Fun with Ophcrack

I posted a list of some good password crackers many moons ago, then more recently I posted a video from some young hackers over at The Fixed where they show you how to crack a password using the Rainbow tables over at Plain-Text.info. Then I got to thinking to myself, "Self...There has to be other methods for achieving the same goal." Then I thought, "Aha! I already have a list of some good password crackers, why not try one out."


Enter Ophcrack from stage left. Ophcrack uses, basically the same time-memory trade-off using rainbow tables as Plain-Text.info. The installation is easy, and even lets you download Rainbow tables during installation (Be patient, this takes a long time). Once installed with the necessary rainbow tables operating Ophcrack is a snap!

If you look at the video that I posted from The Fixed, the guys use CIA Commander, which costs around $250 or so. Here is the scenerio I propose using freeware:

1) Boot the computer you want to hack using the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows.
2) Use The Sala Password Renew Program on UBCD4WIN to create a new administrator user.
3) Reboot the PC, and Login as the New Administrator user
4) Install Ophcrack. (I recommend burning the rainbow tables from your home installation to a DVD to make this quicker. You can install Ophcrack without downloading the tables, and just copy them into the C:\Program Files\ophcrack\win32\5000 directory after the installation)
5) Load the local SAM file, and launch!

Should only take a few minutes to get the local admin password!

NOTE: If you don't want to get caught, you might consider rebooting the computer once after getting the Administrator password, then log in as administrator and delete the user account and profile for the Administrator user you created using UBCD4WIN. After that is done, uninstall Ophcrack, and clear all of the event logs. Of course, this is just for educational purposes. Don't try this out on computers that you do not own! Good luck!