used by the O/S itself to track your usage of the system. > How does this work? > > Firstly, XP makes an "intelligent" decision about your system. This means > when you register your copy of XP, and if you never change your hardware, > you will never have to reregister. Similarly, XP will track minor changes, > or cumilative changes. This means you can change 1 or 2 components in your > system (sound card, or a bios upgrade for eg), and XP will not require you > to re-register. As I said, it does this cumilatively. So, if in January you > install XP & register, Feb you change your sound card, 1st March you change > your NIC, 15th March you change your monitor, XP will track these cumilative > changes, accept that they are "upgrades" to the original system it was > installed on, and allow you to continue to use the O/S without > reregistering. > > However, if you install XP, then swap out a large proportion (this point is > vague for a reason) of your hardware, you WILL be required to re-register. > That means Ghost will cause headaches for a lot of people. > > I raised the point about number of registrations. MS must have a cut-off > point to how many times they will allow you to re-register. The answer is > yes. And it's a little bit of a worrying one. If you change your hardware > too often, and go to re-register XP online, it is possible that it will > REJECT YOUR KEY. This could leave you with an O/S in a NON-FUNCTIONAL STATE, > even if you have a perfectly legal copy of XP and you are using it perfectly > legally. In the event that this happens, you will have to call the MS > Clearing house, and explain the situation to them. They will then make an > educated decision as to whether you are legally or illegally using the > product, and act appropriately. So, if you ring them up, explain you are a > s/w engineer and you need to keep reinstalling your o/s say, 15 times a > month, they will reactivate you - no problem. But, if you ring them up, they > see you tried to re-activate your product 100 times in the last week, they > will know something dodgy is going on, and kill your license leaving you > without an O/S. To me, this is a bit worrying - this means the entire MS > licensing procedure now relies on human decision making. In the future, > you'll have to convince some call center guy that you should be allowed to > continue to use the product you paid for and own, just because you changed > hardware. 2 examples at either end of the spectrum, but remember, they are > EXAMPLES -- we don't know what meter MS will use. > > Apparently this functionality has been deployed for nearly 2 years, but not > used widely as yet. I raised a point about the amount of traffic that > real-time licensing is going to generate - surely this will require huge > pipes & terabytes of storage. Apparently not - as this is a 1 time > registration (ie: each copy of XP sold will only ever have 1 record at > Microsoft associated with it), the amount of traffic & storage will be > relatively low. As I said, it seems as though MS have been slowly rolling > this infrastructure out over the last few years. > > All this change in licensing is to combat piracy (really? hehe). It was > admitted that MS have no doubt this protection will be cracked immediately, > but it will show some reduction in piracy. Apparently it has already knocked > about 20% off piracy figures in pan-pacific region. MS are aiming to stop > the "can I borrow this copy of the OS from you/my m8/work etc etc". > > Media Player 7 & 8, SDMI > > There has been a lot of banter about Mediaplayer containing > functionality to limit bitrates in various formats, in fact I personally > believed this. I asked the question, and I was told the answer was a > categorical NO. There is NO hidden functionality or code in WMP7 or 8 to > limit the features of Media Player. > > Oh, also, the XBox will be shipped with 20 titles. > > well, I hope that answered a few questions and prompted a few more. Maybe it > was of interest, maybe not... > > Ian Kayne > Technical Specialist - IT Solutions > > ******************************************************************** > This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and > intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom > they are addressed. > > If you are not the intended recipient or the person responsible for > delivering to the intended recipient, be advised that you have received > this email in error and that any use of the information contained within > this email or attachments is strictly prohibited. > > Internet communications are not secure and Softlab does not accept > any legal responsibility for the content of this message. 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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jun 29 2001 - 15:58:29 PDT