oh joy... what a life

[Guest deathwarrior]

My brother put password protection on both computers... now i'm really pissed off. :<

In other words, you won't be hearing from me in a long time... except on IRC (when i'm at school). This also means I can't work on UAC Resurrection until the password has been taken off (sigh).

So, who will be in charge of UAC Resurrection? DoomFlynn. Out of everyone who is working on it, he has done the most amount of work (not including myself).

[stphrz]

Are the passwords for login or are they on the disk drives?

[Sephiroth]

why the hell did hepassword it, if u get the password change it and keep the little bitch off

[Guest MrHarmony]

What OS are you using?

Anyway, unless the hard drives are encrypted on the file system level (only some server operating systems support that), or your files are encrypted, you can either boot some small OS from a floppy or CD (DOS, Linux, QNX, NT [yeah, you can build a console mode NT boot disk, AFAIK] or whatever you prefer), or hook the drives up to another machine that you have full access to. (The latter is probably easier in most cases.) Then just grab the password files and run an apropriate cracking utility on them to generate usable passwords.

On some operating systems, you can actually get away with deleting the encrypted passwords from the password files, or even deleting the entire password files. However, *DON'T* try that (or any other modifications of system files) without backing those files up first! If you screw the files up, you may have to aquire further sysadmin knowledge to generate correct files so you can log in *at all* again. (A server OS has to be very picky about this stuff for security reasons...)

Brute force solution if you can't figure out how to crack into your systems: Just grab all your files off the drives, format the drives (just in case; some OS installers are very stupid...) and then reinstall the OS from scratch.

However, note that if your *files* are encrypted, you may well kill them by taking them away from the installed system they belong to! Quite possible if some nasty "privacy utility" was used. (There may be more to it than just a password...) *Check* the files before assuming you're safe!

Finally, think of some suitable treatment for you brother...! ;-)

(Well, I'm assuming he *forgot* the passwords or something... *heh* Otherwise, you're best bet is obviously to concentrate on him, rather than the computers. :-)

[Lüt]

BIOS or OS password?

[Guest deathwarrior]

sephiroth said:

why the hell did hepassword it, if u get the password change it and keep the little bitch off

two words:

admin password.

I don't know it.

[fodders]

start>find>pwl delete any files with pwl extension

Windows 95 or 98 caches passwords in the .pwl file when you connect to a password-protected network resource.
type regedit in start>run navigate to:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Network
If caching is disabled, you will see an entry in the Name list of "DisablePwdCaching" with a value of 00000001. Right-click the entry, and then click Delete on the shortcut menu.
You may see an entry in the Name list of "Autologon" with a value of 1. Right-click the entry, and then click Delete on the shortcut menu.
User profiles are not enabled by default. Everyone uses the same settings on a computer until profiles are enabled. Once profiles are enabled, everyone using that computer will be asked to log in, so that Windows 95 or 98 will know who the user is and can load the appropriate files. You will be prompted the first time you log in and a profile is not found. If you choose not to create a profile the default profile will be used.
To enable user profiles, follow these steps:


Close all programs.


Click Start, point to Settings and then click Control Panel.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT or Windows 2000, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).


Use Registry Editor to remove the appropriate User name keys from the following registry key:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
To remove all profiles, remove the ProfileList key.


When you are done, quit Registry Editor.


Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to remove the appropriate Windows\Profiles\User name folders. To remove all profiles, remove the Windows\Profiles folder.



Double-click the Passwords icon.


On the User Profiles tab, click to select, "Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings. Windows switches to your personal settings whenever you log in."

NOTE: The text for this setting in Windows 98 varies slightly, but the meaning is the same.


Click OK. Restart the computer when prompted to do so.


There will be a box for user name and password. Type in a user name (anything you want), and leave the password blank. You may be asked to verify your password. Click OK to the blank password line. Start Outlook and see if it retains your passwords.

[Arioch]

Um, he means that his BIOS is passworded. The system won't boot without it.

Quite easy to rectify of course. Open the case and short the CMOS reset jumper, or simply unplug the computer and remove the battery inside for about 30 seconds.

[fodders]

Arioch said:

two words:admin password.I don't know it.

ADMIN pw...BIOS is Supervisor password and User password