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Akey generator, commonly abbreviated askeygen, is acomputer program that generates aproduct key and/orserial number necessary forproduct activation of anapplication software. Keygens may be legitimately distributed by software manufacturers for licensing software in commercial environments where software has been licensed in bulk for an entire site or enterprise, or they may be developed and distributed illegitimately in circumstances ofcopyright infringement or software piracy.
Illegitimate key generators are typically programmed and distributed bysoftware crackers in thewarez scene. These keygens often play music (taking from the tradition ofcracktros), which may include the genresdubstep,chiptunes, sampled loops, or anything that the programmer desires. Such chiptunes are often made inmusic trackers, and are mostly preferred due to their small size. Such keygens can have artistic user interfaces or kept simple and display only a cracking group or cracker's logo.
Asoftware license is a legal instrument that governs the usage and distribution of computer software.[1] Often, such licenses are enforced by implementing in the software aproduct activation ordigital rights management (DRM) mechanism,[2] seeking to prevent unauthorized use of the software by issuing a code sequence that must be entered into the application when prompted or stored in its configuration.[better source needed]
Many programs attempt to verify or validate licensing keys over the Internet by establishing a session with a licensing application of thesoftware publisher. Advanced keygens bypass this mechanism, and include additional features for key verification, for example by generating the validation data which would otherwise be returned by an activation server. If the software offers phone activation then the keygen could generate the correct activation code to finish activation. Another method that has been used is activation server emulation, which patches the program memory to "see" the keygen as thede facto activation server.
A multi-keygen is a keygen that offers key generation for multiple software applications. Multi-keygens are sometimes released over singular keygens if a series of products requires the samealgorithm for generatingproduct keys.
These tools simplify the process of obtaining activation keys for users who need access to various software products within the same suite or developed by the same company. By integrating the algorithms for multiple applications into one interface, multi-keygens eliminate the need to manage separate keygens for each program. However, the use of multi-keygens often violates software licensing agreements or constitutescopyright infringement when unauthorized, and may pose risks such as malware or compromised system security.
Unauthorized keygens that typically violate software licensing terms are written by programmers who engage inreverse engineering andsoftware cracking, often calledcrackers, to circumventcopy protection of software ordigital rights management formultimedia. Reverse engineering of software often involves disassembly of the software with adisassembler. The software is then analyzed and studied for its behavior. This reveals the algorithms or formulas used to verify the keys, which can then be used to create keys that will be accepted by the software, passing its verification process for the keys and activating the software, without obtaining a key from the software developer or publisher.
Keygens are available for download onwarez sites or throughpeer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
Keygens, available through P2P networks or otherwise, can containmalicious payloads.[3] These key generators may or may not generate a valid key, but the embedded malware loaded invisibly at the same time may, for example, be a version ofCryptoLocker (ransomware).[4][5]
Antivirus software may discover malware embedded in keygens; such software often also identifies unauthorized keygens which do not contain a payload aspotentially unwanted software, often labelling them with a name such as Win32/Keygen or Win32/Gendows.[3]
A program designed to assisthacking is defined as HackTool.Win32.HackAV or not-a-virus:Keygen fromKaspersky Labs or as HackTool:Win32/Keygen byMicrosoft Malware Protection Center. According to theMicrosoft Malware Protection Center, its first known detection dates back to 16 July 2009.[6] The following security threats were most often found on PCs that have been related to these tools:
A key changer or keychan is a variation of a keygen. A keychan is a small piece of software that changes the license key or serial number of a particular piece ofproprietary software installed on a computer.