Administrative account broken into

[Sean]

Basically I am wondering if there outside of knowing the password to the accounts, if a user with a limited account can somehow switch the settings so that he can get into the administrators accounts. Along with that is there anyway to log in as a computer
administrator from booting up without having to put a password in. My son has changed the accounts around so that he is the CA, and my account is limited, and I am 99% sure that he does not know my password and can not/could not get into my account. Any h
elp is greatly appreciated.

[Jim Eshelman]

Sean wrote:
> Basically I am wondering if there outside of knowing the password to
> the accounts, if a user with a limited account can somehow switch the
> settings so that he can get into the administrators accounts.

No... by that I mean that, while there are hacking tools that can get
someone in, those tools work by disclosing the password. They would either
have to have the password, have one of these tools that would disclose it,
have another administrative account on the same machine that would give them
access, or - if the computer is on a domain - have a domain admin account.

> Along
> with that is there anyway to log in as a computer administrator from
> booting up without having to put a password in.

Depending on choices yo made when you installed Windows XP, the default
admin account may have been created without a password. If so, then the
answer is yes. If not (if you set a password for it), and if there are no
other admin accounts without passwords, then the answer is no.

> My son has changed
> the accounts around so that he is the CA, and my account is limited,
> and I am 99% sure that he does not know my password and can not/could
> not get into my account. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I think communication with your son is warranted! :)

--
Jim Eshelman, MS-MVP Windows http://aumha.org/
AumHa Forums: http://forum.aumha.org/
The Parasite Fight: http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
Computer Health: http://aumha.org/a/health.htm
Troubleshooting: http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.htm

[Jim Macklin]

To expand a little on this answer. Your son could boot to
safe mode by pressing F8 and then booting the default
administrator account IF no password was set when XP was
installed.

A search on the web will find password cracking tools that
can be run, which will find many passwords rather quickly if
the password is simple, such 12345 or grandma, complex and
difficult password can take years to find (something like
IL_dlM245-4649_bd*58 because it has no words from a
dictionary and uses letters, numbers and symbols).

And I agree, you need to talk to your son


"Jim Eshelman" > wrote in message
...
| Sean wrote:
| > Basically I am wondering if there outside of knowing the
password to
| > the accounts, if a user with a limited account can
somehow switch the
| > settings so that he can get into the administrators
accounts.
|
| No... by that I mean that, while there are hacking tools
that can get
| someone in, those tools work by disclosing the password.
They would either
| have to have the password, have one of these tools that
would disclose it,
| have another administrative account on the same machine
that would give them
| access, or - if the computer is on a domain - have a
domain admin account.
|
| > Along
| > with that is there anyway to log in as a computer
administrator from
| > booting up without having to put a password in.
|
| Depending on choices yo made when you installed Windows
XP, the default
| admin account may have been created without a password. If
so, then the
| answer is yes. If not (if you set a password for it), and
if there are no
| other admin accounts without passwords, then the answer is
no.
|
| > My son has changed
| > the accounts around so that he is the CA, and my account
is limited,
| > and I am 99% sure that he does not know my password and
can not/could
| > not get into my account. Any help is greatly
appreciated.
|
| I think communication with your son is warranted! :)
|
| --
| Jim Eshelman, MS-MVP Windows http://aumha.org/
| AumHa Forums: http://forum.aumha.org/
| The Parasite Fight: http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
| Computer Health: http://aumha.org/a/health.htm
| Troubleshooting: http://aumha.org/a/tshoot.htm
|
|