Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0)
From: Todd Sabin <tas () WEBSPAN NET>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 23:54:35 -0500
Attonbitus Deus <Thor () HAMMEROFGOD COM> writes:
Todd Sabin discovered this and reported on it over 3 years ago... For SQL 6.5, the username is clear, and the password is hashed via PKZip's crypto using a fixed key. This should be in the Bugtraq archives. 7.0 uses a different hash, and though dbsecure allows you to brute it via dictionary, I have not found a tool that cracks SQL 7.0 sa password when mixed mode is used.
Actually, there were two separate issues, one of which was mine. What I found was that when you install SQL Server 6.5, it creates an NT account (not a sql one) named SQLExecutiveCmdExec or something like that, and stores the password in an Everyone:Read part of the registry, encrypted with PKZip's encryption with a fixed key. Since you normally need credentials to read the registry in the first place, it didn't get you all that much, really. MS seems to have fixed this in later versions, but I haven't looked at it too deeply. At around the same time, someone else (don't remember, sorry) reported that SQL Enterprise Manager stored (under the SQLEW key) the passwords to SQL accounts that you used to register servers. In that case, the passwords were stored plaintext, although it was in the midst of a blob of REG_BINARY data, so you had to look for it. Depending on configuration, it would put them either under HKCU or HKLM. Haven't seen the particular thing the original poster was asking about, though it looks like a similar problem. Todd
Current thread:
- [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) ritter dan (Jan 17)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) Attonbitus Deus (Jan 17)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) Aaron C. Newman (Jan 17)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) Todd Sabin (Jan 17)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) Attonbitus Deus (Jan 18)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) Aaron C. Newman (Jan 18)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] SQL 6.5 & 7.0 passwords in the registry (NT 4.0) Attonbitus Deus (Jan 17)