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NT password history

Keywords:   NT password history 

Question:

Is anyone aware if it is possible to extract a users NT password history with WinBatch, or failing this, any other software. We have a need to determine a number of users previous 3 passwords.

Have not seen anywhere where this has been done.

Answer:

Offhand I think it is impossible.

In general the passwords are "hashed" into large number where working backwards is pretty much impossible.

I think you can hack at it and get the hash value, but then you would have to try lots and lots of passwords to find one that matches the hash value. In a few million years you may actually find several different password with the same hash value.

The idea is that it is "computationally difficult" to derive the passwords.

I'm not exactly an expert on this, but that is my understanding.

An MD5 hash of the password is what is stored in the SAM database. You cannot turn a hash back into a plain text password. The only mechanism for determining the plain text passwords would be to perform a dictionary attack against the SAM.


Article ID:   W15672
File Created: 2003:05:13:11:29:26
Last Updated: 2003:05:13:11:29:26