In this tutorial we will remove Syskey start up password and reset
the administrator password. Syskey is the additional layer of security.
An average user barely implement it. Scammers take advantage of this
tool to scam. Scammers usually contact computer owner identifying
himself as a member of Microsoft support team. They will informs you
that your PC have number of critical problems, those need to be fix
immediately or your system will fail to work properly. They will
convince you to allow them to connect system remotely and fix the
issues. If you do make the mistake of letting them connect, they will
ask you to pay $$$ for fix. If you refuse to pay, they will enacted
SysKey encryption on the SAM registry hive.
In Window XP, Security
Accounts Management (SAM) database stores hashed copies of user
passwords. To keep the SAM database secure, Window requires that the
password hashes are encrypted. SAM database is encrypted with a locally
stored system key. SysKey utility can additionally secure the SAM
database by moving the SAM database encryption key off the Windows-based
computer. The SysKey utility can configure a start-up password that
must be entered to decrypt the system key so that Windows can access the
SAM database.
In this tutorial
- How to set administrator password in Window XP
- How to set syskey in window XP
- How to remove Syskey startup password in window XP
- How to reset administrator password in Window XP
How to set administrator password in Window XP
Administrator
is the built in super user account in Window XP. Whenever you install
XP, it automatically created. By default administrator account is not
password protected, unless you make it during the installation. This
account have privilege to access everything in computer. With this
account you can change any password on that system. If you have
purchased any branded computer like Sony, HCL, Dell, with pre XP
installed, you would be able to login to computer with administrator
account using blank password.
This account usually doesn't show up
on the logon screen and average user don't know it exists. Usually user
won't need to use computer under this account very often. You need this
account in safe mode or at recovery console.
To set administrator account password Click
Start button and Right click on
My Computer, from context menu click
Manage

From left pane expend
Local users and groups, Click
Users.
In right pane, Right click
Administrator, from context menu Click
Set password

Click
Proceed on alert message box

Set password and Click
OK

Click
OK on confirmation message box

We have protected administrator account with password to enhance the security of system.
How to set Syskey in window XP
To enable Syskey encryption, Click
Start button and Click
Run

In Run dialog box type
Syskey and Click
OK

From opened dialog box select
Encryption Enabled option and Click
Update. When this option is selected, Windows will always encrypt the SAM database.

We have two options here
Password Startup and
System Generated Password, if you do not want to require a startup password use second option.
- Store Startup Key on Floppy Disk
To store the system startup password on a floppy disk. This requires
that someone insert the floppy disk to start the operating system. This
provides the highest level of protection for the SAM database.
- Store Startup Key Locally To store the encryption key on the hard disk of the local computer. This is the default option.
Click
Password Startup and set password and Click
OK

Click
OK on success message We have successful setup the Syskey start up password.

Now we have set both password administrator and Syskey.
On next reboot you will get following message.
Startup Password
This computer is configured to require a password in order to start up. Please enter the Startup Password below.

Enter the Syskey password and try to access administrator account with blank password. This time you will get alert message

If
you have done above procedure to enhance the security of system,
congratulation you have now more secure computer than your colleagues.
But if a scammer has done this, you are in you are in lockout situation.
Very
first thing user do in this situation is to call Microsoft or post
thread on their support form for help. But it is useless as Microsoft
Support Engineers do not help users to get forgotten or stolen password.
You will ended up with following policy page
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/189126
Furthermore Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014. Now you have limited choice to deal with this situation.
- Pay scammer to unlock the pc
- Reinstall window from scratch
- Use third party tool to crack the password
- There
are few another methods (reset registry, restore system, use backup etc
) to deal this situation, but they depend upon the availability of
backup. We will take them on other tutorials.
In this tutorial we will use a Linux script to crack the password. Before you start make sure
- Microsoft
does not recommend to use of any third party tools for cracking the
password. At the same time they also do not provide any support to
handle this situation. So it's your choice to use this script or not.
- Use
this script only if you are the owner of computer or have proper
permission. Doing this with someone else's system without permission is
illegal.
- In some circumstances window may ask for reauthorization or reactivation.
- This script is only for Window XP, do not use this on Vista, Win7, Win8 or any higher version than Window XP.
How to disable Syskey startup password.
Download the open source Linux script
Script to reset password
Extract the zip file

It contains an ISO file

You need to burn this ISO image. You can use any standard ISO burner software for this purpose.
Or you can download from following URL
Portable disk burning software
Official URL
http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5
Disk burning software
Official URL
http://www.freeisoburner.com/
Burn image to CD, and boot system from this CD ( You need to set boot priority in bios, to boot system from CD/DVD).
Press
Enter to boot system from CD
Script
will make a quick scan of hard disk and return with all available
window installation. Usually there will be only one, unless you have
dual operating system installed. Type the disk number (Most probably
one, or see the returned result for appropriate number) and press
Enter

We need to provide registry files path. Usually script will automatically find the path, all you need to do is just press
Enter and go with default selected path

Our primary goal is to reset the password, Type
1 and press
Enter

We will first disable the Syskey, Type
2 and press
Enter

Type
y and press
Enter to confirm the Syskey disable.

When
you disable Syskey, this script will also invalidate (set to blank) all
users passwords from system. You need to reset them as well. From this
point you can save change to disk and return to window. Type
q and press
Enter to return previous menu

Type
y and press
Enter so script can write the change to disk

If you want, you can run the script again. Type
n and press
enter.

Remove the disk and reboot the system.
We
have successfully disabled the syskey and set administrator password to
blank. Now you can login to system with administrator account using
blank password. From administrator account you can set password to all
other user accounts.
How to reset administrator password in Window XP
If
you have disabled the syskey following the above method then no need to
run this script again, all users password including administrator will
automatically set to blank while you disable the syskey. If you have
disabled the syskey protection and only need to reset the administrator
password follow these steps.
Boot system from our script disk

Select disk and Press
Enter

Press
Enter

Type
1 and press
Enter

Type
1 to select
Edit user data and passwords on
chntpw main interactive Menu

Script
will list all available user accounts, type the username of account
which password you want to change. Administrator account is by default
selected, press
Enter

Script
will fetch the details associated with user account, make sure you have
selected right user account. You can set new password directly from the
script, but I will not recommend this. Instead of setting new password,
we will use option
1 to clear (Set to blank) the password. Type
1 and press
Enter

Type
! and press
Enter to return to menu

Type
q and press
Enter

Type
q and press
Enter

Type
y and press
Enter to save the change

Type
n to exit from script

We
have successfully cleared the administrator password. Remove disk and
reboot the system and login from administrator account. Once logged in,
you can set up the password by following the steps given above.
source:computernetworkingnotes