In this tutorial, I will present a way to change or delete a user password in a Windows XP operating systems or Windows 7.
On Windows Vista, I have not tried it yet, but you can try.
I get under Fedora 15 this software, using yum.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | # yum install chntpw Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit Setting up Install Process Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package chntpw.i686 0:0.99.6-15.fc15 will be installed --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================ Installing: chntpw i686 0.99.6-15.fc15 fedora 71 k Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 1 Package(s) Total download size: 71 k Installed size: 212 k Is this ok [y/N]: y |
You need to locate the SAM file. Under Windows 2000 and XP is normally located at
1 | windows/system32/config or winnt/system32/config |
.
Then you need to navigate and find a number of files like SAM, SYSTEM, SECURITY…
Once you have located the SAM you can start using chntpw.
Use this command to see the help
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | # chntpw -h chntpw version 0.99.6 080526 (sixtyfour), (c) Petter N Hagen chntpw: change password of a user in a NT/2k/XP/2k3/Vista SAM file, or invoke registry editor. chntpw [OPTIONS] [systemfile] [securityfile] [otherreghive] [...] -h This message -u Username to change, Administrator is default -l list all users in SAM file -i Interactive. List users (as -l) then ask for username to change -e Registry editor. Now with full write support! -d Enter buffer debugger instead (hex editor), -t Trace. Show hexdump of structs/segments. (deprecated debug function) -v Be a little more verbose (for debuging) -L Write names of changed files to /tmp/changed -N No allocation mode. Only (old style) same length overwrites possible See readme file on how to get to the registry files, and what they are. Source/binary freely distributable under GPL v2 license. See README for details. NOTE: This program is somewhat hackish! You are on your own! |
If you want to list all the users on in the SAM file, use this command:
1 | chntpw SAM |
Use this command to change the password or clear the password:
1 | chntpw -u windows_user SAM |
The windows_user is the user list by command chntpw SAM
There are other options that can be applied to a windows user, but these two are used.
This program can be used on a Linux install on USB.