Seorang bocah yang sangat ingin melanjutkan sekolah,tetapi orang tuanya tidak mempunyai uang untuk membiayai sekolahnya. Lagipula ibunya yang sedang sakit membutuhkan biaya untuk membeli obat. Akhirnya dia memutuskan untuk menulis surat kepada Tuhan :

Kepada Yth
Tuhan
di Surga

Tuhan yang baik, saya mau melanjutkan sekolah, tapi orang tua saya tidak punya uang. Ibu saya juga sedang sakit, mau beli obat.

Tuhan saya butuh uang Rp 20.000 utk beli obat ibu,

Rp 20.000 untuk membayar uang sekolah,

Rp 10.000 untuk membayar uang seragam,

dan uang buku Rp 10.000.

Jadi semuanya Rp 60.000

Terima kasih Tuhan, saya tunggu kiriman uangnya.

Dari : Rio

Rio pun pergi ke kantor pos untuk mengirim suratnya.

Membaca tujuan surat tersebut, petugas kantor pos merasa iba melihat Rio, sehingga tidak tega mengembalikan suratnya.

Bingung mau di kemanain surat itu, akhirnya petugas pos itu menyerahkannya ke kantor polisi terdekat.

Membaca isi surat itu, Komandan polisi merasa iba dan tergerak hatinya utk menceritakan hal tsb kepada anak buahnya. Walhasil, para polisi pun mengumpulkan dana utk di berikan ke Rio, tetapi dana yang terkumpul hanya Rp 55.000,-

Sang Komandan pun memasukan uang yang terkumpul ke dalam amplop, menuliskan keterangan : " Dari Tuhan di Surga " dan menyerahkan ke anak buahnya utk di kembalikan ke Rio.

Menerima uang tsb, Rio merasa sangat senang permintaannya terkabul, walaupun yang di terima hanya Rp 55.000,-.

Rio pun bergegas mengambil kertas dan pensil, dan mulai menulis surat lagi :

TUHAN LAIN KALI KALO MAU KIRIM UANG, JANGAN LEWAT POLISI, KARENA KALO LEWAT POLISI DI POTONG RP 5.000,-

Testbed consisted of 321 Viruses, Trojans and Worms, all for the Windows32 environment, and all reasonably new samples. I don't have any data on whether some of these are zoo, or ITW, but they are all real threats I feel someone is likely to encounter, since I got them off the internet (and i've verified they are real as each sample must be detected by at least 4 AV's for me to consider it). All scanners were installed on a clean system, without any traces of other anti-virus softwares - between each test the system and directories were cleaned, and the registry was sweeped. Each AV product was treated with a double-reboot, one before, and one after installation. Each scanner was set at its highest possible settings, and was triple checked for proper options and configuration. Most products were the full registered version when possible, others were fully functional unrestricted trials. All products were tested with the current version as of 6-14-04, and the latest definitions for that date. Each product was run through the test set a minimum of 3 times to establish proper settings and reliability, the only product to exhibit some variance on this was F-Secure, which had one scan come up less than the other two without any settings changes indicating a possible stability issue.

The final standings:

1) MKS-Vir
1a) eXtendia AVK
2) Kaspersky 5.0/4.5
2a) McAfee VirusScan 8.0
3) F-Secure
4) GData AVK
5) RAV + Norton (2 way tie)
6) Dr.Web
7) CommandAV + F-Prot + BitDefender (3 Way Tie)
8) ETrust
9) Trend
10) Panda
11) Avast! Pro
12) KingSoft
13) NOD32
14) AVG Pro
15) AntiVIR
16) ClamWIN
17) UNA
18) Norman
19) Solo
20) Proland
21) Sophos
22) Hauri
23) CAT Quickheal
24) Ikarus

Heuristics seemed to play some of a roll in this test, as no AV had every virus in my test in their definitions, and products with stronger heuristics were able to hold their position towards the top of the test. Double/Multi engined products put up strong showings as well, proving to me that the redundacy method works, and I think more AV companies should considering double-engines. The strongest heurisitical AV I noticed was F-Prot/Command, picking up only 247 samples with definitions but they were able to power through 67 additional hits on "Possible Virus" indicators - very strong! Norton with BloodHound activated had 30 Heuristical pickups, and DrWeb rounded up the pack with 20 heuristical pickups. eXtendia AVK grabs the number one slot with double engine scanning, anything the KAV engine missed, the RAV engine picked up with great redundancy on the double engine/definition system. McAfee actually missed only 2 samples with its definitions, but picked those 2 up as "Suspicious File", and therefore, scores nearly perfect as well.

The biggest dissapointments for me were Norman and Nod32. Even with Advanced-Heuristics enabled, NOD32 failed to pick up a large portion of the samples. Norman, while finding some of the toughest samples, managed to completely miss a large portion of them! Showing that their sandbox-emulation system has great potetential, but its far from complete.

Actual test numbers were:

Total Samples/Found Samples (321 total possible) + Number Missed + Detection Percentage

Discovered and tested MKS-Vir2004, from Poland. Surprisingly, this one with caught every sample perfectly on Medium Heuristics. Specifically, nearly 50 samples were picked up Heuristically giving it a perfect score of 321/321. However, when I increased Heuristics to "Super Deep", it picked up an addition 10 more suspicious files. Upon further investigation, it was found that it was picking up signatures of hacktool utilities left over in some of the archives and flagging those files. Indeed, this is impressive. MKS-Vir2004 exhibits the most advanced detection algorithms i've ever seen, clearly it only had signatures for 271 of my samples, but through code emulation, it was able to pick up all 321 samples!! It clearly labeled the Heuristically found ones as things as "Likely Win32 Trojan" or "Highly Suspicious Acting File". In addition, its scanning speed was incredibly quick, and its memory footprint was quite small. Impressive! Furthermore, this is a full featured and fairly polished product that appears to update at least once per day, and tech support responded to me within 5-15 minutes on my emails. Unfortunately, it appears to not be available in the US for purchase at this time.

1a) MKS_Vir 2004 - 321/321 0 Missed - 100%
1b) eXtendia AVK - 321/321 0 Missed - 100%
2a) Kaspersky 5.0 - 320/321 1 Missed - 99.70% (with Extended Database ON)
2b) McAfee VirusScan 8.0 - 319/321 + 2 (2 found as joke programs - heuristically) - 99%
3) F-Secure - 319/321 2 Missed - 99.37%
4) GData AVK - 317/321 4 Missed - 98.75%
5) RAV + Norton (2 way tie) - 315/321 6 Missed - 98.13%
6) Dr.Web - 310/321 11 Missed - 96.57%
7) CommandAV + F-Prot + BitDefender (3 Way Tie) - 309/321 12 Missed - 96.26%
8) ETrust - 301/321 20 Missed - 93.76%
9) Trend - 300/321 21 Missed - 93.45%
10) Avast! Pro - 299/321 22 Missed - 93.14%
11) Panda - 298/321 23 Missed - 92.83%
12) Virus Buster - 290/321 31 Missed - 90.34%
13) KingSoft - 288/321 33 Missed - 89.71%
14) NOD32 - 285/321 36 Missed (results identical with or without advanced heuristics) - 88.78%
15) AVG Pro - 275/321 46 Missed - 85.66%
16) AntiVIR - 268/321 53 Missed - 83.48%
17) Antidote - 252/321 69 Missed - 78.50%
18) ClamWIN - 247/321 74 Missed - 76.94%
19) UNA - 222/321 99 Missed - 69.15%
20) Norman - 215/321 106 Missed - 66.97%
21) Solo - 182/321 139 Missed - 56.69%
22) Fire AV - 179/321 142 Missed - 55.76%
23) V3 Pro - 109/321 212 Missed - 33.95%
24) Per_AV - 75/321 - 246 Missed - 23.36%
25) Proland - 73/321 248 Missed - 22.74%
26) Sophos - 50/321 271 Missed - 15.57%
27) Hauri - 49/321 272 Missed - 15.26%
28) CAT Quickheal - 21/321 300 Missed - 6%
29) Vir_iT - 10/321 311 Missed - 3%
30) Ikarus - Crashed on first virus. - 0%

Interesting also to note, is the detection level of the US AVK version with KAV+RAV engines was higher than the German version with KAV+BitDefender engines. Several vendors have free versions of their for purchase AV's, we didn't test the free versions, as it would serve no purpose for this test, but based on the results, none of the free versions would have been very impressive anyway. The term "Heuristics" seems like it should be taken very liberally, as some products that claim to be loaded with Heuristics scored miserably on items they clearly didn't have definitions for. Scanning speed was not measured, as it was totally irrelevant to my testing, and on-access scanners were not tested, as it would have been too time consuming, but considering most products have similar on-access engines as on-demand, and use the same database, results most likely, would be very similar.

Cut through the hype, cut through the marketing schemes, this was a real test, with real samples, and none of these samples were provided to the antivirus software vendors in advance. This is real world, and these are likely badguys you'll encounter, since I got them in my real encounters, and all were aquired on the internet in daily activities which anyone out there might be involved in. (Installing shareware, filesharing, surfing, etc). Keep in mind that with ITW tests the AV vendors have full disclosure of what they will be tested on in advance, not so here, so heuristics and real detection algorithms will play a big part, as well as the depth and scope of their definition database.

[Edit: After re-testing the Kaspersky products with Extended Database option turned ON, the moved up effectively scoring 100% considering the 1% margin of error]

If an essential Windows file gets whacked by a virus or otherwise corrupted, restore it from the Windows CD. Search the CD for the filename, replacing the last character with an underscore; for example, Notepad.ex_. If it's found, open a command prompt and enter the command EXPAND, followed by the full pathname of the file and of the desired destination: EXPAND D:\SETUP\NOTEPAD.EX_ C:\Windows\NOTEPAD.EXE. If either pathname contains any spaces, surround it with double quotes.

