We have seen how hackers bypass toughest of software piracy protection by simple novice tricks as evident in case of Adobe CS4 activation hack, now a similar simple overlook by leading security software vendor Kaspersky is letting pirates bypass Kaspersky key blacklist mechanism and update their pirated copies with ease without any restrictions.

The simple registry hack changes Kaspersky product status from Release to Beta which makes users activate and update Kaspersky products as free beta versions while using stable final releases, I tested the hack on Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and it worked fine as shown ahead.

Note : This is posted here for educational purpose only, using this trick might be illegal, use at your own risk.

1. Right-click Kaspersky Internet Security/Anti-Virus icon in system-tray and select Settings.
2. Now click the Options link and un-check Enable Self-Defense as shown below.

3. Launch Windows Registry editor by entering regedit and clicking OK in Windows Run Dialog (Start -> Run).
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\KasperskyLab\protected\AVP8\environment and select ProductStatus key in right-side panel.

5. Change the key-value from Release to Beta, close registry editor and enable self-defense in Kaspersky.

6. Now, reboot your computer.
7. After rebooting right-click Kaspersky icon in system-tray and select Activate…, a new option Activate beta version should now be available in activation dialog, click it to proceed.

8. You should be connected to internet and it will display the activation success message, your BETA license will be valid for 30 days but you can re-perform the process again to get another 30 day license and so on for unlimited access.

I am sure Kaspersky will disable this backdoor in their upcoming releases but as you all know the game continues.

Via: megaleecher