key-gen for bf v?

[AIX Gaming]

So I was doing my usual on a Saturday when a friend called me up and said
that he had BF V that he downloaded off the internet.  I gave him the
usual grief for such things, but he went on to say that it came with a
key-gen and allowed him to fully play online including on punkbuster
servers and play with other battlefield vietnam downloading dweebs.  My
heart sank when I heard about this, particularly the valid/working key-gen
for online play.  Isn't there supposed to be some kind of protection
against this? I thought moron pirates couldn't play online because the
keys couldn't be hacked?  Can some kid generate a key that ends up
matching one that I bought and paid for?