how secure is an account password?

[DJ-CHRIS1]

It would take 5 min to reset the password, and assuming a super strong password like yours, 1 hour to crack it.

15 digit good password, that would take a BIG rainbow table to break.

 

[uid=[0]]

LOL there was an article. One of the mods must have removed it.

 

[Cx]

Well NTFS write support is no longer considered experminetal for *nix.

You do the math...

 

[uid=[0]]

LOL what he means is... Not very hard at all.

 

[x0r515t]

1) You can get programs that can reset the Admin password, opening up the entire OS.
2) You can remove the HDD and connect it to a workstation, and browse it anyway.

Unless the hard drive is encrypted...

 

[Neodude1123201]

The bios password is useless all you have to do is to take out the clock battery,and i remeber seeing a program that reset passwords in windows.

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

The bios password is useless all you have to do is to take out the clock battery,and i remeber seeing a program that reset passwords in windows.

Killcmos.c gets rid of CMOS passwords in BIOS usually. However I have found this doesnt work in EVERY computer.

And BIOS passwords are useful. Some computers are pysically more secure than others, you can put case locks on computers. Also on IBM computers, they store the BIOS password on a seperate unclearable ROM, so it is IMPOSSIBLE to reset the bios password. And if you reset the CMOS without knowing the BIOS password, the motherboard becomes useless.

 

[Cx]

Unless the hard drive is encrypted...

Why would you encrypt an entire hard drive that you access data from CONSTANTLY, do you want to have to decrypt everytime you play battlefield 2? or everytime you open up a mp3 or a movie? Not to mention how would your computer boot an encrypted version of windows? without extra software this isn't possible.

unreasonable solution

 

[Computer Head]

All you need to do is encrypt your sensitive data. The other data, don't encrypt. Don't worry about the BIOS and Windows passwords. Both you can get around.

BIOS - Just take out the CMOS battery or flip the jumper on the motherboard to clear that. That could work, if you can keep people away from your motherboard.

Windows - There are programs that can boot from a disk that will reset your password outside of Windows. If you aren't too terribly worried about it, a strong password should do the trick.

 

[Cx]

yeah, that's what my point was.

it's not the best idea to encrypt an entire harddrive just to protect a password.