Windows Encryption
Discussion
Well, if you knew the password and understood the data format (or had a Linux utility that someone else has written) you should be able to access it in theory. However, unless someone has already written a program to do this and you know the password it would be very difficult I would imagine.
I am assuming you dont know what encyption method was used. Inwhich case it would be very difficult to get top the data. If you knew it was done by windows xp then there are many tools about that will do it from within windows, with mixed results I might add. Some of them just end up corupting the whole shebang.
The file permissions (access denied kind of thing) become transparent/of no use if you access the drive from linux.
As for encrypted files. You mean the standard built-in XP encryption where the files appear scrambled to other users, even if file permissions allow them to read it? I don't know a way to attack these files directly, though that doesnt mean there isn't one, infact there probably is!
What I'd to is grab a copy of the machines registry and then crack the password of the user account that the encrypted files are associated with. Up to about 6 random characters or a dictionary word is very do-able at home, over that you might want to use one of the online rainbow table services.
(You would need to crack the existing password rather than just reset it (trivial) because the files are encrypted with the password as part of the hash in a roundabout kind of way so if you just zap the password you loose the files forever.)
Once you've got their password, just boot up, log in as them, read the files.
If you don't want them to know that you've booted up & logged in as them, ghost the drive & unplug the network before you do it then restore the image afterwards.
Or install a keylogger to get their password,
Or install a silent version of VNC and electronicaly peek over their shoulder.
Probably other ways too but that'l do for now!
As for encrypted files. You mean the standard built-in XP encryption where the files appear scrambled to other users, even if file permissions allow them to read it? I don't know a way to attack these files directly, though that doesnt mean there isn't one, infact there probably is!
What I'd to is grab a copy of the machines registry and then crack the password of the user account that the encrypted files are associated with. Up to about 6 random characters or a dictionary word is very do-able at home, over that you might want to use one of the online rainbow table services.
(You would need to crack the existing password rather than just reset it (trivial) because the files are encrypted with the password as part of the hash in a roundabout kind of way so if you just zap the password you loose the files forever.)
Once you've got their password, just boot up, log in as them, read the files.
If you don't want them to know that you've booted up & logged in as them, ghost the drive & unplug the network before you do it then restore the image afterwards.
Or install a keylogger to get their password,
Or install a silent version of VNC and electronicaly peek over their shoulder.
Probably other ways too but that'l do for now!
Edited by sneakyneil on Friday 13th April 17:44
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