Hackers have found the proverbial goose that lays golden eggs, ok well maybe not golden eggs but they have found the mother of all product keys. The super secret OEM master key that will activate an unlimited number of copies of Windows 7 OEM editions.
The key is meant to allow OEMs such as Dell, HP or in this case Lenovo, to pre-activate machines so they are already setup for consumers when they get them home. The OEM activation system relies on a special BIOS string that identifies itself to Windows. A software hack is all that's required to fool Windows into thinking that any machine is an authorized one that can be activated using the OEM license key.
The OEM license key this time around was extracted from a legitimate Lenovo OEM Ultimate edition DVD .ISO file which contained the data that hackers needed to make the activation tools. The data was first posted on a Chinese web forum and has since spread its way around the web.
The new master key has already been used to implement a click-and-forget activator which some users have confirmed works on downloaded copies of the Windows 7 Ultimate OEM.
This is pretty amazing, and startling news for Microsoft and their OEM partners. Especially considering the consumer release date isn't slated until Oct. 22
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