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My friend told me that he can easily crack a Windows SAM file using Ophcrack.

Assuming that I have access to the whole config folder (the one which contains the SAM file) of a Windows machine, is it that easy to crack Windows passwords? Is Windows that unsecured?

Hamza Shezad
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    I know that it was very easy to do this on Windows XP with a simple Linux live usb. On Windows 7 you were able to simply delete the password and log in. I have't tried Ophcrack, but I guess it's not an impossible task keeping in mind this was possible before. The utility I used was called : chntpw . Now when you say "Is Windows that unsecured?" there a lot of different things that come into play around users and passwords which doesn't make it as weak as you think. – sir_k Sep 29 '15 at 12:27
  • This does not mean that Windows is especially 'unsecured'. If I have the shadow file from Linux, I can run jtr on it and extract all the passwords, too. – schroeder Sep 29 '15 at 14:27

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With physically access its not very hard to crack or "erase" a windows machine password even if it has a bios password.

In windows XP in a most case if not fixed, you can login as a default admin in Safe Mode.

Ophcrack works by using LM hashes through rainbow tables. The program includes the ability to import the hashes from a variety of formats, including dumping directly from the SAM files of Windows.