Linux is beautiful

Sat, May 14, 2005 2-minute read

Just want to clarify real quick that I had some misinformation in my post about the Xbox 360 earlier today. The wireless controls won’t be able to plug into the wall, that obviously makes no sense. The controls will actually have the ability to be powered through the any of the 3 USB 2.0 ports that are on the front of the Xbox. Those USB ports will also be able to work with keyboards and Microsoft’s version of the EyeToy. There also may still be hope for backward compatibility. Just keep in mind that a lot of this information has not been officially stated by Microsoft and we should all wait until E3 before some of this become official. We just basically have the idea of the Xbox 360’s potential.

Anyway! Now onto the subject of this post. I found a very nice utility today that can help you recover your computer, or someone else’s for that matter, by changing the password on an account. It’s a boot disk for linux that allows you to read the SAM file and replace any password with the password you choose. I tried this out today and it totally worked. All you need is a floppy and the files. Now keep in mind that the purpose of this is to recover your own passwords on your own computer. But it is also good to know how easy it is for someone to get into your computer if they have physical access to it. This tool works great but it does have limits. If it is used to gain access to your system, the hacker will still be unable to read any files that were encrypted with the Encrypted File System (EFS). So be sure to encrypt any super secret material. This can be done with a simple right-click and choosing properties on the folder you wish to encrypt. I know this is a really old trick but I never tried it until today. That’s for all you angry people who attempt to make fun of me for my “old news”. There are some people who haven’t heard this and they deserve too. It might very well be new news to somebody.

That’s about all I want to talk about when it comes to hacking. I’m not very good at it, and this tool definitely doesn’t show that you have any 1337 skillZ. So I’ll just leave it at that.