https://tinyapps.org/blog/202304230700_xp_wpa.html

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Windows XP Activation: GAME OVER #

For almost two decades, MSKey Readme^1 has heralded the defeat of
Windows XP's product activation, not via mere circumvention, but by
cracking the encryption algorithm itself.

Four years ago, WindowsXPKg^2 launched on Microsoft's GitHub
platform. Based on the even earlier Inside Windows Product
Activation: A Fully Licensed Paper^3, it generates product keys but
relies on an external, third-party server to return the Confirmation
ID.

In a post last year on the Windows XP subreddit (Windows XP web
activation is finally dead...), retroreviewyt shared xp_activate32.exe^
4, which calculates the Installation ID then generates and optionally
applies the corresponding Confirmation ID to activate Windows XP, all
offline. Wiping the system and reinstalling Windows XP results in the
same Installation ID being assigned by Windows (assuming no change in
hardware or product key), thus the same Confirmation ID obtains even
in msoobe's standard telephone activation window.

Long considered out of reach, this development bodes well for
salvaging old systems even after Microsoft has shut down the
activation servers. Given their curious tolerance (even use!) of MAS
(hosted on their own platform!), which impacts all modern versions of
Windows, hopefully Microsoft will see fit to release an official XP
activation tool for posterity.

Footnotes

 1. The apparently oldest extant copy, dated January 18, 2005, is
    signed "yag". A few months later, it was posted to
    Tool_Delphi2005 by Alexandre Trevizoli. By 2007, Kevin Hatfield
    was hosting it, and he claimed copyright by 2008, thereby
    becoming associated with the document in later years.  

 2. Elliptic Curve Key Tool is a similar app that does not require
    recompiling for each combination. 

 3. In fact, the paper was released in July 2001, before even Windows
    XP was released to manufacturing. However, it was kept "a little
    vague at some points in order not to facilitate the task of an
    attacker attempting to circumvent the license enforcement
    supplied by the activation mechanism". 

 4. 18432 bytes with a SHA-256 hash of
    5a4bcac5a50eb5113dd6a2f88c35ebdb709c4df8a792c71ad03ea347afaced52. 

                                              /windows | Apr 23, 2023

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