If the file isn't found, search on the unmodified filename. It will probably be inside a CAB file, which Win XP treats as a folder. Simply right-drag and copy the file to the desired location. In other Windows platforms, search for a file matching *.cab that contains the filename. When the search is done, open a command prompt and enter EXTRACT /L followed by the desired location, the full pathname of the CAB file, and the desired filename; for example: EXTRACT /L C:\Windows D:\I386\Driver.cab Notepad.exe. Again, if the destination or CAB file pathname contains spaces, surround it with double quotes.

Directions
Rapidshare traces the users IP address to limit each user to a certain amount of downloading per day. To get around this, you need to show the rapidshare server, a different IP address. You can do this one of multiple ways.

Requesting a new IP address from your ISP server.

Here's how to do it in windows:
1. Click Start
2. Click run
3. In the run box type cmd.exe and click OK
4. When the command prompt opens type the following. ENTER after each new line.


ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
exit


5. Erase your cookies in whatever browser you are using.
6. Try the rapidshare download again.
Frequently you will be assigned a new IP address when this happens. Sometime you will, sometimes you will not. If you are on a fixed IP address, this method will not work. To be honest, I do not know how to do this in linux/unix/etc. If this works for you, you may want to save the above commands into a batch file, and just run it when you need it.

UNLIMITED download/upload
Its very easy to fool Rapid Share server if your IP address is assigned by your ISP. Just follow these simple steps:

clean up IE or netscape or Firefox cookie( In this case the one that belong to rapidshare website)
On Command prompt (open MS-DOS)
type -----> ipconfig /flushdns <---Enter
type -----> ipconfig /release <---Enter
type -----> ipconfig /renew <---Enter
type -----> exit <--------Enter

Or save these commands in a bat file and run it everytime you need to fool Rapidshare server. Remember to clean up rapidshare cookie in your temp Internet files folder.

Now you should be ready to download/upload as many files as you want from their server.

another way, get proxies from the internet and apply to the browser.
some of proxies might not work though...

Note:
If you are on a LAN and behind a router (using NAT, for example)---this will not work.
If you use a fixed proxy--- this will not work.
If you have a fixed IP address from your ISP or college or employer or whatever -- this will not work.
If you happen to get the same IP address from your DHCP server because it's assigned to you -- this will not work

NO waiting
THIS "cheat" for RAPIDSHARE DOWNLOADS eliminates the "WAITING" for the file. No more COUNTDOWNS. So heres what you do:

1. First, Find a rapidshare download.
2. Hit the FREE BUTTON, like always.
3. While your waiting for it to countdown, change the URL in the bar to:
Code:
java script:c(countdown = 0);
and hit ENTER or the GO button over and over. Eachtime you do so, it decreases 10-20 seconds. Few times and the link appears.
or you can simply do the code below ONCE
java script: for (i=0; i<30; i++) { c(); }

OK, so now you realize that you've got some spyware junk on your system.

Before you go headlong into deleting suspected files or editing the registry, try this simple disabling technique.

First, see if you can determine what the offending files are. You can do this by running "msinfo32" if you're using Win98. I only have experience with Win98, so I don't know the corresponding run command for this "Microsoft System Information" utility in WinXP. Go to the "Software Enviroment" section and poke around to see if you can locate an offensive or out-of-place file that looks like it doesn't belong. Make a note of the filename and location.

Then fire up Windows Explorer and navigate to the "no-goodnick" file. Now, and this is important, rename the file to something you can remember later. I like to use the same filename, but tack on the letters (in caps) "OLDXXX", where "XXX" are my initials. So, for example:

twaintec.dll

is renamed to

twaintecOLDXXX.dll

This effectively disables the offensive file, so that whatever piece of spyware junk is looking for it, it can't find it, and thus can't glop up you system. If you've made a mistake and the file is essential to your system, you can easily correct it by reversing the renaming procedure. This is much easier than restoring a deleted file, especially if you have emptied your recycle bin in the meantime!

Some bogus files can't be renamed while Windows is running, so then you have to use brute force and reboot in DOS-only mode, and use DOS commands to locate and rename the file. You may have to dig out your old DOS reference books for this like I did.

I have used this technique several times to disable offending junk until I can find a permanent way of getting rid of it.

It's a great trouble-shooting technique.

What is a Proxy Server?
A proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the Internet resources you are accessing. The data you request come to the proxy first, and only then it transmits the data to you. I know many are looking for IP Maskers or Scramblers, but honestly, it aint real easy for the simple fact that any website that you visit needs your IP to send the info packets too. If its scrambled, you will get alot of errors and crazy redirects :P My solution? Read on........... for a good list of Proxy servers try here>> http://www.multiproxy.org/

Why do I need to use proxy servers?
Transfer speed improvement. Proxy servers accumulate and save files that are most often requested by thousands of Internet users in a special database, called “cache”. Therefore, proxy servers are able to increase the speed of your connection to the Internet. The cache of a proxy server may already contain information you need by the time of your request, making it possible for the proxy to deliver it immediately.
Security and privacy. Anonymous proxy servers that hide your IP address thereby saving you from vulnerabilities concerned with it.
Sometimes you may encounter problems while accessing to web server when server administrator restricted access from your IP or even from wide IP range (for example restricting access from certain countries or geographical regions). So you try to access those pages using an anonymous proxy server.

What is a public proxy server?
It is a proxy server which is free and open for everybody on the Internet. Unfortunately most of them are not anonymous.
Free service trying to provide list of public HTTP proxy servers. Usually provide small list of proxies with low percent of functioning servers due to hosting restrictions on CPU time (they simply can't allow themselves to check many proxies every second especially in parallel).

The Solution?
When using an anonymous proxy server you don’t give a anybody chance to find out your IP address to use it in their own interests. ;) If there is a need to make an (inner) proxy connect to the outside world via another (outer) proxy server, you can use the same environment variables as are used to redirect clients to the proxy to make inner proxy use the outer one:
http_proxy
ftp_proxy
gopher_proxy
wais_proxy
E.g. your (inner) proxy server's startup script could look like this:
#!/bin/sh
http_proxy=http://outer.proxy.server:8082/
export http_proxy
/usr/etc/httpd -r /etc/inner-proxy.conf -p 8081

This is a little ugly, so there are also the following directives in the configuration file:
http_proxy http://outer.proxy.server/
ftp_proxy http://outer.proxy.server/
gopher_proxy http://outer.proxy.server/
wais_proxy http://outer.proxy.server/

Start > Run >

Certificates - certmgr.msc

Indexing Service - ciadv.msc

Computer Management - compmgmt.msc

Device Manager - devmgmt.msc

Disk Defragmenter - dfrg.msc

Disk Management - diskmgmt.msc

Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc

Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc

Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc

Removable Storage - ntmsmgr.msc

Removable Store Operator Requests - ntmsoprq.msc

Performance - perfmon.msc

Services - services.msc

Windows Management Infrastructure (WMI) - wmimgmt.msc

We have seen a large number of computers coming in with problems navigation on the internet. Also unable to go to Windows update and viurs update sites. Here is a quick fix that also seems to speed navigation up some.

Just for safety create a copy of the file before making changes.

goto

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ (Windows XP)

C:\I386 (Windows 2000)

Open the host with notepad.

remove all entries bellow

127.0.0.1 localhost


then save and close

Let me start by saying the internet is full of wonderful tools and papers like this one. Alot of these things can help you
increase your knowledge, perhaps your job or more. But just as easily as you can learn from them, people read into them to
much and decide to harm other peoples work for no apparent reason. Let it be known that is in no way the purpose of this
paper. A true hacker is one who strives to attain the answers for themselves through curiosity. Its the path we take to
those answers that makes us hackers, not destruction of other peoples work. So with that said, please enjoy my work, as I
have enjoyed writing it.

The flow of data has always captured my interest. Just how does it work, how can we dissect it and use it to our advantage.
Well I have spent a long time studying all of this, and that is why I wrote this paper. It's a collection of run on s
entences on different packet attacks and how they work. Now we all know you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the
specifications of a protocol by reading its 30 page RFC document. But that is the protocol according to design, in the wild
its a different story all together. 'Packet Attacks' covers everything from basic DOS attacks to TCP/IP hijacking. Hence the
name "Packet Attacks". This paper also focuses not just on attacks but practical ways to prevent such attacks and ideas on
new methods to help us stop them and secure our networks.


Introduction:
TCP/IP Packet Switching Networks
OSI MODEL


---Chapter 1.---
Section a.
Introduction to DDOS/DOS & Packet Attacks
Section b.
How attacks are crafted

---Chapter 2.---
Section a. (attacks)
ICMP
Smurf
SYN/ACK
UDP
DNS
ARP
DrDOS
Special Bot / Trojans
Worm DOS
Unicode ping flood (new!)
Section b.
Phasing
Section c. (hacks)
TCP hijacking
Sniffing
Scans
Information gathering / Footprinting
Section d.
Defense against these attacks
Attack Detection
Intrusion Detection
Section e.
IPSEC
NAT as a means of security

---Chapter 3.---
Section a.
The future of TCP/IP as a means of using IPv6

---Chapter 4. ---
Section a.
New security application / protocol

-----
Introduction.

Well I assume most of you reading this paper already have a good understanding of TCP/IP and how it works so I wont get to
much into detail on that, but I will scrape the surface on the parts we NEED to discuss. The internet is a MASSIVE web of
machines all connected to one another through a series of hardware devices known as routers, switches, hubs, bridges and
lots more. All of these devices (although some are smarter then others) push along packets. Our operating systems and
applications craft these packets in order to send data to one another over the wire. Each packet, although varying in size,
carries a small bit of data to and from one host to another. Each packet must also carry its own personal information such
as where it came from and where its headed. Of course there is a lot more to a packet then just this information. But as far
as attacks go this is the crucial information we need to look at. Now there are many many different types of protocols that
craft many different types of packets. And they are all read differently when they are received at the other end. Where as
an ARP packet may tell a host who has this MAC address on this subnet, a TCP packet might transfer the last few bits in that
MP3 your downloading. Regardless the data, all of these packets use the same wire to move to and from locations. I couldn't
possibly discuss every protocol and packet structure in this one paper. The average end user takes for granted all of this
running in the background while they surf the net. Most people dont understand the complexity of this internet we are all so
familiar with, the chat rooms etc. But there are people who do, and there are people who take advantage of that. Reverse
engineering has led to the creation of attacks using the basic fundamentals these protocols rely on. And since TCP/IP is so
embedded in our infrastructure we must adapt and learn to defend each new attack.

