all Windows 8 OEM need UEFI ?

Discussion in 'Windows 8' started by B8, Oct 14, 2011.

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  1. Daz

    Daz MDL Developer / Admin

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    #261 Daz, Nov 11, 2011
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2011
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  2. Yen

    Yen Admin (retired)
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    #262 Yen, Nov 11, 2011
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2011
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  3. alextheg

    alextheg MDL Expert

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    Perhaps, but then if said user were to swap out significant parts of hardware like say the mobo..... What then ? What happens to the hardware ID ?

    You know it is possible MS hasn't been as clever as you think. Nothing in life is fool proof. There will be a way. Someone will leak something.

    Even TPM can be fiddled with , reset and taken ownership of. You said it yourself Yen , Sometimes OA 2.0 / 2.1 even 3.0 can really end up being simple
     
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  4. wachumaju

    wachumaju MDL Novice

    Nov 10, 2011
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    I'm new here, please bear with me. Maybe W8 will be activated by several factors, the most important of which is a MS signed HW hash in the UEFI. The hash may include the GUID or serial number of the processor or whatever. Maybe one can extract the SLP, MSDM and other stuff from one board and insert it into another without any alterations but he cannot make use of a signed HW hash with a different processor ID in it. Unless, of course, someone can generate one and sign it with MS signature.
     
  5. Yen

    Yen Admin (retired)
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    Well, sure, it's confirmed when it's available, not before. Focusing on what we 'know':

    Unique serials, stored at NVRAM. I say we know, because of: Forest's post, the findings of nononsence, complaints of the OEMs to have extra work with each machine to be sold, procedure is already practice at OA2.1 SLIC writing into NVRAM of Asus notebooks and finally the Gigabyte BIOS MSDM table.

    Hardware hash and secure boot requirement unsure. TPM can be excluded. (Changelog of UEFIs, Gigabyte BIOS, different regional policy of TPM).

    These points are considerations.

    Even though one could mimic it perfectly, it cannot become a mass activation. At the latest at genuine check M$ server would recognize multi activation. They can blacklist the key, the legit user would be the one who suffers.

    Only chance is to 'share' a key with a 'friend'. When it gets leaked, game over. But why to make the effort to mimic then? It's the same with retail keys......

    From what I know atm OEM mimicking for the masses is over.
     
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  6. alextheg

    alextheg MDL Expert

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    I hate to say it but i hope you are wrong Yen.
     
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  7. Yen

    Yen Admin (retired)
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    Beijing delayed, looool. :)
    Yeah, never say never, but previous OEM mimicking forced them to use unique serials.

    Hey we have Android! It's free. And we have w7 the best M$ OS ever.
     
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  8. craftbrewer

    craftbrewer MDL Senior Member

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    #268 craftbrewer, Nov 11, 2011
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2011
    Just throwing this out there, everyone believes an OEM activation will have to be done by the M$ server.

    I can remember when everyone thought Enterprise activation was impossible outside dedicated servers. It was foolproof. Then over time (vista era I think), firstly pirate activation servers were set up, then large virtual servers were created you could run on your own computer, and over time these were compressed to the bear bones, and we have a neat compressed KMS system.

    So if M$ goes down the route of M$ server activation, what stopping some sort of "other server" evolution to activate OEM windows 8. Surely it could be done with leaked keys and hashes. OK, M$ might not give updates, BUT you would then find sites you can download these anyway.
     
  9. CODYQX4

    CODYQX4 MDL Developer

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    The servers behind KMS are within a company, not MS, so any employee on IT with the right access could just VM the machine, take it home, and reverse it. Servers as you describe would be in MS HQ, like the retail ones. If it was as easy as you describe we'd have a retail emulator to boot.
     
  10. woot332

    woot332 MDL Senior Member

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    the algo to decode the product key hasn't changend much, gotta luv m$ ;)
     
  11. Daz

    Daz MDL Developer / Admin

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    Every application currently can't decode a Windows 8 serial as the algorithm has changed. It includes more letters and numbers and so far nobody has been able to work it out.
     
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  12. Yen

    Yen Admin (retired)
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    Even if you could calculate valid keys, even for the matching OEMID, they simply could become blacklisted if not officially released to the OEMs (yet). If you got one that has been 'sold' already then you have found your 'share-friend' lol. But it easier could be your online PC shop, just dump the MSDM data and send the OEM notebook back, lol.
     
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  13. craftbrewer

    craftbrewer MDL Senior Member

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    What I am saying is simple. Lets say some-one gets hold of the ALL the keys for a speific OEM activation, and the boot-loader, AND all the digital signitures match. We all know that will be specific per machine.

    BUT

    if OEM requires going thru a M$ server, whats stopping some-one (like KMS) eventually setting up a virtual server to activate this one digital signatured Windows 8. OK, the key can be blacklisted, BUT ther are other ways of getting updates than thru M$.

    So if one doesn't need to validate thru M$ in the future, why would not this work.
     
  14. nononsence

    nononsence MDL Addicted

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    This all depends upon how Microsoft implements OA3.0, and there are a few question that are raised
    like once the digital key is written to NVRAM is that it? Windows is activated, does the hardware hash
    get checked from time to time/every boot, what happen's in the event of a hardware change or NVRAM
    gets erased. if I upgrade the hard drive in my Win7 laptop I can install Windows then a key and certificate.
    will this work with Windows 8.

    I suppose most the these problems could be overcome by tying the Windows 8 licence to the TPM serial number
    or the RSA key inside and then allowing a limited number of re-activation's. The TPM SN or RSA key could be
    the hardware hash that is then used to salt the digital key generation, then at a later time the digital key could be
    decrypted to reveal the hash for the TMP and compared to the hash of the installed TMP to verify the Windows 8 license.
    though this is just speculation I do like the idea of transferring my Windows 8 licence to another non OEM machine.

    I think that the developer preview was released to give OEM's time the adjust their production lines and train people
    to deploy Windows 8 and we can find more details in the activation components included in the developer preview.
     
  15. alextheg

    alextheg MDL Expert

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    LOL..... MDL members doing MS's job for them. No surprise there eh ? I reckon some of their employee's come here for a little extra education when it comes to activation exploits :D :D
     
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  16. woot332

    woot332 MDL Senior Member

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    pm sent ;)
     
  17. woot332

    woot332 MDL Senior Member

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    oh and by the way MGADiag is not the only tool to decode the win 8 serial :D
    but as with MGADiag the N is still screwup so still no proper decoding.

    kgf.jpg
     
  18. Daz

    Daz MDL Developer / Admin

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    @ woot332
    What are you using to pull that information in the picture? If you were to share any code then I know exactly how to fix it.
     
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