[Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered&[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Vista apparently needs to call the mother ship quite frequently or it will go back into reduced operation mode. You can get around it by putting in a KMS server which calls home for you once every 6 months, or you can download an image of an already activated KMS vmware image, and with a few settings chganges you only need to start it up once in a while to ensure your machines stay enabled. http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/12/14/kms-crack-method-to-activate-windows-vista-business-or-enterprise-edition-with-local-spoof-kms-server/ Joy ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
> Yeah, probably - but just for the fun of it I'm curious what happened > (unless it's some dumb user error). Well I've been running NT flavors of windows since 1994 but I'm not beyond dumb user errors. So what sort of dumb user error (besides telling the machine NO you may not have full internet access) do you think would cause reduced functionality mode to kick in? And why would it kick back off with such stealth? I mean shouldn't there be some sort of notification so admins don't spend lifetimes trying to track down why solitaire stops working? I did disable a bunch of unneeded services like ssdp discovery, upnp, windows defender, the windows firewall, ICS and BITS and stopped and started others like media center launch and media center extender. But the disabled services are still disabled and there were plenty of reboots prior to reduced functionality mode kicking in. If it takes more than simply roping the computer to a fraction of the internet then it could be any combination of things, I mean I played with it for over a week before it went into reduced functionality mode. Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
lol i want to see this happen in a .edu unit where you can only access the internet by going through a limited HTTP proxy that does not allow the connect function, think it would give humourous results. unless it 'phones home' by visiting a page and printing said info, which in that case it would probably be simple enough to modify the server it goes to and make it think its going to microsoft, in that event you could easily get cd keys if thats how it verifies its a real vista copy. On 1/1/07, Geo. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It just can't be that simple. There has to be more to what happened to > the guy. Lots of computers are offline for several days at a time, it's > inconceivable that they didn't test that. Ok, as complete as I can be in the few minutes I have to post this. During those three days I did a lot of poking around, stopping and starting services, switching from wired to wireless and back, trying to view high def video (which I still am not able to do in any video player except WMP for some reason) installing codecs and software, running into the event ID 4226 tcp security connect limit, etc. However I never got any notification of deactivation or any problem of that sort. Then on the third day suddenly solitaire would not start up and I couldn't get into network properties. I did a bunch of rebooting and trouble shooting trying to figure that out but got nowhere. So I went back to trying to get high def video to work in Media player classic and figured perhaps it was trying to download a codec so I removed the routes. It didn't help the video but I quickly found network properties started working. So then I tried solitaire and it worked. This was all directly after removing the routes, there wasn't but a few minutes between letting it talk to the net and these apps starting to work again. I decided this was probably reduced functionality in action but since I had never seen it before I needed some way to trigger it so I could compare since it would take 3 days to reproduce with route blocking. I disabled the software licensing service since it claims disabling that service will kick off reduced functionality mode. Nothing happened immediately but 24 hours later solitaire and network properties (and now control panel) would not start up. It was exactly the same apps and behavior. I enabled and started the software licensing service and in seconds things returned to fully functional just like removing the routes did. So it's possible the routes didn't trigger it, but removing them sure cured it quickly so that is my guess at this point. Further testing is needed. I won't be testing it for a couple days as I need the laptop connected to other networks to try some other software I need to test. (that tcp limit may prove a problem for network monitoring) Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
> It just can't be that simple. There has to be more to what happened to > the guy. Lots of computers are offline for several days at a time, it's > inconceivable that they didn't test that. Ok, as complete as I can be in the few minutes I have to post this. During those three days I did a lot of poking around, stopping and starting services, switching from wired to wireless and back, trying to view high def video (which I still am not able to do in any video player except WMP for some reason) installing codecs and software, running into the event ID 4226 tcp security connect limit, etc. However I never got any notification of deactivation or any problem of that sort. Then on the third day suddenly solitaire would not start up and I couldn't get into network properties. I did a bunch of rebooting and trouble shooting trying to figure that out but got nowhere. So I went back to trying to get high def video to work in Media player classic and figured perhaps it was trying to download a codec so I removed the routes. It didn't help the video but I quickly found network properties started working. So then I