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When passwords fail
you!
Jasjot Singh Narula
 "PLEASE
enter the Username and Password." This is the dialogue box that
appears on all operating systems, Windows included. What if you forget
the password or due to some exigency need to know the password of a PC.
Before we start off, we need to remind the readers that cracking a
password to intrude into a PC with malafide intention is a major
offence.
Password is analogous to
the key of a lock. Here lock is the username and key the password.
Password is a series of numbers or character (alphanumeric) which
enables the user to access the operating system (OS), program or file.
The password is generally given to prevent unauthorised access.
BIOS password
Computer while booting
undergoes process through BIOS (Basic Input Output Setup). Basically,
BIOS and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) chip holds all
information about the hardware of the PC. The BIOS remembers the
instructions through the round-shaped silver lithium battery that keeps
on running even after the shut down. The normal process of entering the
BIOS setup is by pressing the Del key during boot up. There are other
methods through which we can enter the setup like pressing F1, F2, Ctrl
+ Alt + Esc or Ctrl + Esc.
The first method is
tedious as it requires a fair amount of tinkering with the motherboard.
There is a three-pin jumper just near the CMOS battery. To break the
password, the user has to remove the jumper from the first and second
pin, move the jumper to pin two and three and wait for 10 seconds. The
CMOS is now reset. Some motherboards do not provide this feature. In
that case the user has another option of resetting CMOS by removing the
lithium battery from the motherboard. Wait for 30 to 40 seconds after
removing the battery and insert the battery at its original position.
If the user is not able to
remember the BIOS password but is able to access the OS then there is
another option of resetting the BIOS by using a DOS command. During the
boot up sequence, press F8 and select the 7th option of "Safe mode
command prompt" on the Startup menu.After you are through use the
following command.
C:\ >debug, press enter
-o 70 2e press enter
-o 71 ff press enter
-q press enter
Now restart. The password
on the BIOS is reset and the user can make further changes if he so
desires. This will work only on Award BIOS.
Windows 95 and 98
To disable Windows 95 and
98 passwords the users have to follow this method to be able to access
the username. There are *.pwl files that holds the information about the
passwords of a particular user. Here the user can rename or delete these
file so that he/she can access the system easily.
When system boots up,
press F8 and enter the safe mode command prompt. Here the user has to
use these commands to disable the password.
Type
C:\ > cd windows to
rename all *.pwl files type
C:\ > windows>ren *.pwl
*.abc to delete
C:\ > winodws>del *.pwl
*.abc
Windows screensaver
Occasionally users put up
screensaver passwords on their computer either for security or for plain
fun. To disable them the user has to do some editing in *.scr file. Go
to DOS mode and type C:\ windows\ system\ edit filename.scr.
A blue screen appears with
garbled character. Find "VerifyScreenSavePwd" string in that.
Change Verify to Varify, save the file and exit. Now the password is
disabled. To retrieve, follow the same path by shifting 'a' to 'e'.
Windows NT
Windows NT is a secure OS
and requires username and password while logging on to the system. But
if someone forgets the password there is no need of worry as there are
some utilities available on the Internet to recover password.
Windows NT operates both
on FAT (File Allocation Table) 16-bit and NTFS (New Technology Files
System) partitions. The method of disabling the password is totally
different in both. The passwords are stored in *.sam
In FAT 16, the user has to
boot the system in DOS mode and perform the following commands
C:\ >cd winnt
C:\ winnt\ cd system 32
C:\ winnt\ system 32\ cd
config
C:\ winnt\ system 32\
config
Delete *.sam files and
after that when the user restarts the system, the NT Administrator
password goes blank
In NTFS, the users have a
lot of work to do. Go to http://www.sysinternals.com and download
NTFSDOS. Then copy the unzipped ntfsdos.exe to DOS boot disk. Boot the
machine and type:
C:\ winnt\ system 32\
config\ copy *.sam a:\
This will copy the SAM
files on your floppy. Now you need to get another NT machine and visit
http://www.atstake.com/products/lc/download.html. Download L0phtCrack.
This is a 15 days trial version. Run the program and when it asks for
the SAM file, point it to the file on your floppy disk. This is a
long-drawn process and depends upon the speed of the Net and PC.
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