OSI MODEL

Open Systems Interconnection model, is a seven layered networking design. Its an industry standard that defines exactly how
data is transffered between protocol to protocol. Not every protocol follows the OSI model exactly and some do. TCP the
internets main mode of data transport does not follow it exactly. Let me take you through a brief over view of the OSI model.

Layer Seven : Application Layer
This layer is obviously application specific, it provides everything from authentication to email to ftp and telnet, the
list goes on. Its specifically for end user processes, what we input into our applications we can see on our screens.

Layer Six : Presentation Layer
This layer changes and possibly encrypts the data so that the application layer can understand it. (you will understand what
this means in a few minutes)

Layer Five : Session Layer
Think of this layer as Establishment, Control and Termination of the sessions formed by the
application(client) to a remote host(server).

Layer Four : Transport Layer
This layer is responsible for the invisible transfer of data between host to host. It is there to ensure all data transfer
goes accordingly. The protocols used are, UDP and TCP.

Layer Three : Network Layer
This layer is for error correction, packet sequencing, and for transmitting data from node to node. Addressing is also
another function of this layer in inter-networking.

Layer Two : Data Link Layer
This layer decodes and encodes packets into bits so they are ready for the physical layer. It also handles error correction
in the physical layer. This layer is also divided into two different sub-layers. The LLC (logical link control) and MAC
(media access control) sub layers. The LLC sub layer provides control for frame synchronization and error checking. The MAC
sub layer controls how a computer on your network has access to data.

Layer One : Physical Layer
This layer is the actual movement of the data. Using electrical impulse or some other form of data movement is pushes the
bit stream towards the other host. This layer is the hardware level, the ethernet card, the wire etc. There are many
protocols within this layer.

You may ask yourself why I listed these from 7 to 1. Well I did to show you how the OSI model really works. Layer Seven
really comes first, the end user types something into his instant messenger (for example) and the data flows down through
the OSI model being encapsulated and changed at every level it has to be changed or corrected at. The data travels the wire
and at the other end it moves back up the OSI model all the way back up to layer seven where the other host can read it in
the original form it was sent. So theres a VERY basic understanding of the OSI model and how it works to transmit data from
host to host. There is alot more protocols and parts to the OSI model but this basic representation should provide a firm
understanding.

To understand all of this more in depth please get your hands on a few RFC (request for comment) documents and start reading.
Because it will take you a very long time to understand exactly how TCP/IP works. If your very knowledgeable in the way
TCP/IP works then this paper should make alot of sense to you, perhaps even bore you! :( On the other hand if you dont
understand TCP/IP as well as you would like to, you still might get something out of this. I try and explain all of the
technical writing as easily as I can. Feel free to email me if you have a question or comment. Thanks :)
Data_Clast

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 1.

Section a.

The most common attack on the internet today is a denial of service attack. There are many programs on the internet today
that will assist anyone in crafting one of these attacks. The sad part is for as easy as they are to make their power can be
destructive when used properly. No matter what kind of packet attack it may be most are based on the same principal, volume.
Thousand and thousands of spoofed packets will eat up network resources within minutes, choking and essentially 'killing'
any network. There are many types of packet attacks. Some are more sophisticated then others. I will also talk about TCP/IP
hijacking and your typical port and vulnerability scans among other things.

Why do people launch these attacks? How are they launched? How do they exactly (technically speaking) 'choke a network'?!
Hold tight im getting to that. The lower end of these attacks are usually launched by what the hacker community calls a
script kiddie. You see a hacker isnt a mindless web defacing juvenile (please see the mentors manifesto). A hacker is a
person of true intellect and would never craft such an attack for no reason. But these lower end attacks are usually
launched at peoples individual machines. Their IP address's may come from an IRC chat room, yahoo messenger, AOL, ICQ, or
whatever other messenger you might use. Although not as sophisticated, these 'lower end' attacks can still knock an
individual machine offline in minutes. The slightly more advanced attacks may be aimed at a business competitor in order to
slow their sales or disrupt their outgoing internet connection. Whatever the reason may be they are usually launched for a
reason. Attacking a box for no reason is typically useless and will only take up your own bandwidth.

The more sophisticated attacks are aimed at government and root points of the internet. Such as the attacks on the root DNS
servers in October of 2002. These attacks were sophisticated in the way they were crafted. The attacks lasted for over an
hour and successfully took out a few of the servers. If the attack had lasted just a few more minutes who knows the damage
it could have caused. The possibility of the authorities solving these attacks and apprehending the offenders is slim to
none because they are created and launched by skilled malicious individuals. They were also distributed denial of service
attacks. Which means the 'zombie' machines that attacked the servers were spread out all over the world. We will touch more
on that later though.

Section b.

You will learn more about how these individual attacks are crafted and how they work later in this paper but this is
small introduction so you can get a vague idea. Creating spoofed packets requires an open socket. This socket binds to an
IP and a port and allows you to inject a packet onto the wire or accept any incoming packets to that IP and port. *NIX
openly supports open socket programming (many tutorials on this type of programming). Which means you can code programs that
create packets and then inject them into the network with ease. An example of this would be a program called "SENDIP" which
allows you to create custom packets, and it supports many protocols (another good program is nemesis). I have written a few
tutorials using SENDIP, I think its a great program for both advanced and new network engineers to use. It will help you
learn about packet structure and the different protocols it supports. Microsoft is not an open source company, which pretty
much makes it even harder to find help in creating these sorts of programs for Windows. But it is possible to craft these
attacks from within a Windows environment. Its referred to 'Winsock' programming. Infact most of these DDOS attacks are
because of vulnerable Windows boxes out on the net. They are sitting ducks for trojan horses and other programs that craft
these attacks on servers when commanded from a client program to do so. Most end users do not understand security and how
easy it is to break into someones home computer, so they lack firewalls and virus scanners. This leads to many zombie
machines available to hackers disposal on the net. All one has to do is scan a class C subnet for open trojan ports and
hack their way into those trojans and use them as a backdoor, another zombie is created for attacking remote targets. Almost
every program that interacts with TCP/IP generates packets to and from places, this is valid traffic. As you read you will
distinguish the difference between valid and non valid, as it easy pretty easy to understand what I am explaining when I say
"attack". When creating an open socket and crafting spoofed packets these programs tell the kernel they are going to
construct their own IP headers. Usually this information is put on by the kernel before exiting the machine. But in this
instance we are telling the kernel we want to specify our own information. Not all operating systems will allow this. And
no I dont have a detailed list of which do and which dont. Most of the experiments I have conducted on my network used
different versions of RedHat Linux, Mandrake Linux, and Windows XP.


Chapter 2.

Section a.

There are several different types of packet attacks. Theres the simple brute flood of ICMP packets which floods a network
and eats up all the available bandwidth. And then there are more sophisticated attacks like the Smurf or SYN/ACK attack.
All of these attacks target different things. While the SMURF attack may target the general network its attacking, the
SYN/ACK attack targets a specific host or service running on a host. We also must take into consideration when a target is
attacked it may not be the only machine affected. There are many routers and other boxes transfering the data between point
A and point B. Other peoples legitimate data is flowing between them, and may be disrupted by the packet flood. Even a top
of the line router can only handle so much data. And unfortunately it is very easy to attain soure code for these attacks
all over the web. Lets take a more detailed look at each attack.


ICMP brute flood attack.

ICMP works on top of TCP. The ICMP protocol is simple yet very effective. Its used for error correcting and testing network
connectivity. Your average PING program uses ICMP packets to test network connectivity. By sending a small amount of
arbitrary data in an ECHO_REQUEST packet it waits for a reply from the target host, simple right? A typical ICMP packet is
called an ECHO_REQUEST. You send 4 or 5 of these at a target machine and when it arrives there it requests an ECHO_REPLY.
Thats when everything is done according to design. If you want more info on an ICMP packet and how it works then read my
tutorial on that!
http://www.theory-x.org/dataclast/_content/MPS.txt

In this attack the source IP address is spoofed. So now hundreds, thousands of ECHO_REQUEST packets rush towards their
destination. They reach point B, request an ECHO_REPLY for every ECHO_REQUEST sent. Point B says OK, reads the source IP.
The source IP ends up being unreachable. But point B is waiting a small amount of time (milliseconds) to determine that for
every packet thats hitting it. It will be a few more moments before the process relinquishes this small bit of memory back
to the system. This adds up to a great deal of packets and memory allocation building up. Now if these packets are coming
from multiple source zombies (DDOS) then this means there each coming from different routes. So even if one ISP stops one
attack, there are still many more zombie machines attacking the victim. All of this is eating up time and bandwidth, because
with every millisecond that passes more and more bandwidth is being taken up. Eventually point B can no longer keep up with
the ECHO_REQUESTS and his connection is completely flooded and of no use. On an unprotected system or router this attack
can be very consuming. This attack is also sometimes referred to a bandwidth attack. Even if the target is running an
advanced firewall it cannot protect the wire it connected to from being flooded with packets. There have been changes in
this attack as well. On the net there are what we call amplifiers. On every network there are the network and subnet
addresses. In many default configurations when you ping either one of these addresses they multiply the echo requests by 4
or more. So a zombie would attack a vulnerable network (.0) or subnet address (.255) with a spoofed source IP, being the
victims real IP. So even tho the traffic becomes valid as far as IP addresses go. The victim gets bombarded with massive
ECHO_REPLY packets. You will see more of this description in other attacks, as it works for some of those to.

[zombie machine] -->ICMP ECHO_REQUEST (source IP = 1.1.1.1) -->-->--> [target]
[??????????????] ICMP ECHO_REPLY (destination 1.1.1.1 ?)<-- [target]

Hopefully that simple drawing shows you exactly how this attack works. Its very very simple, massive ICMP packets with
spoofed address's taking up network resources. The simplest of attacks.


