Inside Microsoft's Windows Product Activation --------------------------------------------- Berlin, Germany, July 9, 2001. Fully Licensed GmbH has analyzed the internals of Windows Product Activation, Microsoft's anti-piracy technology built into Windows XP. "We contribute technical facts to a discussion that is currently characterized by uncertainty and speculation about XP revealing details of a user's hardware configuration, the installed software, or even personal data during the activation procedure." says Thomas Lopatic, managing director and CTO of Fully Licensed. The comprehensive technical analysis performed by the licensing experts proves that in addition to insensitive hardware-related information only the individual serial number of each copy of Windows XP is transmitted. Windows Product Activation is designed to enforce the licensing terms that govern the use of Windows XP by binding an XP license to a single hardware configuration and thus to a single computer. While the activation procedure requires data to be transmitted to an activation center, Microsoft declines to publish any technical details of the information revealed by this data transmission. The lack of facts has given rise to speculation. Some users fear that modifying their hardware configuration would require re-activation of Windows XP. Others fear that details of their hardware configuration could be embedded in the transmitted data. To satisfy the need for technical details, Fully Licensed GmbH has performed an in-depth analysis of Windows Product Activation as implemented by Windows XP Release Candidate 1. The experts discovered that ten different hardware components form the basis for a hardware ID, which is sent to the activation central during activation. However, due to the method employed to generate the hardware ID, it is very likely that many hardware configurations result in the same ID. Consequently, determining the actual hardware configuration corresponding to a given hardware ID is an infeasible task. In addition to the hardware ID only information derived from the product key - a kind of serial number accompanying each distributed copy of Windows XP - is transmitted. Moreover, typical hardware updates do not pose any problems either. "More than three of the ten hardware components considered when calculating the hardware ID have to be replaced - e.g. the harddrive, the CD-ROM drive, the microprocessor, and the network adapter - to make re-activation necessary. If the hardware ID is associated with a notebook that supports a docking-station, the policy is still more liberal." says Thomas Lopatic. "Since our analysis proves that the transmitted information is completely innocuous, we are surprised that Microsoft has been that vague about the inner workings of WPA for all these months." says Matthias Kunze, managing director and CFO of Fully Licensed. "Software piracy is still a major problem for all software companies. And we think that their interest in raising the bar for software pirates is absolutely justified." he adds. In addition to relying on technical methods to tackle software piracy Fully Licensed advocate complementary means to form a holistic approach to the problem. Advanced licensing models - e.g. software rental or software leasing - offer a commercially attractive alternative to the use of pirated software in companies. The necessary technological basis has already moved from hype to here. "Software watermarking, automated code obfuscation, online license enforcement, and license management form parts of the Fully Licensed holistic solution for software licensing and software distribution." says Thomas Lopatic. The technical paper covering the in-depth analysis of Windows Product Activation as well as a demonstration program including source code is available from the Fully Licensed website at http://www.licenturion.com/xp/. About Fully Licensed GmbH ------------------------- Fully Licensed GmbH provides a secure and flexible infrastructure for online licensing and online distribution of software. It integrates software watermarking, automated code obfuscation, license enforcement and license management, while preserving the end-user's right to privacy. In addition to raising the bar for software pirates by technical means, this approach supplies the basis for easy and secure realization of advanced licensing models such as software rental or software leasing. Fully Licensed GmbH consider themselves to be an independent and unbiased mediator between software vendors and end-users. Their research and development branch every now and then analyzes licensing solutions implemented by other companies. Contact ------- Matthias Kunze Fully Licensed GmbH Rudower Chaussee 29 12489 Berlin Web http://www.licenturion.com Tel +49 30 6392-6712 Fax +49 30 6392-6010