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Sam 0wn3d How to crack SAM File and own Windows

Instead of storing passwords in clear-text, Windows generates and stores user account passwords by using two different password representations, known as "hashes." The SAM file could be found in the folder c:\Windows\system32\config. However it cannot be accessed because the operating system locks the file. In this article I will discuss various methods that can be used to crack SAM and own the server.

From whatis.com:
?Hashing is the transformation of a string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that represents the original string. Hashing is used to index and retrieve items in a database because it is faster to find the item using the shorter hashed key than to find it using the original value. It is also used in many encryption algorithms.?

When you set or change the password for a user account to a password that contains fewer than 15 characters, Windows generates both a LAN Manager hash (LM hash) and a Windows NT hash (NT hash) of the password.

These hashes are stored in the local Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database or in Active Directory.

The SAM file could be found in the folder c:\Windows\system32\config. However it cannot be accessed because the operating system locks the file. Sam 0wn3d - How to crack SAM File and own Windows | SecGuru

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