Penetration Testing mailing list archives
RE: Password "security" - was"Passwords with Lan Manager (LM) und er Windows" and "Whitespace in passwords"
From: "Dufresne, Pierre" <PIERRE.DUFRESNE () MESS GOUV QC CA>
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:19:31 -0400
Thanks for the advice, I am focusing on stolen laptops. With the password-on-boot SYSKEY feature I was hoping to protect the cache entries stored on those machines. The thing is, I was planning to make EFS available for the laptops (XP sp1). The problem is, if the attacker can crack the passwords (after dumping the cache entries with CacheDump), he gets access to the EFS files. That's why this password security thread had me worry. Thanks P. -----Original Message----- From: Thor (Hammer of God) [mailto:thor () hammerofgod com] Sent: 28 septembre 2005 16:55 To: Dufresne, Pierre; pen-test () securityfocus com Subject: Re: Password "security" - was"Passwords with Lan Manager (LM) under Windows" and "Whitespace in passwords" Just a side note-- if you are using the password-on-boot feature, make sure you take that into account when considering unattended power-cycles, restarts, power failures, or other reboot events that may occur when no personnel are on site to enter the password. That's an easy to DOS yourself if you are not thinking about it. That's why the key-on-floppy is available (make sure your BIOS is not set to boot from floppy first) but if your main concern is lost or stolen resources, that may not really help you that much unless you keep the floppy out of the unit, thus re-introducing the self-imposed DOS issue again. (Note that if any of the systems are (heaven forbid) NT4, that Microsoft has a hotfix for SYSKEY'd SAMs to fix keystream re-use in the SAM encryption that makes offline cracking easier. KB248183.) You really need to weigh the risks of an unattended reboot DOSing you or that of a box being "lost or stolen." I can't see how a box could get lost, but if it's stolen, you'll be resetting all the passwords anyway... Which way to go is really up to how much of a propensity each given even is likely to occur... t ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Audit your website security with Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner: Hackers are concentrating their efforts on attacking applications on your website. Up to 75% of cyber attacks are launched on shopping carts, forms, login pages, dynamic content etc. Firewalls, SSL and locked-down servers are futile against web application hacking. Check your website for vulnerabilities to SQL injection, Cross site scripting and other web attacks before hackers do! Download Trial at: http://www.securityfocus.com/sponsor/pen-test_050831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- RE: Password "security" - was"Passwords with Lan Manager (LM) und er Windows" and "Whitespace in passwords" Dufresne, Pierre (Sep 28)
- RE: Password "security" - was"Passwords with Lan Manager (LM) under Windows" and "Whitespace in passwords" dave kleiman (Sep 29)
- Re: Password "security" - was"Passwords with Lan Manager (LM) under Windows" and "Whitespace in passwords" Thor (Hammer of God) (Sep 29)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Password "security" - was"Passwords with Lan Manager (LM) und er Windows" and "Whitespace in passwords" Dufresne, Pierre (Sep 29)