Smurf attack.

(first part is repeat from ICMP attack) There have been changes in the ICMP attack. On the net there are what we call
amplifiers. On every network there are the network and subnet addresses. In many default configurations when you ping either
one of these addresses they multiply the echo requests by 4 or more. So a zombie would attack a vulnerable network (.0) or
subnet address (.255) with a spoofed source IP, being the victims real IP. So even tho the traffic becomes valid as far as
IP addresses go. The victim gets bombarded with massive ECHO_REPLY packets. You will see more of this description in other
attacks, as it works for those to.

You can try this attack on your home network by simply opening a packet sniffer on each machine that is on. Pick a machine,
any machine and ping your broadcast address. Mine is 192.168.0.255 Immediately you see each machine receiving a broadcast
packet. Now imagine its several hundred and each one has a spoofed source IP address. Its a brute ICMP attack on a massive
scale, this possibilities to this attack are endless. You could easily implement this attack in anyway you chose. You could
spoof the victims real IP as your source IP and create massive volumes of legit ECHO_REPLY packets. Even though its valid
traffic, its 4x or more times the normal load of valid traffic. This consumes the connection and valid traffic cant pass,
or passes so slowly it makes no difference to the end user.

[zombie machine] --> ICMP ECHO_REQUEST source ip = 10.2.2.2 --> to: broadcast router 4.1.0.255 (router multiplies the
ECHO_REPLY packets by 4x! --> --> --> --> [victim 10.2.2.2]


SYN/ACK attack.

The SYN/ACK attack is a very powerful attack. SYN/ACK packets are also used in TCP hijacking, and the TCP/IP three way
handshake. When an application wants to connect with a server somewhere over the net via a TCP connection (connection vs
connectionless data transfer (UDP)) it first sends a SYN packet. The SYN packet tells the target machine he wants to make
a connection on a certain specified port, and then send data. When the target machine read the SYN packet it replies to
the original host with a SYN packet of his own and an ACK (acknowledgement) packet with sequence and ack numbers. These SEQ
and ACK numbers are used to synchronize the data transfer, incase one or two packets gets lost or slowed down along its
route, it can be assembled again in the correct order. The orignal machine replies again with another SYN ACK packet
combination acknowledging the sequencing numbers and then it starts to send data. When it creates this connection a tiny
piece of memory is allocated to hold the connection while the packets are in route. Now a SYN/ACK attack would consist of
spoofing the source IP address on the original SYN packet. The target receives the request for a connection, reads the
spoofed source IP and tries to send its own SYN and ACK packet to a destination that does not exist. Most operating systems
will continue to send SYN/ACK packets if they dont receive a reply as a method of error correction and guaranteed data
delivery. Just like in the ICMP attack the machine has to wait a few milliseconds before abandoning all hope of reaching
the machine. So these tiny allocated spaces of memory are building up with every spoofed packet that arrives at the target.
This attack is very powerful and can disable a service running on the target machine in a matter of minutes. Not to mention
all the available bandwidth is eaten with thousands and thousands of spoofed packets. So there is the SYN/ACK attack in a
brief description.

[zombie machine] --> SYN packet (source IP 1.1.1.1, port = 23 telnet) (seq = 100) --> [target]
[??????????????] <-- SYN/ACK packets sent (seq = 300) (ack = 101) <-- [target]

As you can see from the simple drawing above the target machine has no idea who is sending the SYN packets and the telnet
server he is running on port 23 would most likely crash. At best the telnet daemon would not allow any other legitimate
traffic through, as it could not gather enough resources (memory, bandwidth) to make the connection due to all the spoofed
packets.

Another use of this attack is to disconnect a user from their current TCP session. By spoofing SYN/ACK packets to a server
a client is currently using. An attacker would place a "FIN" flag in the packets, this tells the server the client is done
sending data. Client uses his connection and attacker walks away undetected, because it only took one packet to accomplish
this.


UDP attack

UDP is a protocol that is used to transfer data. Short for USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL. UDP offers very little error correction
and is used as an alternative means for data transfer. It doesn't require the 3 way handshake such as the SYN/ACK method,
so its initial attack may not take down a remote daemon as quickly. UDP is generally used to broadcast messages over a
network. A UDP attack would consist of spoofing the source IP addresses and specifying a port number like in the SYN attack
above. UDP packets are generally large because they are usually used on closed 100mb subnets (LANS). So an attack would set
flags in the packets and fragment them (break them up and flag where in the packet they broke, so they can be reassembled
on the receiving end). For example in Windows 2000 there was a remote UDP DOS exploit that used the IKE service running on
port 500. All an attacker had to do was connect to port 500 on a random machine with that port open. Start sending massive
UDP packets (above 500 bytes) to that service and the CPU usage would hit 99% and the machine would lock up. The typical
ports that accept UDP packets are 7, 13, 19 and 37 on a Windows box.

DNS attack

The DNS attack is a special one. Not as easily crafted as the others, there arent that many tools readily available to the
average script kiddie to construct such an attack. The DNS protocol is used for name resolution, 216.239.35.100 = google.com,
simple as that? Well not really. A DNS attack is based on the fact that a DNS query takes very little data and bandwidth to
create, but a DNS response is much bigger. So this is how a DNS attack would look like.

10.10.10.10 = victims IP

[dns query packet (who is google.com)] --> source IP is 10.10.10.10 --> [dns server]
[dns server] --> --> --> [dns response] [dns response] [dns response] --> [victim]

As you can see the attack is sort of relayed from a legitimate DNS server. Although the DNS response packets are 'legit'
there is a massive flood of them because the DNS server that is sending them is a very good machine on a very good
connection. The end user, most likely a home pc, gets flooded with these huge DNS response packets it never asked for.

ARP attack

The arp attack is a special one, it can be used to 'hijack' a tcp connection currently in session or it can be used to
sniff the legitimate traffic on a wire other then your own. Which is a very dangerous thing in the information world we
live in today. There are a few methods of this attack. Lets say person1, attacker, and server are all on the same subnet.
Person1 and server currently have an FTP session open. Attacker sends both server and person1 an ARP packet containing an
invalid MAC address. Now both of their arp tables are messed up for atleast 30 seconds. Server and person1 cant find that
invalid MAC address so they send their data to the IP its associated with, the attacker. So in this case the attacker has a
sniffer setup and hes collecting a ton of data. Now the attacker (an advanced one at that) can issue commands as person1 to
the server. This attack takes timing and skill to pull off on the internet, but on a LAN its very easy. It only allows for
maybe 30 or so seconds of sniffing, until their arp table is constructed properly again.

DRDOS attack

A DRDOS attack uses a little of other attacks to inflict damage. This attack spoofs the source IP address of SYN packets
to the IP of the victim. It requires a third party. This is the part of the attack that makes it so easy. All it needs is
some ftp, webserver, telnet.. ANY service that will reply with an ACK packet, anywhere on the internet. Could be angelfires
free ftp servers, could be your neighbors web server running off his 233mhz compaq with IIS 4.0. It doesn't matter! The SYN
packets are sent to that services IP address and they of course reply with a steady stream of SYN/ACK packets to the victim.
Most likely directed towards an open port on the victims machine, crashing that service and the system. These attacks are
near impossible to track down. This attack is quite possibly the strongest DOS attack in my opinion. For every SYN packet
you send the middle man, it sends out up to 4 SYN/ACK combinations to the victim. And each time the victim doesn't respond
the middle man sends even more (error correction). This allows the attacker to contruct a massive attack from just one
machine with a broadband connection. There are more dangers to this attack as well, there are hundreds of thousands of FTP,
webservers and many more services running on the net today that will deflect these SYN/ACK packets at the victim. So in
theory this attack could use any number of 'middle man' servers to bombard your network with packets.

Tested in Windows 2000 sp2, Windows 2000 sp3 with and without IE6 sp1. Should work fine in XP and XPsp1

------------------------------

A lot of people are having troubles with System File Protection (SFP for short). This can be a major pain in the butt unless you know the tricks to it. Having only tweaked Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 I figured out a few things about SFP and replacing files:

1) TaskManger is your best friend when replacing files in 2k/XP.
When you open task manager you can do just about as much as you can do with Explorer just by going File>NewTask(Run..). From here you can either use the Run Dialog to launch programs one at a time, or select 'Browse' and explore. Using right click menu commands to do the bulk of your work (Copy, Paste, Rename). Problem is often times you can't replace items do to the fact that your browse is making calls to things you want to delete.

2) CommandLine or Cmd.exe is like that other friend you have that likes to help out.
One plus this has over TaskMan is you don't use the file you are trying to replace. A minus is that it can be a pain if you aren't an experienced DOS user.

3) Backups are your ace in the hole.
Always back your files up prior to doing anything (sometimes I don't bother and wish I did.). Keep It Simple Stupid applies here. Save yourself a few keystrokes and place your backups in something like C:\back\

4) SafeMode is the rest of the hand.
Windows2000 and XP (I believe) can both be booted into SafeMode. When your computer is first booting up, after your bios screen but before the Windows is Starting screen (I could be slightly wrong here seeing how I don't know the timing for sure.) you hit F4 or F8 to get the SafeMode menu. Select 'SafeMode with CommandPrompt'. Welcome to "DOS" on 2k/XP. Anything that can't be replaced while Windows is running can be replaced here. (url.dll) Syntax would be Copy c:\url.dll "c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\" quotations allow you to put spaces in the path (I didn't know this)

...

Here we go. System File Protection, of Sytem File Checker is a neato feature of Windows meant to protect Joe Computeruser's PC from being ruined. When a needed System file is being replaced your File Checker says "Wait a minute this isn't mine." While this can be great in the long run, it's not a positive thing in Windows Hacking. The trick is to replace the files it uses to replace files.

...

