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i am positive i never typed ADMINIST on the logon prompt....so that is not a possibility of why its there. i was just trying to put together a few similarities to maybe develop a law(lol) anyway, the other reason is while i was at my local library today, i noticed the same file on ALL of their machines.
Yea ive noticed the password list file.Unless someone gets thrir hands on a program like CAIN then they really cant do to much , but use strange ASCII characters to prevent dedcryption.
-N
Just another note... it is truncated to 8 chars. So if you log on as "SuperDuperDude", you'll only end up with superdup.pwl. Therefore someone must have tried logging on as 'Administrator' at some point in the past. Maybe a visiting kiddie?
Bottom line:
Don't worry about it. It's just there. That's all. By itself, the file isn't that important and deleting it wouldn't do much except erase some saved passwords (*****-autocomplete fields) while logged on as 'Administrator".
It could very well be a *domain* admin account....
(Urgh! an admin loging into not renamed admin account on a win9x box! Duh!)
Ammo
But One weak security feature about Windows 98 , is that if someone can boot up to the DOS screen , they can rename the *.pwl file to any file format they specify , therefore gaining access to your account.Definetely Lame , but it gets the job done at certain times.
-N
well, i compiled a neat pwl cracker myself.. the language used was C++.. ofcourse the source code wasnt originally mine but i edited it coz my file paths are quite different.. so i had to make it compatible with my PC.. and it did work.. it retireved the login name, password and ISP of my internet account. but thats because i ticked the "Save Password" box..
its quite relatively easy... the crack just uses a certain dll file located in the SYSTEMS FOLDER that decrypts the pwl file.. and displays the decrypted characters.. i still have the source code.. if u want, i can post it here on AO, but only if the Senior Members aprove of it.
delete this *.pwl, then reboot, and you will be asked to create the new one. so easy to reset.
so this pwl is not security level, it is just user1s identification.
Ah, but in order to 'unlock' the .pwl file you need the correct *and* password, so just renaming it shouldn't help you any more (and perhaps less) than if you just typed in someone else's name at the prompt.Quote:
Originally posted here by n01100110
But One weak security feature about Windows 98 , is that if someone can boot up to the DOS screen , they can rename the *.pwl file to any file format they specify , therefore gaining access to your account.Definetely Lame , but it gets the job done at certain times.
-N
And a .pwl file is NOT your account. It's a Win98 profile password list. There is no need to even log in as the other person, log in as yourself, crack the file, and then just browse the other user's c:\windows\profiles\USERNAME\ area for stuff.
Sonic: I've seen those before, but they require you to already be logged in. There are several bruteforce/dictionary .pwl crackers out there, however. Win95 .pwls (before some patch) were ludicrously easy to crack, but 98/98SE made it harder, but still not super-tough.