Crack/Keygen Sites That Are Safe To Use
July 30, 08 by sharky 212,111 viewsBlindly searching the web for cracks & keygens is about as smart as using Limewire to search for antivirus software - something not well-advised. Undoubtedly and unfortunately, the number of crack sites with overtones of a malicious agenda heavily outweigh sites that just want to serve up the honest goods. Having said that, there actually are quite a few creditable ‘crack’ sites that won’t try to bombard you with full-screen popup ads, or commandeer your computer into a spam-loving Kraken or Srizbi Botnet army. We’ve done the hard work for you, and present a list of "clean" crack sites for all the latest warez.
Be aware that the site reviews herein only include information about each site, not the contents of the ‘cracks’ themselves. Always use a reputable antivirus and antispyware program on cracks & keygens before using them.
Our Recommendation: Due to security flaws and exploits, avoid using Internet Explorer when browsing potentially harmful websites (such as any of these on the list) - use Firefox instead. Better still, for added safety use these two Firefox add-ons: NoScript and AdBlock Plus. Sorry, but you’ll have to copy/paste the links into your Browser window - I don’t wish to be a “known associate” of most of these sites.
Recommended (Clean) Crack Sites
While these websites are deemed adware/malware free, always be sceptical of their "affiliate links" to other crack sites. Stay within each sites’ listings and avoid external links which can be dangerous. Otherwise, these sites listed below are a good resource for cracks, serials and keygens.
Malware / Spyware ? NOPopup Advertising ? NO
www.smartserials.com
www.keygenguru.com — Popular site with hundreds of thousands of results.
www.serialkey.net
www.zcrack.com
www.subserials.net
www.serialportal.com
supercracks.net
www.serialcrackz.com
www.serials.be
www.cracktop.com
www.cracksfm.com
www.cracklib.net
www.crackdb.org — The site itself is safe, however; many affiliate links are on the ‘do-not-visit’ list. When searching, skip past the first results (with the prices).
Crack Sites with Advertising/Popups
These lower-risk sites won’t attempt to infect your computer with (too much) malicious code; however, you’ll pay the price with unavoidable full-page ad popups and advertising tracker cookies. Use at your own discretion.
Malware / Spyware ? NO.Popup Ads ? YES - sometimes excessively.
www.greatcracks.com — If you can handle excessive full-page ad popups, then give ‘em a whirl. Otherwise, stick to a more reputable site. Uses the "clicksor" ad network, which includes ad browser ‘cookies’.
serials.ws — You’ll find a great selection of serials, although you’ll be faced with in-browser popups and the "clicksor" cookie - however, Firefox will block the popups. Avoid any and all ‘affiliate links’ contained within, and avoid clicking on the advertisements.
keygen.ws — Full-page ‘clicksor’ popup ads welcome you at every turn.
www.easycracks.net — You’ll have to sell your soul for every ‘crack’ you get with a full-page popup ad for each. Avoid if possible.
cracksearch.ws — Same as above. Watch out for bad affiliates in the search results, although some are OK.
cracks.vg — You’ll suffer through a minimum of 2 different full-page popups (not including the ones that were blocked by Firefox) to get to each crack.
download-crack-serial.com — While both AVG and McAfee don’t recommend this site, we found no visible threats. Cracks were easy to download, with no popup ads or adware loaders (and none blocked in Firefox, either).
Malicious Crack Sites To Avoid
Avoid these websites at all costs - many contain some form of unwanted drive-by download. Some are classified as ‘database websites’ (i.e. aggregators) that link the cracks (sometimes through site searching) to more menacing sites.
newcracks.net — Newcracks offers a variety of annoyances such as third-party cookies, adware/spyware, browser exploits - not to mention a plethora of trojans in the downloads.
cracklooker.com — Cracklooker in itself isn’t a direct threat; however, they don’t host any cracks themselves, and search queries will direct users to sites that should be avoided.
astalavista.ms (or any ‘astalavista’ domain or variant thereof) — Same as above. Searching on Astalavista will display results from sites that should not be visited. Best to avoid. Other Astalavista domains are even more dangerous.
