Hackers claim major breakthrough in Windows and Office license fraud
Massgrave, a piracy group developing activation scripts for Microsoft products, claims to have discovered a new method to permanently activate “almost any version of Windows and Office.”
image by Microsoft.
Massgrave, a piracy group developing activation scripts for Microsoft products, claims to have discovered a new method to permanently activate “almost any version of Windows and Office.”
This group is behind the MAS (Microsoft Activation Scripts) project, which develops piracy tools to activate various versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems and Office products. Unauthorized software license manipulation is illegal in most jurisdictions.
“Our team has successfully cracked almost the entire Windows/Office software licensing protection,” the group announced on social media.
“With this new method, we can permanently activate almost any version of Windows and Office, spanning from Vista to the latest Windows 11 and Server 2025 including CSVLK and ESU.”
The group claims to achieve this without installing third-party files or modifying system files, just with a “completely clean execution,” which makes the achievement “even more impressive.”
“This is the largest breakthrough in Windows/Office piracy ever. This solution will be available in the coming months – stay tuned for updates!” the group said.
Massgrave also shared a screenshot of a Windows license status report, which indicates the activated license. The report also reveals a rearm count of 1001, which appears unusually high. Rearm is the ability to reset or extend the activation grace period, it is typically set to 3-4 times before requiring permanent activation.
This is the largest breakthrough in Windows / Office piracy ever.
undefined MAS (@massgravel) November 29, 2024
This solution will be available in the coming months—stay tuned for updates! pic.twitter.com/8wwM3JjSJF
Massgrave explained on X that previously it couldn’t permanently activate Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Server editions, add-ons, and ESU licenses.
“Now everything can be activated.”
Microsoft could patch this issue. However, the hacking group noted that the tech giant has paid little attention to it in the past.
“Digital license (HWID) method has been working since 2018 and the KMS method has been working for like 17 years or something,” Massgrave said.
According to Techspot, patching digital rights management (DRM) requires a significant overhaul of the code and the implementation of an entirely new activation system. Microsoft, instead, is focused on generating revenues from other products and services, such as Azure Cloud and generative AI.
Cybernews has reached out to Microsoft for additional comments and will include their response.