The developer's anti-piracy program reportedly can be easily sidestepped, potentially frustrating its plans to check the use of unlicensed copies of Windows.

Microsoft's anti-piracy program, Windows Genuine Advantage, can be easily sidestepped, perhaps frustrating the Redmond, Wash.-based developer's plans to check the use of unlicensed copies of Windows. According to Debasis Mohanty, an independent vulnerability researcher attributed with discovering a number of vulnerabilities, who posted a proof-of-concept walk-through in Word format on the Full Disclosure security mailing list, a tool provided by Microsoft itself can be used to generate a code that will let systems running pirated copies of Windows to download and use software that Microsoft has said will work only with legitimate operating systems. Microsoft dismissed the impact of the WGA work-around. "We don't see this as being substantial, and poses very little threat to our customers or to us," said a Microsoft spokesman. "We anticipated counterfeiters would try several different measures [to circumvent WGA], so we weren't surprised to see something like this."