crack.ms — Browser exploits and hijacks, popups, trojans, backdoors - you name it, it’s here.
thebugs.ws — Contains some very harmful affiliate links.
needcrack.us — McAfee says, "When we browsed this site, we found direct links to an address that made unauthorized changes to our test PC." Marvelous.
cracksearchengine.net — Not a direct threat (it’s a crack meta-search site) that aggregates search queries from less reputable sites. Clicking on search results can be harmful.
anycracks.com — Makes unauthorized changes to the PC. Marked as an ‘exploit server’.
mscracks.com — The works! Ad popups, browser hijacking, trojans in the files and bad affiliate links.
keygen.in — Same as above.
Dailykeys.com — Bad affiliate links and files are purposely infected with trojans/virii.
bestserials.com — Even Google confirms that "this site may harm your computer".
crackfound.com — Ad popups and bad external links.
cracks4u.com — Affiliate links are on the bad list. Trojans and other malware are purposely added to the crack files. Avoid!
getcracks.com — Same as above.
keygen.ms — This site itself is harmless (aside from some popups); however, the actual crack files are linked on unscrupulous sites whereby an entire gamut of problems can arise.
crackhell.com — Their in-site search links to warezdownloads.com (not a good sign), and most of the affiliate links (which take up the better part of the homepage) should be avoided.
crackspider.net — Does not host any files - search results include those "Oem software" scams, or crack download links to abominable sites such as mscracks.com. Avoid.
crackzplanet (net/com) — Malicious executables are commonplace among the available cracks.
andr.net — Browser homepage hijacking and adware/popups.
asta-killer.com — Categorized as an ‘exploit server’ with active threats.
This is not an exhaustive list. There’s likely to be hundreds more that are similar.
We ran each site through McAfee SiteAdvisor and AVG LinkScanner, and were checked on StopBadware.org, if applicable.
01 • weaana Says: 30.07.08 at 10:14 pm
bold step bro
sure this will give fsf the most no of hits
thanx
02 • butt hole Says: 30.07.08 at 10:40 pm
Thanks nice list!
03 • killer Says: 30.07.08 at 11:52 pm
does the computer you used to test all these web sites still or did you have return it to factory settings to get it back to normal
04 • NoName Says: 31.07.08 at 2:04 am
Great review.
Filesharefreak FTW
05 • Rajarajan Says: 31.07.08 at 3:56 am
Really thanks, a great indeed
06 • sharky Says: 31.07.08 at 4:51 am
@KILLER - The computer is fine. Running McAfee, CounterSpy and AVG simultaneously - everything gets blocked before getting through.
07 • bry Says: 31.07.08 at 10:48 pm
Great fookin article sharky. while im extremely knowledgeable on downloading/scene/etc, crack/keygen sites always been hazy on. Used to use andr.net in early teens, but obv it lacks severely. Nice article m8
08 • Lightning_Struck_Tower Says: 01.08.08 at 1:36 am
Nice list. http://www.keygen.ms is also safe and have been using it for a while now.
09 • a/s/l Says: 01.08.08 at 3:30 pm
astalavista.box.sk is a site that i’ve used for a looooooooong time and i’ve never had a problem with it.
also, cracks.am is good and ad/spyware free
010 • Captain Falcon Says: 03.08.08 at 6:33 pm
Wow, thanks for this, very useful information
011 • Trackback :: Legitimate Serial Number Websites | I Made The Internet 03.08.08 at 7:56 pm
[...] File Share Freak has composed a list of websites that host serial numbers and cracks. They have filtered out all the sites that have malware/ viruses on them. These sites are also clear of pop-up advertisements. [...]
012 • Trackback :: Malicious Crack Sites To Avoid - Bay On Top 04.08.08 at 4:21 am
[...] McAfee SiteAdvisor and AVG LinkScanner, and were checked on StopBadware.org, if applicable. Crack/Keygen Sites That Are Safe To Use | THE source for BitTorrent & P2P Tips, Tricks and Info…. [...]
