Hacking into Windows 95 and a little bit of NT lore
Important warning: this
is a beginners lesson. BEGINNERS. Will all you geniuses who were born already
knowing 32-bit Windows just skip reading this one, OK? We don’t need to hear
how disgusted you are that not everyone already knows this.
PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED!
This lesson will lay
the foundation for learning how to hack what now is the most commonly installed
workstation operating system: Windows NT. In fact, Windows NT is coming into
wide use as a local area network (LAN), Internet, intranet, and Web server. So
if you want to call yourself a serious hacker, you’d better get a firm grasp on
Win NT.
In this lesson you will
learn serious hacking techniques useful on both Windows 95 and Win NT systems
while playing in complete safety on your own computer.
In this lesson we
explore:
·
Several
ways to hack your Windows 95 logon password
·
How to
hack your Pentium CMOS password
·
How to
hack a Windows Registry -- which is where access control on
Windows-based LANs,
intranets and Internet and Webs servers are hidden!
Let’s set the stage for
this lesson. You have your buddies over to your home to see you hack on your
Windows 95 box. You’ve already put in a really industrial haxor-looking bootup
screen, so they are already trembling at the thought of what a tremendously
elite d00d you are. So what do you do next?
How about clicking on
“Start,” clicking “settings” then “control panel” then “passwords.” Tell your
friends your password and get them to enter a secret new one. Then shut down
your computer and tell them you are about to show them how fast you can break
their password and get back into your own box!
This feat is so easy
I’m almost embarrassed to tell you how it’s done. That’s because you’ll say
“Sheesh, you call that password protection? Any idiot can break into a Win 95
box! And of course you’re right. But that’s the Micro$oft way. Remember this
next time you expect to keep something on your Win95 box confidential.
And when it comes time
to learn Win NT hacking, remember this Micro$oft security mindset. The funny
thing is that very few hackers mess with NT today because they’re all busy
cracking into Unix boxes. But there are countless amazing Win NT exploits just
waiting to be discovered. Once you see how easy it is to break into your Win 95
box, you’ll feel in your bones that even without us holding your hand, you
could discover ways to crack Win NT boxes, too.
But back to your
buddies waiting to see what an elite hacker you are. Maybe you’ll want them to
turn their backs so all they know is you can break into a Win95 box in less
than one minute. Or maybe you’ll be a nice guy and show them exactly how it’s
done.
But first, here’s a
warning. The first few techniques we’re showing work on most home Win 95
installations. But, especially in corporate local area networks (LANs), several
of these techniques don’t work. But never fear, in this lesson we will cover
enough ways to break in that you will be able to gain control of absolutely
*any* Win 95 box to which you have physical access. But we’ll start with the
easy ways first.
Easy Win 95 Breakin #1:
Step one: boot up your
computer.
Step two: When the “system
configuration” screen comes up, press the “F5” key. If your system doesn’t show
this screen, just keep on pressing the F5 key.
If your Win 95 has the
right settings, this boots you into “safe mode.” Everything looks weird, but
you don’t have to give your password and you still can run your programs.
Too easy! OK, if you
want to do something that looks a little classier, here’s another way to evade
that new password.
Easy Win 95 Breakin #2:
Step one: Boot up.
Step two: when you get
to the “system configuration” screen, press the F8 key. This gives you the
Microsoft Windows 95 Startup Menu.
Step three: choose
number 7. This puts you into MS-DOS. At the prompt, give the command “rename
c:\windows\*pwl c:\windows\*zzz.”
Newbie note: MS-DOS
stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System, an ancient operating system dating
from 1981. It is a command-line operating system, meaning that you get a prompt
(probably c:\>) after which you type in a command and press the enter key.
MS-DOS is often abbreviated DOS. It is a little bit similar to Unix, and in
fact in its first version it incorporated thousands of lines of Unix code.
Step four: reboot. You
will get the password dialog screen. You can then fake out your friends by
entering any darn password you want. It will ask you to reenter it to confirm
your new password.
Step five. Your friends
are smart enough to suspect you just created a new password, huh? Well, you can
put the old one your friends picked. Use any tool you like -- File Manager,
Explorer or MS-DOS -- to rename *.zzz back to *.pwl.
Step six: reboot and
let your friends use their secret password. It still works!
Think about it. If
someone where to be sneaking around another person’s Win 95 computer, using
this technique, the only way the victim could determine there had been an
intruder is to check for recently changed files and discover that the *.pwl
files have been messed with
Evil genius tip: Unless
the msdos.sys file bootkeys=0 option is active, the keys that can do something
during the bootup process are F4, F5, F6, F8, Shift+F5, Control+F5 and
Shift+F8. Play with them!
