How to hack a Macs password.
Are you ready for some unauthorized Mac goodness? Would you like to easily get into someone’s mac? Apple makes it easy as pie (no pun intended – honest).
If you have The Mac OS DVD then you can boot to it and reset account passwords! As far as I know this will work for Panther and Leopard.
When they showed this to me in class my hand shot up and I wasn’t the only one. This is a huge security flaw (feature) and would not fly in my environment.
Have you Mac fan boys know this? Have you been keeping this from The Admin? Oh well back to class.
From The Apple Support Site:
Changing your administrator password
To change the administrator password, you must know the current administrator password. If you’re logged in as the administrator, open Account preferences and click the Change Password button.
If you don’t remember the password and automatic login is turned off, you can reset the administrator password using the Mac OS X User Install disc.
IMPORTANT: Because a user with the Mac OS X install disc can gain unrestricted access to your computer, you should keep the disc in a safe place.
To reset the administrator password using the Mac OS X disc:
- Insert the Mac OS X Install disc and restart the computer.
- When you hear the startup tone, hold down the C key until you see the spinning gear.
- When the Installer appears, choose Utilities > Reset Password.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to change the password.
- Quit the Installer and restart your computer while holding down the mouse button to eject the disc.
Be sure to change your login password in Keychain Access to match your new password.
Did this article help you? [Apple Support Class]
Yeah It helped freak me out a little! How insecure is that??
December 7, 2007 - 4:42 pm
Just to be fair, this isn’t limited to just Macs – you can get into a Windows or Linux PC in a similar manner. If you have physical access to a machine, breaking into it becomes much easier.
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December 7, 2007 - 5:40 pm
dont get me wrong you are right with physical access to the machine it is a lot easier to get in but i have not seen an os incorporate this feature in their install package!
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December 7, 2007 - 12:40 pm
dont get me wrong you are right with physical access to the machine it is a lot easier to get in but i have not seen an os incorporate this feature in their install package!
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December 7, 2007 - 9:40 pm
Most “Security Minded” MAC users know to setup the firmware password protection.
One of the features of the firmware password is: Blocks the ability to use the “C” key to start up from an optical disc.
How to document: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482
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December 7, 2007 - 10:30 pm
Thanks Ryan I learned that today and I passed my certification test with a 90. I will be doing a follow up post on that over the weekend.
Any more tips for a new Mac admin?
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December 7, 2007 - 4:40 pm
Most “Security Minded” MAC users know to setup the firmware password protection.
One of the features of the firmware password is: Blocks the ability to use the “C” key to start up from an optical disc.
How to document: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=10...“> “>http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=10...
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 7, 2007 - 4:40 pm
Most “Security Minded” MAC users know to setup the firmware password protection.
One of the features of the firmware password is: Blocks the ability to use the “C” key to start up from an optical disc.
How to document: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=10...“> “>http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=10...
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 7, 2007 - 5:30 pm
Thanks Ryan I learned that today and I passed my certification test with a 90. I will be doing a follow up post on that over the weekend.
Any more tips for a new Mac admin?
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 8, 2007 - 2:40 am
From last year…08/11/2006…
MAC OS9x login locked by the previous owner, password unknown.
Picked up OS 9.2 cd; boot-X; removed keychain preferences and multi-user preferences.
Done.
That got me curious about LX at the time. One half-assed google later:
http://www.linux-sxs.org
/administration/cracking.html
on either the GRUB or LILO boot line, put: init=/bin/sh
when you have a root prompt, do the following:
mount -n -o remount,rw /
passwd root
(provide new password twice)
mount -n -o remount,ro /
sync;sync;sync
hit the reset switch
I carry both of these in my wallet.
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December 8, 2007 - 3:37 am
If you deploy Mac laptops… you may wanna consider installing Undercover and follow the best practices by creating a “Guest” account with limited privileges for the damned thief to use. Then track their ass down, beat them a surge protector, and hand them over to the authorities.
– R
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December 7, 2007 - 9:40 pm
From last year…08/11/2006…
MAC OS9x login locked by the previous owner, password unknown.
Picked up OS 9.2 cd; boot-X; removed keychain preferences and multi-user preferences.
Done.
That got me curious about LX at the time. One half-assed google later:
/administration/cracking.html
on “>http://www.linux-sxs.org
/administration/cracking.html
on “>/administration/cracking.html
on “>http://www.linux-sxs.org
/administration/cracking.html
on either the GRUB or LILO boot line, put: init=/bin/sh
when you have a root prompt, do the following:
mount -n -o remount,rw /
passwd root
(provide new password twice)
mount -n -o remount,ro /
sync;sync;sync
hit the reset switch
I carry both of these in my wallet.
