Funny little line of code. 40 characters defeat one of the biggest companies in the world.

I wonder how many programming hours and dollars it took to implement the validation scheme that was supposed to ensure “hackers” couldn”t get counterfeit copies of thier program to update.

Don”t get me wrong, I”m not one of those product bashers who dislike it simply because of the company who makes it. I personally think that instead of criticizing it everytime a flaw or workaround is found, people should be amazed that it works at all considering how many things are happening the same time, and working together. The same goes for competing products.

I think the lesson here is a big slice of humility, and a reminder that the more complicated a system is, the easier it is to break it. Or depending on your perspective, fix it.

UPDATE – It looks like they threw in the towell on this one.

I know that thre are a lot of talented people on both sides of this, but this one seemed almost too easy. LINK

It appears like they went to a lot of trouble to get this program going. Ordering new stationary, advertising, web changes…

I”ll bet there were even mugs and buttons and the like floating around Redmond. I hope these show up on eBay.

What a trophy that would make for the black hat hacker to sit beside his monitor. A genuine MS WGA coffee cup to fill with the preferred brew of Starbucks for those all night coding sessions.