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Thread: WIndows XP Universal Password

  1. #11
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    16
    Originally posted here by RunningDuck
    What would it be? Bill Gates' master password to all Windows boxes? My vote goes for "ResistanceIsFutile."
    Ha! How about "ItIsAllMine"

    Director

  2. #12
    AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs

    Geez. Obviously you guys didn't get the memo...

  3. #13
    I would tell your friend to try on start up keep pressing the F8 key repedidly till u get a
    screen that asks what you want to start Win Xp in. Start xp in safe mode and the visuals
    will look shitty but it works. ON login screen click on Administrator and u should get in without
    a password. Then go to control panel and then users and change the password to any
    account you want. Then after you have changed the password go to start shutdown and
    restart your computer and let it start up normally. then when the login screen comes up
    type in the password that you changed it too. If this doesnot work i dont know what to
    tell you.

    Well have fun and i hope this works

    Your friendly neighborhood Advice man

  4. #14
    Senior since the 3 dot era
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    1,542
    Originally posted here by instronics
    Hmmm, i agree what you have said so far, that there is no such thing.....but what if there was a global password

    Im not trying to say there is, but just what if? On one hand, its not that impossible. Many products have global/manufactures passwords. Just something to get some replies outta you folks.

    Cheers.
    Yep, very true, many routers and other network devices come with preconfiged default passwords but also sort of manufacturers backdoors with manufactures passwords. I worked in tech support and yes many systems do have passwords for the technicians, also many firms use a sort of logic behind their passwords, to make it easy to admin their hundreds of servers and network equipment specially when passwords change every month.

  5. #15
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    452
    Sounds like your friend's dad is pulling your leg. If there was a universal password for XP, I'm sure everyone would know about it by now. How ever, if he's talking about the secret NSA Key that I've heard about, I'm all ears.



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  6. #16
    Old Fart
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    1,658
    Ok...initially I was skeptical about this, but upon further reflection I HAVE seen several XP machines that by their actions support this "password" theory. In several instances (even my own box when I had XP on dial-up) I have seen an UNKNOWN password appear in newly created dial-up connections. It is NOT the admin password because in each case the mystery password had too many characters to be the admin password. Are there any of our esteemed members out there who can shed any light on this phenomena??
    Al
    It isn't paranoia when you KNOW they're out to get you...

  7. #17
    Well I will say this - if there is a "Global Password" it would have to exist outside of the normal user/password database.

    I have cracked a number of Windows SAM files as part of a security audit. I am pretty sure I've even done this on an XP system - though only with systems that are backwards compatible to the old-style Domain scheme.

    In any event if you run through the SAM file, each user is in there and each password is in there. So if this Global password were to exist it would have to exist outside this system.

    I frankly don't see how something like this could exist undiscovered for very long. There are too many people prying at the code, plus a host of developers and people integrating with the MS source code. Not to mention that even the government of China has now had an opportunity to go through the source code... It's like the aliens at Roswell - if it was real someone would have spilled it by now.

  8. #18
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Posts
    500
    allenb1963 :

    In your case, XP by default shows any password as all *'s, even if it is blank. Take for example the Administrator password. If you leave it blank for the initial install, then go in later to create one, there will be ********* in the password field, even though your current password is blank. This is just a security measure preventing people from finding out the length of the currently set password in order to crack it more effectivly.

    OH yea, and the secret password is:

    Password (case sensitive)

    lmao
    Ron Paul: Hope for America
    http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

  9. #19
    Old Fart
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    1,658
    OK cross....now tell me how to get rid of the damned thing....I've tried every method I can find and so far the mystery password is still there. Yeah, I've cleared the "save password" box, entered the correct password and connected, only to find the mystery password intact upon the next connection attempt.

    Given your above statement is correct, once you replace this "mystery" password it should be gone for good.....if you've saved the correct password there would be no further need for this "feature"...yet still it remains...
    Al
    It isn't paranoia when you KNOW they're out to get you...

  10. #20
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    112
    Originally posted here by TwistedSnyper
    I would tell your friend to try on start up keep pressing the F8 key repedidly till u get a
    screen that asks what you want to start Win Xp in. Start xp in safe mode and the visuals
    will look shitty but it works. ON login screen click on Administrator and u should get in without
    a password. Then go to control panel and then users and change the password to any
    account you want. Then after you have changed the password go to start shutdown and
    restart your computer and let it start up normally. then when the login screen comes up
    type in the password that you changed it too. If this doesnot work i dont know what to
    tell you.

    Well have fun and i hope this works

    Your friendly neighborhood Advice man
    Well, I am glad you gave him this advice... Since this only works if there is no password assigned to the Administrator account. It the network administrator is worth ANYTHING, the first thing he would have done is change the default password... So to be honest...unless you have no concept of security this trick will not work

    Of course you might want to check out L0pht LC3....

    Originally posted here by allenb1963
    OK cross....now tell me how to get rid of the damned thing....I've tried every method I can find and so far the mystery password is still there. Yeah, I've cleared the "save password" box, entered the correct password and connected, only to find the mystery password intact upon the next connection attempt.

    Given your above statement is correct, once you replace this "mystery" password it should be gone for good.....if you've saved the correct password there would be no further need for this "feature"...yet still it remains...
    This is not the case. The password mask is always put in place whether there is a password or not for security reason. As stated it is put in place to at the very least protect the length of the password even if there isn't a password.

    When you brute force a password. Every additional character exponentially increase the possible passwords that can be used. Hence if you mask the length of the password any brute force would have to force the entire password field (and in W2K/XP I think it is something outrageous like 256 characters rather the then 12 or 13 for WNT4) Anyway. If you have an issue with a mystery password I would lean to thinking it is an local installation issue rather then an OS issue. Basically something in the configuration of that system has changed how it is either masking passwords or is displaying something that wouldn't normally happen with a "clean" installation of the OS.

    Hopefully this helps.

    Paldie; MCSE CCNA CCAI CCA CSSA LMNOP...
    My other Computer is a 4000 node Beowulf Custer

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