013 • Alexandru Strimbeanu Says: 04.08.08 at 5:34 am
What you people seem to be missing is that even if the pages are clean the applications provided there most often are not. Most keygens/patch programs are designed to turn your computer in to a Bot so watch out for suspicious connections, open ports or processes.
014 • Diji1 Says: 05.08.08 at 7:16 am
Alexandru, that is total rubbish, i use many of these websites just about everyday and have cracked/patched etc. 100’s if not 1000’s of apps - not once have I run into warnings from AV or suspicious connections and Im firewalled and running AV all the time. Sure, they may be some there but it’s an absolute rarity… I challenge you to post an example (name, version) of what you’re talking about.
Thanks for another great article Sharky - this is one great website.
015 • sharky sucks Says: 05.08.08 at 4:10 pm
suck a dick i got a trojan from http://www.serialkey.net.
running mcaffee and norton av
016 • the dude Says: 07.08.08 at 1:02 am
another great one ive used with great success and without any malicious consequences: http://www.youserials.com
017 • christina Says: 07.08.08 at 1:58 pm
Thank you for this! I was just about to search for it- and I came across it by accident in stumble upon (that thing is absolutely psychic, I swear)
018 • Trackback :: p2pvine.com 07.08.08 at 7:33 pm
Crack/Keygen Sites That Are Safe To Use…
Blindly searching the web for cracks & keygens is about as smart as using Limewire to search for antivirus software - something not well-advised. Undoubtedly and unfortunately, the number of crack sites with overtones of a malicious agenda heavily outw…
019 • Steve Says: 07.08.08 at 11:42 pm
Nice list. Well done.
However, at the end of the day I want results!! When I do a search for something brand spanking new, I want to be able to find the crack. I appreciate the responsibility the author of this post is taking knowing that most people have no idea what they are doing and have to be careful what sites that they go to. 70% of the browsers in the world are still IE lol.
I checked a few of these sites out. I did a series of searches for VERY commonly cracked software. I did 4 titles. None of the safe sites came up with any results anywhere near what the latest versions are. I mean like v4.6 instead of v6.4 (2 years off) or no results at all.
The site that I have always seen the most results from is astalavista. The site that they tend to point me to most is cracks.am which isn’t even on the list.
So throwing caution to the wind, with FF, adblock, a firewall and AV, which site comes up with the most results? Who gets the cracks to new versions the fastest and who gives me the most options?
All of this aside, my advice to those of you looking to crack software is to use torrents. Find the latest version of whatever software that you want via torrents and try to find one that already comes with a crack. ALWAYS scan it with a couple of good AVs before extracting or installing. When it comes with a crack, you know the crack will work and 999 out of 1000 the cracked software will be on a torrent long before it makes it to a crack site.
020 • Bill Vincent Says: 12.08.08 at 2:46 pm
Many people think that these site deliver malware because many of the common AV solutions deliver false Positives for cracks and patches. Usually due to nested archives, but many other things will trigger them.
021 • ryan Says: 13.08.08 at 8:08 pm
I call bullshit. Sorry, but using McAfee, Counterspy AND AVG simultaneously? Yeah, that’s possible. More than one anti-virus software installed causes major problems, they conflict and try to destroy each other; i really doubt you could do that. If you scanned each file tested with just scanning software rather than a full suite it would have worked, but i doubt you, man.
And since when is ANDR.net untrustworthy? Lame.
022 • Rich Says: 14.08.08 at 4:54 am
http://www.gamecopyworld.com - not bad..
http://www.gameburnworld.com - worse than the top one
http://www.megagames.com - Its awesome !!!
I have also used http://www.astalavista.box.sk for many many years and have not had a problem. I find the reason most people get virus’s & wot not is because they don’t know how to browse the internet safely.
Let me put it this way, when my mother first got her laptop I said try not to click on any links that say your computer is broke, ie. registry fix’s etc….
2 - 3 months later she phones me & and say’s her internet explorer window is really small, well after about half hour i got off my fat ass and went around only to be astounded to see around 14 different search bars / tool bars and wot not on her IE bar.
