Category: Hi, here I’m going to show how to copy SAM file and System file from live OS using command prompt. The SAM (Security Accounts Manager) file in windows is such an important file in windows Operating System. As the name suggests it is concerned with the security in Windows Operating Systems.
This file contains users password in encrypted hash (LM hash and NTLM hash) format. The SAM file is a partially encrypted file using a SYSKEY. It will be a great advantage if we using pin for logging (supports in windows 8 and 8.1) and forgot password. If we get a copy of these file, it is easy to crack using tools such as or The user passwords are stored in a hashed format in a registry hive either as a LM hash or as a NTLM hash. This file can be found in%SystemRoot%/system32/config/SAM and is mounted on HKLM/SAM.
It is not possible to copy SAM from live OS simply using a copy instruction. Steps:. Open a command prompt (Admin privilege required). Enter the following commands.
SAMInside is a compact application that intends to help you recover the forgotten or misplaced passwords from Windows accounts. The program scans the computer for user accounts and displays the passwords in the main window. You can use this program in order to import the user login information stored in the SAM hash files. In these files the login information is encrypted as a password hash.
SAMInside uses the encrypted files in order to recover the account password. Another way to recover the password is to import the text file generated by the PWDUMP application. The text file includes the password hashes that you need to decrypt in order to view the actual password. The information from the SAM files is usually encrypted by using a system key password.
Cracking Windows Login Password without knowing Admin Password using CD or bootable USB flash drive. There are many tools to crack login screen password or Admin password. You can choose. Cracking Syskey and the SAM on Windows XP, 2000 and NT 4 using Open Source Tools. There are still ways SAMInside could be used, but there are better Open Source tools now that can do the same tasks. Since I said we were going to do it all with the Auditor CD and Open Source tools we will use John the Ripper to crack the hashes.
This tool attempts to recover the password by performing a brute force attack or a dictionary approach. Both methods aim to remove the encryption by guessing the password. The dictionary approach can be customized by using words from a certain language or by checking the passwords with all possible character cases. The recovered passwords can be exported to a text file or a HTML report that can be accessed later.
The application is lightweight and can be run from a removable device. It requires insignificant resources and has very little impact on the computer's performance during the recovery process. SAMInside is a useful tool for recovering lost passwords from other computer accounts.