1) First up you need to find the file you want to hack and then replace. Start>Search>Files and Folders>dllname. It's good to actually search for the file so you can find out all of the locations of all copies. Let the search finish just in case. If you have installed any service packs you will have probably have copies of the file in:

\winnt\servicepackfiles\i386\ (Win2k)
\windows\servicepackfiles\i386\ (XP)

As well as:

\winnt\system32\dllcache\ (hidden folder in Win2k)
\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\ (hidden folder in XP)
\winnt\system32\ (win2k)
\windows\system32\ (XP)

2) Now that you have all of the locations, write them down on paper or your forehead just to be safe (backwards so it shows up in the mirror).

3) Make a backup (remember K.I.S.S.)

4) Hack your file and save it c:\ for simplicity.

5) Open TaskManger (Right click on your taskbar and select TaskManger)

6) Go to the 'Processes' Tab and find 'Explorer.exe' highlight it and push the 'End Process' button. Say Yeah to the popup.

7) Go to the first tab in TaskManger and select 'File>NewTask>Run>Browse' from this Window navigate to c:\ and higlight your hacked file. Right clic on it and select 'Copy' (don't Cut it.)

8) Nagivate to your Windows directory, open the \servicepackfiles\i386\ folder. Paste your hacked file and replace the copy that is in that folder.

9) Navigate to your respective dllcache folder, paste the file there too.

10) Replace the normail copy in system32 finally (or wherever it might be).

11) Reboot. Don't LogOff , Reboot.

Now chances are this won't go that smoothly. Either the file you want to replace is in use, or your pal and mine SFP will pop-up. It can mess with you in odd ways. I've replaced the servicepackfiles version and the dllcache files, then had SFP grab the normal and replace the other two with it. This can be frustrating. Or maybe the file is in use. This is where the Command Prompt comes into play. If you already replaced the files and rebooted to no change, launch TaskMan again, kill explorer.exe, then go 'File>NewTask>Run>Cmd.exe' Use the DOS commands to try to replace all of the copies of the file in that order using your hacked version in C:\

This is usually where you get the message from SFP telling you it's alive and kicking. You will get a rather urgent looking pop-up telling you that a file that Windows needs is being replaced by a different file. It will then ask you if you want keep the modified files. Say 'yes'. Next it will prompt you to insert your Windows cd to retrieve a copy of the file it needs. Click 'Cancel'. As a good rule of thumb, when you get this message replace what you need then reboot!

If your file still isn't changing, boot into SafeMode with CommandLine. Wait for Windows to take it's sweet time loading. Then just type copy c:\file.dll c:\winnt\servicepackfiles\i386\. Rinse and Repeat. Then reboot. This has worked for me 100% of the time, if followed it will work for you as well.

http://pixelarmy.org

Microsoft's plans to stop people pirating the next version of Windows have suffered a setback.

A German computer magazine has found weaknesses in the piracy protection system built into Windows XP.

The weaknesses could mean that in up to 90% of cases users can circumvent the copy protection system.

But Microsoft said that the protection system would be much stronger and harder to defeat when the final version of XP is released later this year.

Component count

In a bid to combat piracy Microsoft is introducing a product activation system into the XP versions of its software. Activating a product involves contacting Microsoft for an identification number that is then combined with the serial numbers of the components inside your computer to create a unique identifier.



it would be possible to 'activate' nearly 90 percent of home-user machines without Microsoft knowing anything about it

Mike Hartmann, Tec Channel
Big changes to the hardware in a machine could mean that users have to contact Microsoft for a new identification number to re-activate their software.

By tying software to individual machines Microsoft hopes to stop its products being run on more machines than they are licensed for.

But now German computer magazine Tec Channel has analysed the product activation system that is being used in the test, or beta, versions of Windows XP and found that, in many cases, it can be compromised by making simple changes.

File fiddling

When Windows XP is first installed and activated it generates a file called wpa.dbl that stores information about the configuration of your machine.

Changes to any one of the ten components or serial numbers that this file watches are logged. When three changes have been made the wpa.dbl file is deleted forcing the user to contact Microsoft to reactivate the software.

But Mike Hartmann, a journalist at Tec Channel, has found that the ability of the wpa file to spot piracy can be easily compromised.

In tests Mr Hartmann installed and activated XP, then saved a version of the wpa file that was generated. He then changed components on the test machine so XP had to be re-activated. However, copying the old version of the wpa file back in the Windows system directory stopped requests for reactivation.

Piracy problems

The activation was also compromised when XP was fooled into thinking that a desktop PC was a laptop in a docking station, rather than a self-contained machine. In this configuration some components that wpa watches would be in the docking station rather than the portable computer. XP dutifully ignored any changes made to these components.

XP activation items
network card address
graphics card ID number
CPU serial number
SCSI host adapter number
IDE controller number
hard disk serial number
CPU type
Ram size
Volume ID
CD-Rom serial number

In total Mr Hartmann found a way to make the Windows XP activation technology ignore six of the ten components that it monitors. Mr Hartmann said another two can vary in only a small number of ways among all machines making it possible to create a "universal" wpa file that should activate XP on most PCs.

"With some smart tools that do automatic matching of hardware and activation-files it would be possible to 'activate' nearly 90 percent of home-user machines without Microsoft knowing anything about it," Mr Hartmann told BBC News Online.

Mr Hartmann expects to see activation file sites springing up on the web that offer wpa files tied to PCs with particular configurations thus ruining Microsoft's chances of cutting piracy.

"Should Microsoft stick with current version of wpa they will have wasted lots of money for call-center-employees, webservers and the technology itself," he said.

But a spokeswoman for Microsoft said that the version of the activation system that is in the pre-release versions of Windows XP is weaker than that which will ship with the finished version.

"The things that have been highlighted as a way of potentially bypassing activation will not be in the final code," said the spokeswoman. "The final code is going to be very different to what we have now."

"Product activation is not completely fixed in place at this time," she added.


Hacking WindowsXP Product Activation

Basic Issues

The file wpa.dbl in the directory system32 contains information on the system at the time of the Activation. If more than three hardware components are changed, Windows XP will notice it and delete wpa.dbl. With that the user shall be forced to activate XP anew. You do not get another 30 days of time, though, to activate again (in RC1 it is a fortnight). Instead XP takes the date of the installation as a basis. That means you have to activate immediately to run XP again, if the installation took place 30 days ago.

Volume serial number of the system volumes (displayed with dir-command)
MAC address of the network card (displayed with netstat -r -n)
Identification string of the CD ROM drive
Identification string of the displays
CPU serial number
Identification string of the system's hard disk
Identification string of the SCSI host adapter
Identification string of the IDE controller
String of the processor model
RAM size
1 = docking station, 0 = without docking station

First Tests

For a beginning we first of all saved the file wpa.dbl and then replaced the graphics card and the network card. As expected Windows XP was cooperative, so we could work without any disturbance. The first surprise showed up as we replaced the Celeron with a Pentium III: Suddenly Windows XP wanted to activate anew although we only changed three components.
The answer to the riddle is to be found in the serial number of the processor. Replacing the processor did not only change one but already changed two pieces of hardware information. For us that means to restart the computer and to switch off the serial number in the BIOS. Nonetheless XP insists on the Activation. A glance at wpa.dbl shows the reason why: Apparently XP put the file back in a non-activated condition. We again restart the computer, boot into DOS and copy the saved wpa.dbl back into the system directory of XP. With the next start of XP, the demand for Activation has disappeared. Evidently, wpa.dbl is the central authority to decide whether or not Activation already took place.

We re-install Windows XP on our computer from the ground up, using the very same product key. Nevertheless, the computer gets another product ID, as the last three digits are generated randomly. Although the product ID changed, Windows can be activated by copying the saved file wpa.dbl into the appropriate directory. Our next try brings an even bigger surprise: The Activation still works although we use a completely new product key for the installation.

Forged Hardware

These results kept in the back of our minds we try to activate Windows XP on another computer by copying the file wpa.dbl. First of all we adapt the volume ID of the new computer by means of freeware tools. The command line volumeid c: 3333-3333 changes the corresponding coefficient of the new system: The first component of Microsoft's protection is canceled.

With some network cards it is possible to adjust the MAC manually by means of the driver. The corresponding option in the register Advanced is called "Network Address" or "Locally administered Network Address".

So meanwhile we succeeded in switching off two components of the Activation by pretending another network address to the new system. The CPU serial number is switched off anyway, both computers do not have a SCSI host adapter and the memory is of the same size with both of them. With that altogether five sections of the hardware ID are identical.
Six actually, for both computers are not "to be docked". The latter gives us a bold plan...
Notebook of Eight Kilogrammes

What would happen if we tell the operating system that the computer is a notebook? This option can be toggled in the hardware profile of the device manager.

Can Microsoft be tricked that easily? Yes it can! After the next restart of the computer the analysis of the installation ID makes clear that suddenly the graphics card and the IDE/SCSI controller are no longer used to calculate the hardware ID.
So only three more differences in the configuration of the hardware remain:

Identification of the hard disk
Identification of the CPU
Identification of the CD-ROM drive

Because these three components are allowed to be different without XP insisting on a new Activation, this should be sufficient. So we copy the file wpa.dbl into the system32 directory of the second computer and start Windows XP. In the start menu it still says "Activate Windows". But when you call it up, you get your just reward though:

Windows XP enlists ten hardware components to calculate the installation ID, but six of them can be canceled without any problems:

Component To be canceled by
Volume ID Adapted by means of tool
MAC address Tuned by means of driver
Graphics card Switch over to docking station
CPU serial number Switch off in BIOS
SCSI host adapter Switch over to docking station
IDE controller Switch over to docking station

Important: A LAN does not tolerate two computers with the same MAC address.

Only four components are working almost effectively:

Component Size of bit field

Hard disk 7
CPU type 3
CD ROM 7
RAM size 3

Two fields are coded with three bits and two with seven bits. Because in each field the coefficient 0 is impossible, 7*7*127*127=790321 possibilities remain for the file wpa.dbl. As only three components are allowed to change from the moment of Activation onwards, you can take the weakest fixed component for a "Universal Activation".

The CPU type or the RAM size present themselves here as the best solution. It is more than sufficient to only once activate a computer with 128 MBytes of RAM at Microsoft's. With its file wpa.dbl you can then "activate" all other computers of the same memory size.

