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Πηγή : www.computerworld.comAUGUST 08, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged that hackers were quickly able to bypass a process it implemented late last month to ensure that users trying to download software updates from its Web site have legitimate copies of Windows.
A July 28 posting on the Boing Boing weblog claimed that a JavaScript command string could bypass the software-key check in Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage 1.0 program. According to the posting, users can override WGA by pasting the command in the address bar of their browser and pressing Enter. The code "turns off the trigger for the key check," the posting said.
WGA requires users to run a program to verify that their copies of Windows aren't pirated before they can use Microsoft's software update services. Microsoft had been running it as a pilot program since last September but made the validation process a requirement on July 27.
"Within 24 hours, hackers claimed to have circumvented the process, and it appears that they did," a Microsoft spokesman said. He added that the company will fix the flaw that was exploited in an upcoming version of WGA.
The Boing Boing hack isn't the only way to get around WGA's restrictions that has come to light. David Keller, founder of PC consulting and services firm Compu-Doctor in Cape Coral, Fla., said in an interview conducted via e-mail that he was able to change his Internet Explorer settings to bypass WGA. He discovered means to do so after he encountered a flaw in the program that flagged a legitimate product key on a customer's copy of Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 as invalid.
Keller wrote that he didn't have much luck working with Microsoft's support technicians, so he disabled the WGA add-on within the browser's Internet Options menu.