Info

On the net one can find serial keys for various softwares to activate the softwares.
Cracks/patchs can be malicious, right?
But can serial keys be malicious?

 

No, but most likely they won't be legal either...

 

OK, so fake activation serial keys cannot be malicious but illegal, right?

How do these fake keys work i.e they are fake so how they activate the software correctly?
Is this coz the softwares are not protected properly?

 

Cracks, activation patches and loaders can be malicious, but can be not. Now about serial keys, if it's just written on a Notepad text document it shouldn't be malicious. But for keygens, just like cracks, patches and loaders, it can be malicious and not malicious. There are several methods that I know used by the keygens. One is random guessing, one is stolen from legitimate users, one is submitted by legitimate users, and another one is by reverse engineering the software itself.

 

OK, so keys on notepad are not malicious.
How keygens can be malicious?
Whatever little I have read on the net, keygens are also keys but generated by software, right?
So the software can be malicious but the key generated by that software can be malicious too?
Am I sounding stupid?
Actually I have never tried keygens so dont really know what keygens are & how they are applied.
I always thought that keygen software can be malicious but not the key generated by them so one can use the software under sandboxie or virtualization softwares, generate keys & after getting the keys, manually apply the key into the software. Am I right? I mean are/can keygens applied this way?

 

Shouldn't be.

Yes, and the software that generates those keys can be malicious or not, just like any other software.

No. Keys can't be a malware. At least I'm not aware of exploit through Notepad TXT. Not saying it doesn't exist though.

The keygen "injects" the key into a software on some, while in others only generate keys which you should put into the software manually. It's just the keygen can be a fake one which could actually be a trojan.

 

OK, got it.
Thanxx for the info.