Her excuse? She said that a pop up appeared saying something on the computer was broke! I’m just glad she didn’t fork out any case for crappy AV software just to remove some daft bug.
Anywho,
Happy Crackin!
023 • will Says: 14.08.08 at 7:46 pm
http://www.serialz.to/ i’ve used this site for years for all my serialz. no harm done.
024 • Daniel Says: 16.08.08 at 12:59 pm
yeah i agree with http://www.serialz.to/, been using it for ever. an especially great site for macs, as you can grab SerialBox from there (which is a HUGE database of serials)
025 • ohsnaps Says: 18.08.08 at 5:21 am
I used to use seriall.com and it was great, but then it went down for a while and came back up and all that’s on it are trojans and malacious files now.
026 • www.singlewrench.com Says: 18.08.08 at 11:02 am
Corporate File Sharing - FTP replacement
http://www.singlewrench.com
027 • uisjob1 Says: 19.08.08 at 11:01 am
always Norton full crack
http://techshore.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/crack-norton-360-v2105-fullall-in-one-security/
028 • p3r Says: 19.08.08 at 12:20 pm
I used to use dailykeys.com but after a while they changed from plain text -files to those virus .exes… :-\
029 • Sean Says: 20.08.08 at 1:37 am
http://www.serialkey.net - Gives me a Warning from Trend Micro.
Anyways, I am not a Warez Guy I prefer legal stuff. Though best of luck with it all.
030 • sampat Says: 20.08.08 at 11:58 am
good work
031 • Abdo Says: 23.08.08 at 9:42 am
Thanks a lot. Really good sites.
032 • Trackback :: Sites de Crack/Keygen “seguros” « Joanelli’s Weblog - Tecnologia e Cultura 25.08.08 at 4:30 pm
[...] de Crack/Keygen “seguros” Postado no Agosto 25, 2008 de joanelli Achei nesse artigo uma análise de sites famosos para baixar cracks/keygens quanto à sua segurança para os [...]
033 • Goji Juice Says: 28.08.08 at 8:58 am
Nice and informative article…
034 • j0n Says: 29.08.08 at 8:17 am
http://download-crack-serial.com/ is best site out there..
not included in this list also
035 • JO3P Says: 29.08.08 at 5:31 pm
Please be advised:
there is no such thing as a clean keygen site.
Keygen executables are notorious for often containing viri.
Scanners cannot always detect viruses, they are but mere simple pattern identifiers, a small mutation made to a virus renders them useless in many cases.
When possible, use a serial. If not, scan the executable, but NEVER in that case, run it on a computer used for work etc.
036 • Mr. C. Blake Says: 02.09.08 at 6:52 pm
Thank you for this information it is very helpful and the other sites that you say to avoid I will add them to my ad blocking host file. Again Thank you!
037 • Trackback :: Geeknews » Crack/Keygen Sites That Are Safe To Use 04.09.08 at 3:34 am
[...] FileShareFreak has the list with a little advice to reduce risk to infection. [...]
038 • Trackback :: Safe site to search key generator, serial, etc | Little Notes 22.09.08 at 10:18 pm
[...] This list is from filesharefreak.com [...]
039 • Ashok Says: 07.10.08 at 11:09 am
thanks for this great info
http://www.blogstuff.co.cc
040 • Rohit Says: 09.10.08 at 5:16 pm
If i want crack I’ll go to a deal, pffft.
041 • Trackback :: thepirata.com - your daily dose of anything » Blog Archive » A List Of Safe And Malicious Crack/Keygen Sites 10.10.08 at 12:59 pm
[...] SOURCE « Application Monitor [...]
042 • Trackback :: Clean Keygen/Crack sites « The Underground 10.11.08 at 2:05 pm
[...] Crack/Keygen Sites That Are Safe To Use [...]
043 • Priyesh Khunteta Says: 17.11.08 at 8:39 pm
nice work
thanks…
044 • aabee Says: 21.11.08 at 11:57 am
http://www.mywot.com/fi/scorecard/keygenguru.com
045 • aabee Says: 21.11.08 at 12:02 pm
http://www.mywot.com/fi/scorecard/serialkey.net