Ubuntu Unleashed: Howto: Change Windows Administrator password in Ubuntu Hardy Heron Easily

Howto: Change Windows Administrator password in Ubuntu Hardy Heron Easily

Labels: Change windows administrator password in Ubuntu, Change windows password, Cracking, Hacking, Hacking Windows From Ubuntu, Reset Windows Password, Windows password recovery with linux Posted by defcon on Friday, April 18, 2008 at 4:16 PM

I absolutely hate microsoft products thats why I love breaking it. This hack, is way too easy. Whatever your reason for changing any users password, this simple howto will surely satisfy that need. The only way to prevent this currently is with full disk encryption. Here is how you change windows password within Ubuntu Hardy Heron.
You can either use your livecd or hdd
sudo apt-get install chntpw
Now its installed, so lets get to work...
Ok I am assuming your using a hardy heron livecd or a Ubuntu Hardy Heron full install
You will now need to mount the windows partition read/write permission then navigate to %systemroot%/system32/config
Once your located in the config directory issue this command to change the password
chntpw -u administrator SAM
- Prompt for password for 'administrator', if found (otherwise do nothing) use * to blank

Now reboot and login to winblows

Optionally you can skip resetting the password and just install Ubuntu

Comments (16)

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tomaszx · 883 weeks ago

what windows? xp, vista, 98 ? not completly art. :(

+1 Vote up Vote down

defcon 52p · 883 weeks ago

tomaszx, yes you can use this tool to change any user/administrator password in any windows version

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Hullabalooza · 882 weeks ago

hi

i'm a ubuntu newbe and don't quite get the last step of your explanation

"- Prompt for password for 'administrator', if found (otherwise do nothing) use * to blank"

is that something i need to do?

if i run the last command, i only get some information that i find difficult to interpret.

--> or maybe the password is automatically removed after this last command.

my aim is basically to get into the windows recovery console, but forgot my password and try to recover or reset these password.

thanks a lot for any advice

ciao

1 reply · active 881 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

defcon 52p · 881 weeks ago

paste the output

-1 Vote up Vote down

MaxT63 · 876 weeks ago

Thanks for this! My school (i'm in grade 10) recently put a security "upgrade" on all the computers. It'll be nice to take over one of them for myself (while others can still use it) and undo some of the changes, such as disabling regedit, disabling cmd, right-clicking ANYWHERE (you actually can't right-click at all), going into control panel, look inside the C: drive, the list goes on.

-I know i shouldn't be doing this (from a moral perspective) but they took away my freedoms, and i want revenge.

1 reply · active 876 weeks ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

twatter · 825 weeks ago

Sounds like you live in Canada, so you're missing a lot of freedom anyways..

0 Vote up Vote down

MaxT63 · 876 weeks ago

I also forgot to mention that they are M$ sellouts, using any microsoft product they can (office '08, XP, Internet Explorer, etc.

0 Vote up Vote down

brucefmh · 874 weeks ago

It says "E: specified file not found" ?!

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neochick · 872 weeks ago

Im also having this problem?

0 Vote up Vote down

Wirelessbenny · 866 weeks ago

You must capitalize the "A" in administrator, as in

chntpw -u Administrator SAM

1 reply · active 865 weeks ago

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flying caveman · 866 weeks ago

Ok now it makes sence

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Ben · 865 weeks ago

chntpw -u Administrator SAM
chntpw version 0.99.3 040818, (c) Petter N Hagen
openHive(SAM) failed: No such file or directory, trying read-only
openHive(SAM) in fallback RO-mode failed: No such file or directory
closing hive SAM
Unable to open/read a hive, exiting..
ben@linux601:~$

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Ben · 865 weeks ago

U didn't mention that you must open Rootterminal :-s got it now. I want to use this from USB to access another computer. My work uses old computers, and I cannot install Ubuntu on them.

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Eleazar · 842 weeks ago

This is what i get when i run chntpw -u Administrador SAM:

ubuntu@ubuntu:/media/windows/Windows/System32/config$ chntpw -u Administrador SAM
chntpw version 0.99.3 040818, (c) Petter N Hagen
Hive's name (from header): <untwindowsSystem32configSAM>
ROOT KEY at offset: 0x001020 * Subkey indexing type is: 666c <lf>

File size 8192 [2000] bytes, containing 1 pages (+ 1 headerpage)
Used for data: 2/432 blocks/bytes, unused: 1/3632 blocks/bytes.
Simple registry editor. ? for help.

[1020] >

It always launches the registry editor, there's only one account in windows, the administrator account. But it shows nothing =/

0 Vote up Vote down

Tom Williams · 837 weeks ago

Hi, i'm also new to ubuntu and want to get into the recovery console to use the fixmbbr command. However i have forgotten my administrator password and would like to change it. I'm getting this message :

chntpw -u Administrator SAM
chntpw version 0.99.5 070923, (decade) (c) Petter N Hagen
openHive(SAM) failed: No such file or directory, trying read-only
openHive(SAM) in fallback RO-mode failed: No such file or directory
closing hive SAM
Unable to open/read a hive, exiting..

Ben says to open a rootterminal? i have no idea what that means.

Please help

Thanks, Tom