JimC wrote:
Thank you @Jaclaz for the helpful summary of the different methods.
Methods (1) and (2) both provide a system-level command-prompt at the login screen. This can be used to reset an account password. Method (3) by-passes this and permits login with any password. The end result is the almost same and all 3 methods require file system access to an unencrypted OS volume.
However, something which I don't think has been mentioned yet is that once the password has been changed (or bypassed) you will no longer have access to EFS encrypted data or other secrets protected by the Windows credential manager.
I would be interested to learn from other practitioners if this scenario has come up or is changing/bypassing the password sufficient in practice despite the limitation?
Jim
www.binarymarkup.com
If you don't want to lose access to EFS encrypted files or stored network/browser passwords, you have no other way but to recover the old password. Besides using Ophcrack to crack the password using rainbow tables, you can also use the following softwares to recover your password with GPU hardware acceleration:
RainbowCrack - http://project-rainbowcrack.com/
HashCat - https://hashcat.net/hashcat/
Password Recovery Bundle - https://www.top-password.com/guide/windows-password-recovery.html
Proactive System Password Recovery - https://www.elcomsoft.com/pspr.html
A high-end graphics card can boost the cracking speed a lot.
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