tried solitaire and it worked. This was all directly after removing the routes, there wasn't but a few minutes between letting it talk to the net and these apps starting to work again. I decided this was probably reduced functionality in action but since I had never seen it before I needed some way to trigger it so I could compare since it would take 3 days to reproduce with route blocking. I disabled the software licensing service since it claims disabling that service will kick off reduced functionality mode. Nothing happened immediately but 24 hours later solitaire and network properties (and now control panel) would not start up. It was exactly the same apps and behavior. I enabled and started the software licensing service and in seconds things returned to fully functional just like removing the routes did. So it's possible the routes didn't trigger it, but removing them sure cured it quickly so that is my guess at this point. Further testing is needed. I won't be testing it for a couple days as I need the laptop connected to other networks to try some other software I need to test. (that tcp limit may prove a problem for network monitoring) Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
> It just can't be that simple. There has to be more to what happened to the guy. Lots of computers are offline for several > days at a time, it's inconceivable that they didn't test that. Yeah, probably - but just for the fun of it I'm curious what happened (unless it's some dumb user error). ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
>>if you cut a vista's internet access after it's been activated, does it go to reduced mode because of not being able to phone home? It just can't be that simple. There has to be more to what happened to the guy. Lots of computers are offline for several days at a time, it's inconceivable that they didn't test that. Larry Seltzer eWEEK.com Security Center Editor http://security.eweek.com/ http://blog.eweek.com/blogs/larry%5Fseltzer/ Contributing Editor, PC Magazine [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
> One thing you might try is instead of cutting it off entirely from the internet, use an external device to limit what internet > addresses it can talk to so that it has a valid and working gateway but it can't phone home. I doubt Vista wants to google for porn instead of phoning home. After reading the other posts, I think the question is still there, if you cut a vista's internet access after it's been activated, does it go to reduced mode because of not being able to phone home? Anybody with certain results on this? ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
> In the short, I am unable to repro this. I'm currently running Vista on > two > systems; the other system is in a sandbox. (However, was "open" during the > activation process.) One thing you might try is instead of cutting it off entirely from the internet, use an external device to limit what internet addresses it can talk to so that it has a valid and working gateway but it can't phone home. Also, it didn't happen immediately, I implemented the routing and then it was 3 days before I noticed things weren't working (may have been less but I just didn't notice till then), tried rebooting to cure the problems, poked around at other things, nothing helped. Then upon removing the routing and letting it talk to the whole net it was only minutes before everything was working again. Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
On Mon, 1 Jan 2007, Poof <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The issues that the original poster is having don't sound anything like > normal behavior. One of the scenarios expected in Vista would be a Laptop > that's been activated being used in a restricted internet work zone. And if > that laptop has been activated normally (The 1-time activation as provided > with the Windows install.) it shouldn't go to reduced mode. Further, it'll > give a 30 day warning prior to going to reduced mode if it's suddenly > deactivated asking for it to be reactivated. (Say a hardware change/etc.) > > In the short, I am unable to repro this. I'm currently running Vista on two > systems; the other system is in a sandbox. (However, was "open" during the > activation process.) > > Erm, from what I can see from the requirements, Internet is not required as > it's in the same format as Audio. The issue is not: How Microsoft treats those whose boxes Microsoft has Tojaned. The issue is: Microsoft should not be root on my computer. And no EULA can take away root from me and grant root to Microsoft on any computer I own. oo--JS. > > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Geo. > Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 3:35 PM > To: full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk > Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered > > >> anything in vista's agreement in legalish that could be translated into >> 'you agree that you feed your software internet' ? > > http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/systemrequirements.mspx > > Yep, specifies "internet" under requirements. Should specify unrestricted > internet access if you ask me. > > Geo. > > ___ > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. > Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html > Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ > > ___ > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. > Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html > Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ > > ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