Now let’s suppose you
discovered that your Win 95 box doesn’t respond to the bootup keys. You can
still break in.
If your computer does
allow use of the boot keys, you may wish to disable them in order to be a teeny
bit more secure. Besides, it’s phun to show your friends how to use the boot
keys and then disable these so when they try to mess with your computer they
will discover you’ve locked them out.
The easiest -- but
slowest -- way to disable the boot keys is to pick the proper settings while
installing Win 95. But we’re hackers, so we can pull a fast trick to do the
same thing. We are going to learn how to edit the Win 95 msdos.sys file, which
controls the boot sequence.
Easy Way to Edit your Msdos.sys File:
Step zero: Back up your
computer completely, especially the system files. Make sure you have a Windows
95 boot disk. We are about to play with fire! If you are doing this on someone
else’s computer, let’s just hope either you have permission to destroy the
operating system, or else you are so good you couldn’t possibly make a serious
mistake.
Newbie note: You don’t
have a boot disk? Shame, shame, shame! Everyone ought to have a boot disk for
their computer just in case you or your buddies do something really horrible to
your system files. If you don’t already have a Win 95 boot disk, here’s how to
make one. To do this you need an empty floppy disk and your Win 95 installation
disk(s). Click on Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, then Add/Remove
Programs, then Startup Disk. From here
just follow instructions.
Step one: Find the file
msdos.sys. It is in the root directory (usually C:\). Since this is a hidden
system file, the easiest way to find it is to click on My Computer, right click
the icon for your boot drive (usually C:), left click Explore, then scroll down
the right side frame until you find the file “msdos.sys.”
Step two: Make
msdos.sys writable. To do this, right click on msdos.sys, then left click
“properties.” This brings up a screen on which you uncheck the “read only” and
“hidden” boxes. You have now made this a file that you can pull into a word
processor to edit.
Step three: Bring
msdos.sys up in Word Pad. To do this, you go to File Manager. Find msdos.sys
again and click on it. Then click “associate” under the “file” menu. Then click
on “Word Pad.” It is very important to use Word Pad and not Notepad or any
other word processing program! Then double click on msdos.sys.
Step four: We are ready
to edit. You will see that Word Pad has come up with msdos.sys loaded. You will
see something that looks like this:
[Paths]
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C
[Options]
BootGUI=1
Network=1
;
;The following lines are
required for compatibility with other programs.
;Do not remove them
(MSDOS>SYS needs to be >1024 bytes).
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
To disable the function
keys during bootup, directly below [Options] you should insert the command
“BootKeys=0.” Or, another way to disable the boot keys is to insert the command
BootDelay=0. You can really mess up your snoopy hacker wannabe friends by
putting in both statements and hope they don’t know about BootDelay. Then save
msdos.sys.
Step five: since
msdos.sys is absolutely essential to your computer, you’d better write protect
it like it was before you edited it. Click on My Computer, then Explore, then
click the icon for your boot drive (usually C:), then scroll down the right
side until you find the file “msdos.sys.” Click on msdos.sys, then left click
“properties.” This brings back that screen with the “read only” and “hidden”
boxes. Check “read only.”
Step six: You *are*
running a virus scanner, aren’t you? You never know what your phriends might do
to your computer while your back is turned. When you next boot up, your virus
scanner will see that msdos.sys has changed. It will assume the worst and want
to make your msdos.sys file look just like it did before. You have to stop it
from doing this. I run Norton Antivirus, so all I have to do when the virus
warning screen comes up it to tell it to “innoculate.”
Hard Way to Edit your (or someone else’s) Msdos.sys File.
Step zero. This is
useful practice for using DOS to run rampant someday in Win NT LANs, Web and
Internet servers. Put a Win 95 boot disk in the a: drive. Boot up. This gives
you a DOS prompt A:\.
Step one: Make
msdos.sys writable. Give the command “attrib -h -r -s c:\msdos.sys” (This
assumes the c: drive is the boot disk.)
Step two: give the
command “edit msdos.sys” This brings up this file into the word processor.
Step three: Use the
edit program to alter msdos.sys. Save it. Exit the edit program.
Step four: At the DOS
prompt, give the command “attrib +r +h +s c:\msdos.sys” to return the msdos.sys
file to the status of hidden, read-only system file.
OK, now your computer’s boot keys are disabled.
Does this mean no one can break in? Sorry, this isn’t good enough.
As you may have guessed
from the “Hard Way to Edit your Msdos.sys” instruction, your next option for
Win 95 breakins is to use a boot disk that goes in the a: floppy drive.
