BREAKING THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT PASSWORD WITHOUT KNOWING THE PRESENT ONE

This post shows you how to break (change) the Administrator account password without knowing the current one.  The previous post elaborated on the reasons that could warrant the changing of the Administrator account password.  Beware! The same procedure can be used to change any account’s password.  Therefore be sure to implement security in-depth to guard against victimization.

I prefer the Command Line Interface (CLI) and we will be using Disk Operating System (DOS) for this lesson.

STEPS

1.  Start a DOS application by clicking on the Start menu, click on Run, type cmd in the combo box
     as shown by Figure 1.0 below.  Click the OK button.  A DOS application Window is now opened.   

Figure 1.0  The Run Dialog Box

2.  To see all the user accounts on your PC, type the following command and press the Enter key;   

                 net user

     This command shows user accounts like the Administrator, Guest, Jack, RootUser, WebUser,
     etc. as shown in Figure 2.0 below.

Figure 2.0  DOS Window Displaying User Accounts

3.  It is possible to get detailed information on a particular account.  Information as to whether the
     account is active, whether a password is required to log in, when the password was last set and
     when it will expire, the local group to which the account belongs, etc.

     To view this information, type the command net user AccountNname where AccountName
     is the account on which you want to view the information.   For instance, to view information
     on the Administrator account, type the following command and press the Enter key;

                 net user Administrator

     Information on the Administrator account is displayed as shown in Figure 3.0

Figure 3.0  Account Detailed Information

 4.  To finally break the password for a particular account, this is the command to use -
      net user AccountName *.  Make sure you leave a space between the account name and the
      asterisk symbol.  For example, this is how to break the password for the Administrator account
      using the command line as shown in Figure 4.0 below; 

                     net user Administrator *

      After pressing the Enter key, you are prompted to type a password for the user.  Note that
      when you are typing the password, nothing appears.  Press the Enter key after you have finished
      the typing.  You are prompted again to retype the password to ensure that you have not
      fat-fingered when  you were typing.

Figure 4.0  Breaking The Password

Voila!  That’s how simple it is to break a user account's password without know the current one.

HACKING YOUR ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT PASSWORD - WINDOWS XP

This article addresses the situation where the Administrator account created during the installation of your operating system is used to break into your machine.

The article is not meant to show the different ways to break into computers but rather to show how to protect your computer from being broken into.  It focuses on Windows XP since it is more vulnerable, compared to Windows Vista or Windows 7.   

During the installation of your computer, the Administrator (the first default user) account created is left unpassworded by most people.  Since this is the most important account with unlimited rights and privileges, anyone in control of it controls the whole machine and the users.  Unfortunately, any account created after the installation hides the Administrator account and only shows the new account on your login screen.  This article shows you how to test and see if the Administrator account is password protected or not, and how to protect it.


STEPS:

1. Reboot your computer or Log Off (Click on Start -> Click on Log Off) if you have already logged in;
2. By default Windows XP displays a Graphical login (Welcome) screen with icons and usernames.  Press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys twice to change the screen to the Traditional login screen as shown below;
3. In the User Name text box, type Administrator.  Leave the Password text box blank (don't type anything there); 

     4.  Press the OK button to login. 

Here is the catch.  If the machine logs you in successfully, you are not safe because anybody with this information could get into your machine, create other accounts, have access to the information in your account, disable your account, install any malicious software, etc., etc.

But if the machine requests that you put in a password to login you in, then the Administrator account is already having a password.  The big question then is, "Who passworded it?"

Normally, after installing computer for anyone, I have a password that I put on the Administrator account to prevent situations like this.  If you have somebody who works on your machine for you and trust that he will always be there to help you, it is not a bad idea to let him have control of the Administrator account.  But if for instance you buy the machine with the Administrator account passworded and you don't know the password, I will advice that you change it.

Look out for the next post that shows you how to change the Administrator account password without knowing the present password.

WELCOME - INTRODUCTION

Since this is my introductory post, I will make it brief and give the reasons for which this blog is created.

This blog is created and will be updated for the soul purpose of education and the intended users are to use it for educational purposes only.

This blog is created to educate the public on the petty security issues I know and feel my colleagues and those who are not well informed about security should understand.

I am ready to learn from people and, equally ready to inform people of what I know.  This blog is meant for just that and I hope you will enjoy visiting it always.

Thank you for reading this.