The issues that the original poster is having don't sound anything like normal behavior. One of the scenarios expected in Vista would be a Laptop that's been activated being used in a restricted internet work zone. And if that laptop has been activated normally (The 1-time activation as provided with the Windows install.) it shouldn't go to reduced mode. Further, it'll give a 30 day warning prior to going to reduced mode if it's suddenly deactivated asking for it to be reactivated. (Say a hardware change/etc.) In the short, I am unable to repro this. I'm currently running Vista on two systems; the other system is in a sandbox. (However, was "open" during the activation process.) Erm, from what I can see from the requirements, Internet is not required as it's in the same format as Audio. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Geo. Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 3:35 PM To: full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered > anything in vista's agreement in legalish that could be translated into > 'you agree that you feed your software internet' ? http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/systemrequirements.mspx Yep, specifies "internet" under requirements. Should specify unrestricted internet access if you ask me. Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
> anything in vista's agreement in legalish that could be translated into > 'you agree that you feed your software internet' ? http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/systemrequirements.mspx Yep, specifies "internet" under requirements. Should specify unrestricted internet access if you ask me. Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Re: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
Didn't have the chance / interest to meet Vista myself as of yet, but if what you wrote isn't user error or something specific and limited to only a few computers then excuse me a moment while i lmao. BTW, is there anything in vista's agreement in legalish that could be translated into 'you agree that you feed your software internet' ? Maybe micro$ says that this is needed to verify that you're running a legal OS every now and then, so $uck it ? :-) Sorry for not having ideas just raising more questions, hope somebody replies in a few pointing out the obvious. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Geo. Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 8:27 PM To: full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk Subject: [Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered The other day I used my router to limit my Vista laptop from talking to anything but one subnet on the internet. 3 days later suddenly some things would not work. Solitaire failed to start, click on it and you get the magic donut showing it's starting up then nothing. Right click on network and pick properties you get the magic donut showing it's starting up then nothing. So I removed the routes so Vista could once again phone home and within a minute or two both solitaire and network properties worked just fine. Now this Vista system is less than 30 days old and has already been activated. So the claims that Reduced Function mode only kicks in if you don't activate within 30 days is bunk if this is Reduced Function mode. So I decided to trigger RF mode on purpose to see how it responds. I stopped the Software License service which claims that doing so will trigger RF mode. 24 hours later solitaire, network properties, and control panel all show the same behavior, the magic donut showing they are starting up then nothing. No events in event log, nothing. I then started the Software License service and presto like magic these functions work again. So I'm convinced that the machine being routed so it can't talk to MS triggered RF mode within a few days. Now to me this seems pretty clear even though it wasn't a real scientific method of testing. And further, this looks to me like an accident waiting to happen. I mean imagine if MS fell off the planet we would have a pretty major problem as the bulk of the worlds computers started shutting down, talk about a security issue? So anyone here with a bit more technical expertise want to pick up this ball and run with it? Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
[Full-disclosure] Vista Reduced Function mode triggered
The other day I used my router to limit my Vista laptop from talking to anything but one subnet on the internet. 3 days later suddenly some things would not work. Solitaire failed to start, click on it and you get the magic donut showing it's starting up then nothing. Right click on network and pick properties you get the magic donut showing it's starting up then nothing. So I removed the routes so Vista could once again phone home and within a minute or two both solitaire and network properties worked just fine. Now this Vista system is less than 30 days old and has already been activated. So the claims that Reduced Function mode only kicks in if you don't activate within 30 days is bunk if this is Reduced Function mode. So I decided to trigger RF mode on purpose to see how it responds. I stopped the Software License service which claims that doing so will trigger RF mode. 24 hours later solitaire, network properties, and control panel all show the same behavior, the magic donut showing they are starting up then nothing. No events in event log, nothing. I then started the Software License service and presto like magic these functions work again. So I'm convinced that the machine being routed so it can't talk to MS triggered RF mode within a few days. Now to me this seems pretty clear even though it wasn't a real scientific method of testing. And further, this looks to me like an accident waiting to happen. I mean imagine if MS fell off the planet we would have a pretty major problem as the bulk of the worlds computers started shutting down, talk about a security issue? So anyone here with a bit more technical expertise want to pick up this ball and run with it? Geo. ___ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