Conclusion

With its technology of Activation Microsoft wants to thwart the user who occasionally copies software. Up to a certain degree this may still work. But by means of the above described steps nearly everybody can activate his own XP merely by getting a corresponding wpa.dbl file. There certainly will exist some web sites in the near future where the user can comfortably download "his"wpa.dbl.

Should the current procedure of Activation remain, then Microsoft will spend a lot of money like water for technology, web servers and call centers without any considerable success. It would be much more lucrative to drop the Activation and to lower the price for XP.

Microsoft did not comment on the weak points of the Activation until now. But probably their statement goes as follows: "In its final version WPA will look completely different. We did not implement these steps in the RC1 for only one reason, that is not to annoy the testers."

But it definitely is a fact that in-between the Release Candidates and the real Release normally only bugs are rectified. May sharp tongues call the WPA itself a bug, in our opinion it is nothing more but an example of bad programming.


Inside Windows Product Activation

A Fully Licensed Paper

July 2001

Fully Licensed GmbH, Rudower Chaussee 29, 12489 Berlin, Germany

ht*p://www.licenturion.com


>> INTRODUCTION

The current public discussion of Windows Product Activation (WPA) is
characterized by uncertainty and speculation. In this paper we supply
the technical details of WPA - as implemented in Windows XP - that
Microsoft should have published long ago.

While we strongly believe that every software vendor has the right to
enforce the licensing terms governing the use of a piece of licensed
software by technical means, we also do believe that each individual
has the right to detailed knowledge about the full implications of the
employed means and possible limitations imposed by it on software
usage.

In this paper we answer what we think are currently the two most
important open questions related to Windows Product Activation.

* Exactly what information is transmitted during activation?

* How do hardware modifications affect an already activated
installation of Windows XP?

Our answers to these questions are based on Windows XP Release
Candidate 1 (build 2505). Later builds as well as the final version of
Windows XP might differ from build 2505, e.g. in the employed
cryptographic keys or the layout of some of the data
structures.

However, beyond such minor modifications we expect Microsoft to cling
to the general architecture of their activation mechanism. Thus, we
are convinced that the answers provided by this paper will still be
useful when the final version of Windows XP ships.

This paper supplies in-depth technical information about the inner
workings of WPA. Still, the discussion is 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.

XPDec, a command line utility suitable for verifying the presented
information, can be obtained from http://www.licenturion.com/xp/. It
implements the algorithms presented in this paper. Reading its source
code, which is available from the same location, is highly
recommended.

We have removed an important cryptographic key from the XPDec source
code. Recompiling the source code will thus fail to produce a working
executable. The XPDec executable on our website, however, contains
this key and is fully functional.

So, download the source code to learn about the inner workings of WPA,
but obtain the executable to experiment with your installation of
Windows XP.

We expect the reader to be familiar with the general procedure of
Windows Product Activation.

>> INSIDE THE INSTALLATION ID

We focused our research on product activation via telephone. We did
so, because we expected this variant of activation to be the most
straight-forward to analyze.

The first step in activating Windows XP via telephone is supplying the
call-center agent with the Installation ID displayed by msoobe.exe,
the application that guides a user through the activation process. The
Installation ID is a number consisting of 50 decimal digits that are
divided into groups of six digits each, as in

002666-077894-484890-114573-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XX

In this authentic Installation ID we have substituted digits that we
prefer not to disclose by 'X' characters.

If msoobe.exe is invoked more than once, it provides a different
Installation ID each time.

In return, the call-center agent provides a Confirmation ID matching
the given Installation ID. Entering the Confirmation ID completes the
activation process.

Since the Installation ID is the only piece of information revealed
during activation, the above question concerning the information
transmitted during the activation process is equivalent to the
question

'How is the Installation ID generated?'

To find an answer to this question, we trace back each digit of the
Installation ID to its origins.

>>> Check digits

The rightmost digit in each of the groups is a check digit to guard
against simple errors such as the call center agent's mistyping of one
of the digits read to him or her. The value of the check digit is
calculated by adding the other five digits in the group, adding the
digits at even positions a second time, and dividing the sum by
seven. The remainder of the division is the value of the check
digit. In the above example the check digit for the first group (6) is
calculated as follows.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 <- position
---+---+---+---+---
0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 6 <- digits

0 + 0 + 2 + 6 + 6 = 14 (step 1: add all digits)
0 + 6 + 14 = 20 (step 2: add even digits again)

step 3: division
20 / 7 = 2, remainder is 20 - (2 * 7) = 6

=> check digit is 6

Adding the even digits twice is probably intended to guard against the
relatively frequent error of accidentally swapping two digits while
typing, as in 00626 vs. 00266, which yield different check digits.

>>> Decoding

Removing the check digits results in a 41-digit decimal number. A
decimal number of this length roughly corresponds to a 136-bit binary
number. In fact, the 41-digit number is just the decimal encoding of
such a 136-bit multi-precision integer, which is stored in little
endian byte order as a byte array. Hence, the above Installation ID
can also be represented as a sequence of 17 bytes as in

0xXX 0xXX 0xXX 0xXX 0xXX 0xXX 0xXX 0xXX
0x94 0xAA 0x46 0xD6 0x0F 0xBD 0x2C 0xC8
0x00

In this representation of the above Installation ID 'X' characters
again substitute the digits that we prefer not to disclose. The '0x'
prefix denotes hex notation throughout this paper.

>>> Decryption

When decoding arbitrary Installation IDs it can be noticed that the
most significant byte always seems to be 0x00 or 0x01, whereas the
other bytes look random. The reason for this is that the lower 16
bytes of the Installation ID are encrypted, whereas the most
significant byte is kept in plaintext.

The cryptographic algorithm employed to encrypt the Installation ID is
a proprietary four-round Feistel cipher. Since the block of input
bytes passed to a Feistel cipher is divided into two blocks of equal
size, this class of ciphers is typically applied to input blocks
consisting of an even number of bytes - in this case the lower 16 of
the 17 input bytes. The round function of the cipher is the SHA-1
message digest algorithm keyed with a four-byte sequence.

Let + denote the concatenation of two byte sequences, ^ the XOR
operation, L and R the left and right eight-byte input half for one
round, L' and R' the output halves of said round, and First-8() a
function that returns the first eight bytes of an SHA-1 message
digest. Then one round of decryption looks as follows.

L' = R ^ First-8(SHA-1(L + Key))
R' = L

The result of the decryption is 16 bytes of plaintext, which are -
together with the 17th unencrypted byte - from now on interpreted as
four double words in little endian byte order followed by a single
byte as in

name | size | offset
-----+-------------+-------
H1 | double word | 0
H2 | double word | 4
P1 | double word | 8
P2 | double word | 12
P3 | byte | 16

H1 and H2 specify the hardware configuration that the Installation ID
is linked to. P1 and P2 as well as the remaining byte P3 contain the
Product ID associated with the Installation ID.

>>> Product ID

The Product ID consists of five groups of decimal digits, as in

AAAAA-BBB-CCCCCCC-DDEEE

If you search your registry for a value named 'ProductID', you will
discover the ID that applies to your installation. The 'About' window
of Internet Explorer should also yield your Product ID.

>>>> Decoding

The mapping between the Product ID in decimal representation and its
binary encoding in the double words P1 and P2 and the byte P3 is
summarized in the following table.

digits | length | encoding
--------+---------+---------------------------------------
AAAAA | 17 bits | bit 0 to bit 16 of P1
BBB | 10 bits | bit 17 to bit 26 of P1
CCCCCCC | 28 bits | bit 27 to bit 31 of P1 (lower 5 bits)
| | bit 0 to bit 22 of P2 (upper 23 bits)
DDEEE | 17 bits | bit 23 to bit 31 of P2 (lower 9 bits)
| | bit 0 to bit 7 of P3 (upper 8 bits)

The meaning of each of the five groups of digits is documented in the
next table.

digits | meaning
--------+-------------------------------------------------
AAAAA | apparently always 55034 (in Windows XP RC1)
BBB | most significant three digits of Raw Product Key
| (see below)
CCCCCCC | least significant six digits of Raw Product Key
| plus check digit (see below)
DD | index of the public key used to verify the
| Product Key (see below)
EEE | random value

As can be seen, the (Raw) Product Key plays an important role in
generating the Product ID.

>>>> Product Key

The Raw Product Key is buried inside the Product Key that is printed
on the sticker distributed with each Windows XP CD. It consists of
five alphanumeric strings separated by '-' characters, where each
string is composed of five characters, as in

FFFFF-GGGGG-HHHHH-JJJJJ-KKKKK

Each character is one of the following 24 letters and digits:

B C D F G H J K M P Q R T V W X Y 2 3 4 6 7 8 9

Very similar to the decimal encoding of the Installation ID the 25
characters of the Product Key form a base-24 encoding of the binary
representation of the Product Key. Decoding the Product Key yields a
multi-precision integer of roughly 115 bits, which is stored - again
in little endian byte order - in an array of 15 bytes. Decoding the
above Product Key results in the following byte sequence.

0x6F 0xFA 0x95 0x45 0xFC 0x75 0xB5 0x52
0xBB 0xEF 0xB1 0x17 0xDA 0xCD 0x00

Of these 15 bytes the least significant four bytes contain the Raw
Product Key in little endian byte order. The least significant bit is
removed by shifting this 32-bit value (0x4595FA6F - remember the
little endian byte order) to the left by one bit position, resulting
in a Raw Product Key of 0x22CAFD37, or

583728439

in decimal notation.

The eleven remaining bytes form a digital signature, allowing
verification of the authenticity of the Product Key by means of a
hard-coded public key.

>>>> Product Key -> Product ID

The three most significant digits, i.e. 583, of the Raw Product Key's
nine-digit decimal representation directly map to the BBB component of
the Product ID described above.

