Hack a Password Protected Computer Account
Are you worried that one of the users on your computer is doing something they shouldn't, but their password is keeping you locked out? There are a variety of ways to bypass or crack passwords for other accounts on your computer, and some require very little technical knowledge. See Step 1 below to learn how.
Contents
Steps
Using the Administrator Account
- Log in as the administrator. If you have administrator access on your computer, you can change any of the accounts passwords without needing any special tools or hacking knowledge.
- If you are using Windows XP and need to log in as the Administrator, reboot your computer into Safe Mode and select the Administrator account from the Welcome screen.
- Oftentimes, the Administrator account will not have a password attached to it.
- If you are the main user of your computer, chances are that you're already the administrator.
- Open the User Accounts tool. This can be found in the Control Panel. You can access the Control Panel from the Start menu. If you are using Windows 8, press ⊞ Win+X and select it from the menu.
- If you are using a Mac, click the Apple menu, select System Preferences, and then click Users & Groups.
- Select the account you want to change. In the Users window, you will see a list of all the accounts on the computer. Select the account you want to access.
- Click "Change password". In Windows, this will be a link in the User's options. On a Mac, this will be a button in the Users & Groups window. Enter in the new password, or leave it blank if you want to remove the password completely.
- Log in to the account. Once you have changed or deleted the password, you can log in to the account like you would your own. Be aware that this method will make it obvious that you were looking at the account, as the old password won't work anymore.
Using OPHCrack (Windows)
- Download OPHCrack. This is an open-source, free utility that can crack Windows passwords using some advanced algorithms. The program has been made available for free by the developers and all of the code is public and peer-reviewed. OPHCrack comes in ISO format, which means it will need to be burned to a CD/DVD in order to work.
- Only download OPHCrack from its official SourceForge page. This is the version directly from the developers. Do not download any version of OPHCrack that comes in EXE format. Make sure to download the correct version for the version of Windows you are trying to gain access to.
- Some antivirus programs will flag OPHCrack as a virus. This is because the tool is expressly designed for hacking. Using OPHCrack from the SourceForge page will not result in any viruses.
- If you can't access your computer because you are locked out, you will need to do this on another computer.
- Burn the OPHCrack ISO file. Burn the ISO file to a blank DVD. This will allow you to boot from the DVD and load the OPHCrack software before Windows is loaded. Burn-ISO-Files-to-DVD has detailed instructions for burning ISO files to DVD.
- Boot your computer from your burned DVD. Insert the disc into the computer that you need to crack and set the computer to boot from the disc drive. Boot-a-Computer-from-a-CD will show you how to configure your computer to boot from a disc. When configured correctly, OPHCrack will start automatically when your computer starts up.
- Load the Graphic Mode. In the initial menu, select "Ophcrack Graphic mode - automatic" and press Enter. After loading files, OPHCrack will load into the main menu. This will let you easily navigate the menus without having to decipher the old text menus.
- Wait for the passwords to be retrieved. Once OPHCrack starts, it will automatically begin attempting to retrieve all of the passwords for the accounts on the computer. This could take some time, especially if the passwords are complex.
- In the User column, you will see all of the active Windows User accounts.
- Recovered passwords will be displayed in the "NT Pwd" field. If the field displays "empty", then that user does not have a password associated with the account.
- Write down the passwords and reboot the computer. Once OPHCrack has retrieved the passwords you need, write it down, remove the disc, and reboot the computer. You can now log into Windows using the account you want and the recovered password.
Using DaveGrohl (Mac OS X)
- Gain root access. If you don't have administrator access on the Mac you want to crack, you will need to gain root access before you can start the password cracking process. Root access allows you to perform any function on the Mac.
- Boot into Single User mode at startup by pressing and holding ⌘ Cmd+S during the startup sequence.
- Type /sbin/mount -uw / and press ↵ Enter when you reach the Terminal.
- Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist and press ↵ Enter.
- Type passwd and press ↵ Enter. You will be prompted to enter a password twice. This will be your new root access password.
- Restart the computer by typing restart or reboot and pressing ↵ Enter.
- Log in as root. When the computer reboots, select Other in the Login Window. Enter "root" as the username, and then type in the password you just created.
- Download the DaveGrohl utility. This program will attempt to crack OS X passwords, and can be downloaded for free from a variety of locations online. Make sure that you are downloading from a trusted location or service.
- DaveGrohl comes in ZIP format. Extract the ZIP and place the folder somewhere that is easily accessible.
- Start the cracking process. Open the Terminal (found in the Utilities folder) and navigate to the DaveGrohl folder. If you kept it in your Downloads folder, type cd Downloads/DaveGrohl. Make sure that you are logged in as root.
- To start the cracking process, type sudo ./dave -u Template:Var. Replace Template:Var with the system name for the account you want to crack.
- Wait for the password to be found. DaveGrohl will begin trying to brute-force the password. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to several days, depending on the strength of the password.
- Once a password is found, it will be displayed as Found password : 'Template:Var'.
- You can leave DaveGrohl running in the background if the password is taking a while to crack.
Warnings
- Using OPHCrack or DaveGrohl to retrieve passwords for an account that is not yours is illegal, and if you are caught you will face severe punishment. This information is provided for educational and security purposes only.
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