Keygen
A key generator (usually stylized as keygen) is a computer program able to generate a product key or other information necessary for product activation.
Due to close ties of the warez scene and demoscene, keygens are often accompanied with chiptunes and artistic visual representations.
Online key verification
Today many programs make use of key verification over the internet (also called validation as introduced by Microsoft), in this case a classic keygen cannot be used to pass product activation completely, a crack is often used to remove or bypass the verification procedure. Advanced keygens include additional features to circumvent online 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, this will patch the program's memory to use the keygen's counterfeit activation server.
Multi-keygen
A multi-keygen is a keygen that offers key generation for multiple software applications. Multikeygens are sometimes released over singular keygens if a series of products requires the same algorithm for generating product keys. In this case, only a single value encoded within the key has to be changed in order to target a different product. Software suites like the Adobe Creative Suite are often targeted by these types of keygens.
Availability
Keygens are available for download on warez sites or through P2P networks. Many keygens available through P2P networks have been corrupted with malware.[citation needed] Many keygens however are often detected by Antivirus software as false positives or as a category of malware themselves.[citation needed]