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Skriven 2006-10-24 12:07:32 av TOM WALKER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Dvorak Again
====================
Onerous Vista Activation, A Time Bomb? 
10.16.06 

Do we really need Windows Genuine Advantage? 
By John C. Dvorak  

There has been a lot of chatter recently over some of the newer activation
and validation schemes that Microsoft may or may not implement with its new
Vista operating system. Nobody at Microsoft is saying much, and a lot of
bloggers and pundits are all over these alleged schemes, calling them bad
news for users. I personally see these developments as bad news for
Microsoft, especially if what I'm about to outline actually happens.

ADVERTISEMENT As we all know, Microsoft implemented full-throttle
activation in Windows XP and managed to dominate the market, with very few
complaints from users. Windows XP was generally liberal in the way it dealt
with hardware swaps and upgrades. Even when it delivered an activation
error, when you added some major system peripheral or rejiggered the
system, you could usually get it back up and running with a simple call to
the activation center. I did this a couple of times and although it took a
little time, it always seemed to work.

I personally do not see why this wouldn't continue to work with Vista. So
what's different? The difference is that Microsoft wants to put yet another
layer into the mix, and this layer, Windows Genuine Advantage, could become
a problem if the layer itself is ever targeted by a virus or Trojan horse. 

In other words, what happens if Windows Genuine Advantage is itself
corrupted? Windows Genuine Advantage is the layer we really do not need.
There is no reason, as far as I can tell, to add a watchdog program to
Windows to make sure users are not running bootleg versions of the OS.
There has to be a better way.

Now I can understand how this happened. It happened in a committee inside
Microsoft when someone came up with the brilliant idea of essentially
creating a virtual policeman to watch over the operating system to make
sure it has the right "papers." This is an interesting idea, but who
watches and authenticates the policeman?

I suspect the policeman will actually be hacked before the OS. It might
actually be easier for the pirates to create a fake cop that constantly
authenticates fake versions of Vista than it will be to create a Vista
imitation that can pretend to be a legitimate version. There is some irony
to that idea. But that's none of my concern. I'm more worried about some
joker creating a virus or exploit that turns the good cop into a bad cop,
and I can only imagine the destruction and hassle that will ensue.

First of all, this policeman program is also a traffic cop. Aside from
having the potential ability to turn your operating system off so that it
cannot work at all, it is the program that allows your OS to be upgraded.
There will be no patches for an exploit against the program that turns off
upgrades. Once a virus that makes the cop refuse to authenticate Vista hits
the Net, then how can the problem be fixed? By definition and the way I see
it, this will be an impossibility.

This concept of hacking the policeman is not new. If you recall some of the
viruses from a few years back, many of them would first attack antivirus
software to render it useless.

I do not even want to think of the consequences of Vista turning itself off
in enterprise situations such as airline reservations or a hospital full of
patients on life support. A serious collapse of the authentication network
that could not be fixed without sending out discs or one-by-one-downloads
will end up in the courts, and you can be certain that the shrink-wrap
license agreement that holds Microsoft blameless will be tossed out as
bogus. 

Of course Vista isn't shipping yet, and a lot of final decisions have not
been made. But Windows Genuine Advantage has already been test-marketed on
Windows XP users. Why anyone running Win XP would ever install it is
somewhat mysterious, but let's face it, most people are trusting, gullible,
and naïve when it comes to big corporations pushing them around. 

All I can say is that Microsoft's strategy could become a tremendous
nightmare if the black-hat brigades target the Windows Genuine Advantage
scheme with an answer of their own. Stay tuned. It could get ugly.

 
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