To obtain the CCCCCCC component, a check digit is appended to the
remaining six digits 728439. The check digit is chosen such that the
sum of all digits - including the check digit - is divisible by
seven. In the given case, the sum of the six digits is

7 + 2 + 8 + 4 + 3 + 9 = 33

which results in a check digit of 2, since

7 + 2 + 8 + 4 + 3 + 9 + 2 = 33 + 2 = 35

which is divisible by seven. The CCCCCCC component of the Product ID
is therefore 7284392.

For verifying a Product Key, more than one public key is available. If
verification with the first public key fails, the second is tried,
etc. The DD component of the Product ID specifies which of the public
keys in this sequence was successfully used to verify the Product Key.

This mechanism might be intended to support several different parties
generating valid Product Keys with different individual private keys.

However, the different private keys might also represent different
versions of a product. A Product Key for the 'professional' release
could then be signed with a different key than a Product Key for the
'server' release. The DD component would then represent the product
version.

Finally, a valid Product ID derived from our example Product Key might
be

55034-583-7284392-00123

which indicates that the first public key (DD = index = 0) matched and
123 was chosen as the random number EEE.

The randomly selected EEE component is the reason for msoobe.exe
presenting a different Installation ID at each invocation. Because of
the applied encryption this small change results in a completely
different Installation ID.

So, the Product ID transmitted during activation will most probably
differ in the last three digits from your Product ID as displayed by
Internet Explorer or as stored in the registry.

>>> Hardware Information

As discussed above, the hardware configuration linked to the
Installation ID is represented by the two double words H1 and H2.

>>>> Bit-fields

For this purpose, the double words are divided into twelve
bit-fields. The relationship between the computer hardware and the
bit-fields is given in the following table.

double word | offset | length | bit-field value based on
------------+--------+--------+----------------------------
H1 | 0 | 10 | volume serial number string
| | | of system volume
H1 | 10 | 10 | network adapter MAC address
| | | string
H1 | 20 | 7 | CD-ROM drive hardware
| | | identification string
H1 | 27 | 5 | graphics adapter hardware
| | | identification string
H2 | 0 | 3 | unused, set to 001
H2 | 3 | 6 | CPU serial number string
H2 | 9 | 7 | harddrive hardware
| | | identification string
H2 | 16 | 5 | SCSI host adapter hardware
| | | identification string
H2 | 21 | 4 | IDE controller hardware
| | | identification string
H2 | 25 | 3 | processor model string
H2 | 28 | 3 | RAM size
H2 | 31 | 1 | 1 = dockable
| | | 0 = not dockable

Bit 31 of H2 specifies, whether the bit-fields represent a notebook
computer that supports a docking station. If docking is possible, the
activation mechanism will be more tolerant with respect to future
hardware modifications. Here, the idea is that plugging a notebook
into its docking station possibly results in changes to its hardware
configuration, e.g. a SCSI host adapter built into the docking station
may become available.

Bits 2 through 0 of H2 are unused and always set to 001.

If the hardware component corresponding to one of the remaining ten
bit-fields is present, the respective bit-field contains a non-zero
value describing the component. A value of zero marks the hardware
component as not present.

All hardware components are identified by a hardware identification
string obtained from the registry. Hashing this string provides the
value for the corresponding bit-field.

>>>> Hashing

The hash result is obtained by feeding the hardware identification
string into the MD5 message digest algorithm and picking the number of
bits required for a bit-field from predetermined locations in the
resulting message digest. Different predetermined locations are used
for different bit-fields. In addition, a hash result of zero is
avoided by calculating

Hash = (Hash % BitFieldMax) + 1

where BitFieldMax is the maximal value that may be stored in the
bit-field in question, e.g. 1023 for a 10-bit bit-field, and 'x % y'
denotes the remainder of the division of x by y. This results in
values between 1 and BitFieldMax. The obtained value is then stored in
the respective bit-field.

>>>> RAM bit-field

The bit-field related to the amount of RAM available to the operating
system is calculated differently. The seven valid values specify the
approximate amount of available RAM as documented in the following
table.

value | amount of RAM available
------+---------------------------
0 | (bit-field unused)
1 | below 32 MB
2 | between 32 MB and 63 MB
3 | between 64 MB and 127 MB
4 | between 128 MB and 255 MB
5 | between 256 MB and 511 MB
6 | between 512 MB and 1023 MB
7 | above 1023 MB

It is important to note that the amount of RAM is retrieved by calling
the GlobalMemoryStatus() function, which reports a few hundred
kilobytes less than the amount of RAM physically installed. So, 128 MB
of RAM would typically be classified as "between 64 MB and 127 MB".

>>>> Real-world example

Let us have a look at a real-world example. On one of our test systems
the hardware information consists of the following eight bytes.

0xC5 0x95 0x12 0xAC 0x01 0x6E 0x2C 0x32

Converting the bytes into H1 and H2, we obtain

H1 = 0xAC1295C5 and H2 = 0x322C6E01

Splitting H1 and H2 yields the next table in which we give the value
of each of the bit-fields and the information from which each value is
derived.

dw & | |
offset | value | derived from
-------+-------+-----------------------------------------------
H1 0 | 0x1C5 | '1234-ABCD'
H1 10 | 0x0A5 | '00C0DF089E44'
H1 20 | 0x37 | 'SCSI\CDROMPLEXTOR_CD-ROM_PX-32TS__1.01'
H1 27 | 0x15 | 'PCI\VEN_102B&DEV_0519&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_01'
H2 0 | 0x1 | (unused, always 0x1)
H2 3 | 0x00 | (CPU serial number not present)
H2 9 | 0x37 | 'SCSI\DISKIBM_____DCAS-34330______S65A'
H2 16 | 0x0C | 'PCI\VEN_9004&DEV_7178&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_03'
H2 21 | 0x1 | 'PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7111&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_01'
H2 25 | 0x1 | 'GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 3'
H2 28 | 0x3 | (system has 128 MB of RAM)
H2 31 | 0x0 | (system is not dockable)

>>> Using XPDec

XPDec is a utility to be run from the command prompt. It may be
invoked with one of four command line options to carry out one of four
tasks.

>>>> XPDec -i

This option enables you to access the information hidden in an
Installation ID. It decodes the Installation ID, decrypts it, and
displays the values of the hardware bit-fields as well as the Product
ID of your product. Keep in mind that the last three digits of the
Product ID contained in the Installation ID are randomly selected and
differ from the Product ID displayed by Internet Explorer.

The only argument needed for the '-i' option is the Installation ID,
as in

XPDec -i 002666-077894-484890-114573-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XX

>>>> XPDec -p

To help you trace the origin of your Product ID, this option decodes a
Product Key and displays the Raw Product Key as it would be used in a
Product ID.

The only argument needed for the '-p' option is the Product Key, as in

XPDec -p FFFFF-GGGGG-HHHHH-JJJJJ-KKKKK

Note that this option does not verify the digital signature of the
Product Key.

>>>> XPDec -v

This option calculates the hash of a given volume serial number. It
was implemented to illustrate our description of string hashing. First
use '-i' to display the hardware bit-fields. Then use this option to
verify our claims concerning the volume serial number hash.

The only argument needed for the '-v' option is the volume serial
number of your system volume, as in

XPDec -v 1234-ABCD

(The volume serial number is part of the 'dir' command's output.)

>>>> XPDec -m

This option calculates the network adapter bit-field value
corresponding to the given MAC address. Similar to '-v' this option
was implemented as a proof of concept.

The only argument needed for the '-m' option is the MAC address of
your network adapter, as in

XPDec -m 00-C0-DF-08-9E-44

(Use the 'route print' command to obtain the MAC address of your
network adapter.)

>> HARDWARE MODIFICATIONS

When looking at the effects of hardware modifications on an already
activated installation of Windows XP, the file 'wpa.dbl' in the
'system32' directory plays a central role. It is a simple
RC4-encrypted database that stores, among other things like expiration
information and the Confirmation ID of an activated installation,

a) the bit-field values representing the current hardware
configuration,

and

the bit-field values representing the hardware configuration
at the time of product activation.

While a) is automatically updated each time the hardware configuration
is modified in order to reflect the changes, remains fixed. Hence,
can be thought of as a snapshot of the hardware configuration at
the time of product activation.

This snapshot does not exist in the database before product activation
and if we compare the size of 'wpa.dbl' before and after activation,
we will notice an increased file size. This is because the snapshot is
added to the database.

When judging whether re-activation is necessary, the bit-field values
of a) are compared to the bit-field values of , i.e. the current
hardware configuration is compared to the hardware configuration at
the time of activation.

>>> Non-dockable computer

Typically all bit-fields with the exception of the unused field and
the 'dockable' field are compared. If more than three of these ten
bit-fields have changed in a) since product activation, re-activation
is required.

This means, for example, that in our above real-world example, we
could replace the harddrive and the CD-ROM drive and substantially
upgrade our RAM without having to re-activate our Windows XP
installation.

However, if we completely re-installed Windows XP, the information in
would be lost and we would have to re-activate our installation,
even if we had not changed our hardware.

>>> Dockable computer

If bit 31 of H2 indicates that our computer supports a docking
station, however, only seven of the ten bit-fields mentioned above are
compared. The bit-fields corresponding to the SCSI host adapter, the
IDE controller, and the graphics board are omitted. But again, of
these remaining seven bit-fields, only up to three may change without
requiring re-activation.

>> CONCLUSIONS

In this paper we have given a technical overview of Windows Product
Activation as implemented in Windows XP. We have shown what
information the data transmitted during product activation is derived
from and how hardware upgrades affect an already activated
installation.

Looking at the technical details of WPA, we do not think that it is as
problematic as many people have expected. We think so, because WPA is
tolerant with respect to hardware modifications. In addition, it is
likely that more than one hardware component map to a certain value
for a given bit-field. From the above real-world example we know that
the PX-32TS maps to the value 0x37 = 55. But there are probably many
other CD-ROM drives that map to the same value. Hence, it is
impossible to tell from the bit-field value whether it is a PX-32TS
that we are using or one of the other drives that map to the same
value.

In contrast to many critics of Windows Product Activation, we think
that WPA does not prevent typical hardware modifications and,
moreover, respects the user's right to privacy.

>> ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Fully Licensed GmbH is a start-up company focusing on novel approaches
to online software licensing and distribution. Have a look at their
website at

http://www.licenturion.com

for more information.

Their research branch every now and then analyzes licensing solutions
implemented by other companies.

>> COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2001 Fully Licensed GmbH (www.licenturion.com)
All rights reserved.

You are free to do whatever you want with this paper. However, you
have to supply the URL of its online version

http://www.licenturion.com/xp/

with any work derived from this paper to give credit to its authors.

>>
>> Frequently asked questions and their answers
>> concerning the Fully Licensed WPA paper
>>
>> Fully Licensed GmbH, July 10, 2001
>>

>> 1. Was Microsoft involved in the creation of the paper?

Microsoft was not involved in the creation of the paper in any
way. However, we made a draft version available to Microsoft to give
them a head-start. We consider it to be good etiquette to inform a
vendor of a pending publication related to one his or her products, so
that the vendor is able to prepare an official response.

>> 2. Why should we believe you?

We do not expect you to believe us. That's why we have provided our
complete knowledge about WPA and the XPDec utility. Combine both to
verify our claims.

>> 3. But Thomas Lopatic, one of your managing directors was born in
Unterschleissheim, Germany, which is the town near Munich in
which Microsoft's European headquarters are located.

This is a nice coincidence. It is in a way understandable - and at the
same time highly amusing to us :-) - that this has given rise to
rumors about the whole paper being a cleverly planned Microsoft
conspiracy.

Thomas was actually born in Karlsruhe, Germany. However, he was living
in Unterschleissheim from the 1970s - i.e. long before Microsoft moved
there - until recently, when he moved to Berlin. That's why some
records still list Unterschleissheim as the place where he
lives. Incorrectly interpreting these records led to the rumor that
Thomas was born in Unterschleissheim.

>> 4. Does Microsoft downplay the paper?

No, most definitely not. The paper really IS harmless. It does not
provide any information that would help a pirate circumvent WPA.

>> 5. Why did you release details on Windows Product Activation?

We felt that there is a need for facts in the debate about Windows
Product Activation. Many people suspected that WPA could be abused to
spy on end-users. Our paper, however, shows that insensitive
information is transmitted during product activation. From this, it
can be seen that the facts that we provide really are a necessary
contribution to the ongoing discussion about WPA.

We think that license enforcement mechanisms will be an important part
of the future of software distribution via the Internet. Thus, we do
think that public discussion of technology of this kind must be free
from bias and it must be based on facts and openness.

We hope that the information that we provide positively affects the
current debate. The debate is necessary, but it should be based on
facts and full disclosure of information relevant to the privacy
question.

>> 6. Do you know how to circumvent Windows Product Activation?

No. We provide insight into which information is transmitted to
Microsoft during activation. Our paper is important to help people
understand the impact of WPA on their work and their privacy. We do
not believe that our paper helps in any way to circumvent the license
enforcement provided by WPA.

>> 7. Your paper says that Microsoft will err on the user's side.

What our paper shows is that a) no sensitive information is
transferred to Microsoft and typical hardware upgrades do not
negatively affect an already activated installation of Windows XP.

But, if you either completely re-install Windows XP or modify your
hardware beyond what is tolerated by product activation, you have to
re-activate Windows XP.

The important question now is: How often will Microsoft let you
re-activate? Erring on the user's side would mean that they allow you
to re-activate as often as you like, which seems to be what Microsoft
says they will do.

It is, however, impossible to confirm this policy by means of a
technical analysis.

>> 8. Why doesn't Microsoft know which hardware I use?

Let us consider the case of IDE controllers. In the installation ID
transmitted to Microsoft they are represented by a 4-bit value. The 4
bits are obtained by applying the MD5 message digest algorithm to a
string that uniquely identifies the vendor and model of the IDE
controller, e.g.

'PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7111&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_01'

and picking 4 bits from fixed locations in the resulting 128-bit
message digest.

With 4 bits, we can represent 16 different values at maximum. However,
there are far more than 16 different models of IDE controllers out
there. So, since there are more models than 4-bit values, the above
hashing procedure must yield the same 4 bits for more than one
model. The more models there are, the more models will map to a given
4-bit value.

In contrast to what Microsoft says, the privacy that WPA provides is
not based on the assumption that it is impossible to invert the
employed message digest algorithm, i.e. MD5. If we used all 128 bits
of the message digest derived from a hardware component's
identification string, this 128-bit value would most probably uniquely
identify the hardware component. If we used 128 bits, each hardware
component on earth would probably map to a different value.

What an attacker would then do is build a list of all hardware
components on this planet and calculate the corresponding 128-bit
values, which are probably all different. Then finding the hardware
component that corresponds to a certain 128-bit value is just a table
lookup away.

Privacy is based on the fact that only a few bits of the resulting
128-bit message digest are considered. Obviously this leads to lots of
collisions, i.e. lots of hardware components mapping to a given
value. If there were 160 different models of IDE controllers, we could
on average expect 160 / 16 = 10 models to map to the same 4-bit value.

Let us, as another example, consider the MAC address of an ethernet
adapter. The discussion is technically not 100% accurate, but it
illustrates the point. The MAC address is a 48-bit value, which means
that it can theoretically be one of 281,474,976,710,656 different
values. However, its 10-bit representation in the Installation ID is
obtained by picking 10 bits from the MD5 hash over an ASCII string
comprised of the 12 hex digits of the 48-bit value. Picking 10 bits
leads to 1,024 different results at maximum.

So, on average, we expect

281,474,976,710,656 / 1,024 = 274,877,906,944

MAC addresses to map to the same 10-bit value. Because of this, nobody
will be able to obtain the actual MAC address from the 10-bit value,
since there are 274,877,906,944 candidate MAC addresses from which the
10-bit value could have been derived.

It is interesting to see that the bit-field that represents the MAC
address is 10 bits in size, while the bit-field representing the IDE
controller only consists of 4 bits. Microsoft probably have assigned a
longer bit-field to a component if they expect more diversity in the
identification string of this component. The number of different IDE
controller models is smaller by orders of magnitude than the number of
different MAC addresses. So, to produce sufficient collisions, they
decided to use a relatively small bit-field for IDE controllers but
could still afford to chose a 10-bit bit-field in the case of MAC
addresses.

>> 9. What are the implications of re-activating after hardware
changes?

This is an interesting issue which is not covered in our paper. We
simply did not think of it. Our mistake. It was brought to our
attention by an article by Greg Falcon on
www.slashdot.org: If you have to re-activate your installation of
Windows XP because of hardware modifications, your new hardware
configuration is embedded in the Installation ID in the form discussed
above. While this does not enable anyone to find out which components
you have, it is trivial to find out which components you have
changed. Just examine which bit-fields have changed their value since
the original activation.


--------------------------------------------
"Windows XP enlists ten hardware components to calculate the installation
ID, but six of them can be canceled without any problems:

Volume ID ---------- Adapted by means of tool
MAC address -------- Tuned by means of driver
Graphics card -------Switch over to docking station
CPU serial number - Switch off in BIOS
SCSI host adapter -- Switch over to docking station
IDE controller ------- Switch over to docking station

Important: A LAN does not tolerate two computers with the same MAC address.
"
-----------------------------------------
(Switching to 'Docking Station' in Device Manager / Performance / File
System settings doesn't mean you actually have a docking station of any kind
so can be used for non-notebook computers that cannot even USE a docking
station!)

If you want WindowsXP on a network, you're stuck (until someone finds
another route around Activation - juding by the speed of this one, that
won't be long!) But then why would anyone want more than one copy of Windoze
XP on a LAN anyway!
---------------------------------------------
"It is more than sufficient to only once activate a computer with 128 MBytes
of RAM. With its file wpa.dbl you can then "activate" all other computers of
the same memory size." [no matter what other hardware is installed as long
as it's set as a notebook and the volume tag etc is set to match].

"Can Microsoft be tricked that easily? Yes it can! After the next restart of
the computer [after changing to docking station] the analysis of the
installation ID makes clear that suddenly the graphics card and the IDE/SCSI
controller are no longer used to calculate the hardware ID. In computers
that can be docked, XP ignores the identification of the graphics card, the
SCSI host adapter and the IDE controller.

So only three more differences in the configuration of the hardware remain:

Identification of the hard disk
Identification of the CPU
Identification of the CD-ROM drive

Because these three components are allowed to be different without XP
insisting on a new Activation, this should be sufficient. So we copy the
file wpa.dbl into the system32 directory of the second computer and start
Windows XP. In the start menu it still says "Activate Windows". But when you
call it up, you get your just reward though:
"Windows Product Activation: Windows is already activated. Click OK to
exit."

"So first of all Tecchannel saved the file then started changing hardware.
Two items OK, but replacing a third - the CPU - triggered the deletion.
Although you'd think the CPU is only one component, it's actually tallied up
as two. Switching off the CPU serial number in the bios and therefore
knocking it down to one doesn't get the earlier wpa.dbl back - this has been
restored in a non-activated state.

Copy the saved version back? That surely shouldn't work - but it does. Next,
Tecchannel tried a completely new installation using the same product key.
This produces a new product ID, but nevertheless copying the wpa.dbl file
back again works.

They also use this file on another computer, altering the computer's volume
ID first, which is easily enough done. They can also use forged network
cards MAC addresses, so now they've taken two parts of the hardware ID out
of the picture. Next, use the hardware profile to tell the computer it's a
notebook with a docking station. This works, and tells WPA to stop counting
the IDE/SCSI controller and the graphics card.

That gets the differences counted down to three, hard disk, CPU and CDROM
ID, which is within the limit, so WPA is effectively toast.

What does this mean? Tecchannel's investigation shows that, at the very
least, you can use the same wpa.dbl file to activate as many computers as
you like, provided the RAM size is the same. A 'universal' file that didn't
even require the same RAM might be a possibility, but it's more likely that
people will simply swap files to get one appropriate for their hardware. "


Hope it enlights some of us to create a unique keygen just to get the confirmation ID generated after putting the Installation ID on the same.

Enjoy!!