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 7, 2007 - 9:40 pm
From last year…08/11/2006…
MAC OS9x login locked by the previous owner, password unknown.
Picked up OS 9.2 cd; boot-X; removed keychain preferences and multi-user preferences.
Done.
That got me curious about LX at the time. One half-assed google later:
/administration/cracking.html
on “>http://www.linux-sxs.org
/administration/cracking.html
on “>/administration/cracking.html
on “>http://www.linux-sxs.org
/administration/cracking.html
on either the GRUB or LILO boot line, put: init=/bin/sh
when you have a root prompt, do the following:
mount -n -o remount,rw /
passwd root
(provide new password twice)
mount -n -o remount,ro /
sync;sync;sync
hit the reset switch
I carry both of these in my wallet.
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 7, 2007 - 10:37 pm
If you deploy Mac laptops… you may wanna consider installing http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/” “>http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/” REL=”nofollow”>Undercover and follow the best practices by creating a “Guest” account with limited privileges for the damned thief to use. Then track their ass down, beat them a surge protector, and hand them over to the authorities.
– R
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 7, 2007 - 10:37 pm
If you deploy Mac laptops… you may wanna consider installing http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/” “>http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/” REL=”nofollow”>Undercover and follow the best practices by creating a “Guest” account with limited privileges for the damned thief to use. Then track their ass down, beat them a surge protector, and hand them over to the authorities.
– R
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 8, 2007 - 8:45 am
If you think thats scary you can boot into single user mode (root command prompt basically) and remove a single file, and when you boot back up, you will be prompted to go through the initial setup again, and you can create a new admin account on the machine
1. boot to single user mode
2. mount the drive as read/write with the command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
3. Remove the .AppleSetupDone file with the command:
/bin/rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
4. Reboot
shutdown -r now
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December 8, 2007 - 3:45 am
If you think thats scary you can boot into single user mode (root command prompt basically) and remove a single file, and when you boot back up, you will be prompted to go through the initial setup again, and you can create a new admin account on the machine
1. boot to single user mode
2. mount the drive as read/write with the command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
3. Remove the .AppleSetupDone file with the command:
/bin/rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
4. Reboot
shutdown -r now
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 8, 2007 - 2:34 pm
wow you mac guys are great. Any mac tips you would like to see covered on AtA?
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December 8, 2007 - 9:34 am
wow you mac guys are great. Any mac tips you would like to see covered on AtA?
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December 10, 2007 - 7:03 pm
From start to finish, I would like the best way to “Backup” my DVDs to both DVD (DVD5) and DVD-DL (DVD9).
Complete with removing CSS keys and shrinking (compressing) DVDs to fit on single layer that might not otherwise fit.
I have asked “El Di Pablo” this same question offline, as was reference to you for a solution.
– R
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 10, 2007 - 2:03 pm
From start to finish, I would like the best way to “Backup” my DVDs to both DVD (DVD5) and DVD-DL (DVD9).
Complete with removing CSS keys and shrinking (compressing) DVDs to fit on single layer that might not otherwise fit.
I have asked “El Di Pablo” this same question offline, as was reference to you for a solution.
– R
Click to Reply to This Comment.
December 10, 2007 - 8:26 pm
Mac The Ripper or Handbrake?
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December 10, 2007 - 3:26 pm
Mac The Ripper or Handbrake?
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May 16, 2008 - 2:34 pm
What if you know the administrator password and you want to find out the user passwords without changing them, so you can monitor what they do?
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August 23, 2008 - 9:30 pm
look i get wat u guys are saying but this mac was given to me and no one rembers the password that was set and no idea where the disc is to it so how do i go about re setting the password from there
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
August 24th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Password or the install disk – it doesn’t need to be yours just the same version.
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May 19, 2009 - 3:47 pm
someone HACKED MY ACCOUNT AND CHANGED MY PASSWORD, my dad (admin of the computer) had to reset my password so i could get in. anybody know how i can trace the IP and how the HECK they did it?
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 8:59 am
It really could not have been done except for being in front of the computer!
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andrew Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
O.o
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macwhore Reply:
December 27th, 2009 at 2:55 am
Okay, so now we know how to get into a mac and change the password. But can someone tell me how to get into a mac, and changing the password back to what it was so nobody knows you’ve been in?
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March 18, 2010 - 8:42 am
What about password protection try to use LoginTrap.It’s prog can capture every login events by using iSight.It’s really good prog.It’s helps me a lot.
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Karl Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Nice. Is it free?
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