Gaining System-Level Access To Vista

Gaining System-Level Access To Vista 412

Posted by kdawson on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:51AM from the seems-too-simple-somehow dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This video shows a method by which a user can use a Linux distro called BackTrack to gain system access to Windows Vista without logging into Windows or knowing the username or password for any accounts. To accomplish this, the user renames cmd.exe to Utilman.exe — this is the program that brings up the Accessibility options for users without sight or with limited vision. The attack takes advantage of the fact that the Utility Manager can be invoked before the user logs into the system. The user gains System access, which is a level higher than Administrator. The person who discovered this security hole claims that XP, 2000, 2003 and NT are not vulnerable to it; only Windows Vista is."

Gaining System-Level Access To Vista

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Cancel.... (Score:5, Funny)

by FriendSite.com ( 1208220 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:53AM (#23541001) Homepage

Allow full root access

Cancel or Allow...

Is this how it was planned? (Score:5, Funny)

by websters ( 854886 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:55AM (#23541021)

A conversation amongst the developers: Dev 1: "You see - we can just rename the exe and then get the job done!" Dev 2: "Is there a risk?" Dev 1: "How? Users without sight or with limited vision will have a hard time getting to cmd.exe to rename it - dumbass!"

Mastercard Ad (Score:5, Funny)

by this great guy ( 922511 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @01:29AM (#23541229)
- Getting Camstasia Studio to record your BackTrack & Vista sessions: free (you got the free trial version)
- Downloading a James Bond music to put it in your flash demo: free (you have got crazy peer-to-peer skillz)
- Showing the world the amazing things you can do with physical access to a box and that it takes you 60 long secs to painfully rename cmd.exe to utilman.exe: ...priceless
Re:PANIC (Score:5, Funny)

by jhdevos ( 56359 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @01:39AM (#23541277) Homepage

Right... They should think of some system where the BIOS will only load code that was digitally signed somehow, so these atrocities are no longer possible. Personally, I will only feel safe when I know that Microsoft completely controls what goed on on my PC!

Re:Long weekend... (Score:4, Funny)

by Tubal-Cain ( 1289912 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @02:18AM (#23541545) Journal

[badpun]Why not just call it a NIC like everyone else?[/badpun]

Re:WTF? (Score:4, Funny)

by urcreepyneighbor ( 1171755 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @02:24AM (#23541583)

You should look at "top" some time and see what pid number 1 is and who ran it.
OMG! You h4x0r3d my box!

My porn! My precious porn!!

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

by debatem1 ( 1087307 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @02:36AM (#23541651)

Maybe if you did it to a Vista machine a decade ago, it would have.

You silly people (Score:4, Funny)

by Martian_Kyo ( 1161137 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @03:04AM (#23541775)

this is not a security hole
this is a feature
which helps you recover data after you forgot your password.

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

by Count Fenring ( 669457 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @03:09AM (#23541785) Homepage Journal

I think we can all agree that any hack involving a time machine is newsworthy.

Re:physical access == game over (Score:3, Funny)

by Arivia ( 783328 ) writes: <arivia@gmail.com> on Monday May 26, 2008 @04:08AM (#23542087) Journal

Sure there's such thing as a bit pregnant. It's a 2.

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

by debatem1 ( 1087307 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @04:20AM (#23542155)

For a while, anyway.

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

by Kugrian ( 886993 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @05:15AM (#23542395) Homepage

Face it, if an attacker already has physical access to a system -- to the extent that he can run his own Linux OS on it and mess with the contents of its disks -- then that computer is already, entirely owned. This is true for Linux, it's true for OS X, it's true for BSD, and it's true for Windows. That's just the way computers work.

It's much much harder with Linux. First of all you have to work out how to lure the user out of their basement and away from their computer.

Re:Oh... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @05:50AM (#23542571)

Remove the laptop hard disk? I have a MacBook Air you insensitive clod!

Re:Long weekend... (Score:5, Funny)

by WI2822 ( 879318 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @05:56AM (#23542601)

maybe you should shop for a MAC over the weekend
Do you know of any good MAC addresses?

Re:physical access == game over (Score:4, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @06:07AM (#23542653)

Not all cripples are crippled all of the time. Sometimes they appear quite normal and then have "spak attacks" which renders them unable to function like real humans. In these cases it is imperative that they can activate sticky keys with their flailing limbs so they can save their work and exit gracefully (well, you know what I mean) from the program.

Your ignorance and intolerance of cripples and mongs astounds me.

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

by Oktober Sunset ( 838224 ) writes: <sdpage103@ y a h o o . c o.uk> on Monday May 26, 2008 @08:06AM (#23543283)

I use a 26 char password on a laptop that locks every 5 minutes.

Once you get used to it, it's not too annoying at all.

Re:physical access == game over (Score:4, Funny)

by deimtee ( 762122 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @09:27AM (#23543807) Journal

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ?

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

by ConanG ( 699649 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @09:57AM (#23544027)

No, it's
qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm

but good guess!

Re:Long weekend... (Score:3, Funny)

by aproposofwhat ( 1019098 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @10:01AM (#23544067)

But my Mac-10 can spray lead faster than your Glock, so my machismo is quite fine, thank you :P

Re:-1 Humorless Shill (Score:3, Funny)

by dotancohen ( 1015143 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:04PM (#23545221) Homepage

n/t
n/t
TFS says that NT is not affected.

Re:Long weekend... (Score:4, Funny)

by dotancohen ( 1015143 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:07PM (#23545253) Homepage

maybe you should shop for a MAC over the weekend
Why do people insist on putting Mac in all caps? Like it's some sort of acronym or something?

Unless you were suggesting shopping for Media Access Control, in which case I apologize.
No, he obviously meant this [wikipedia.org]

Re:physical access == game over (Score:4, Funny)

by dotancohen ( 1015143 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:28PM (#23545463) Homepage

...but I've found that users tend to have issues with anything that long.
Depending on what they use, some women will take something that long to get their fix. There are _two_ industries in which the customer is called a "user".

Re:Long weekend... (Score:5, Funny)

by menace3society ( 768451 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @12:45PM (#23545659)

c0:ld:de:ad:be:ef:15:f0:0d

Re:physical access == game over (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @02:51PM (#23547123)

and yet you call yourself 'Easy2RememberNick'

Re:Long weekend... (Score:4, Funny)

by CanisMajor ( 551555 ) writes: on Monday May 26, 2008 @03:02PM (#23547219)

That's amazing. I've got the same combination on my luggage!

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Gaining System-Level Access To Vista 412

Gaining System-Level Access To Vista More Login

Gaining System-Level Access To Vista

Cancel.... (Score:5, Funny)

Is this how it was planned? (Score:5, Funny)

Mastercard Ad (Score:5, Funny)

Re:PANIC (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Long weekend... (Score:4, Funny)

Re:WTF? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

You silly people (Score:4, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:3, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Oh... (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Long weekend... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:4, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:4, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Long weekend... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:-1 Humorless Shill (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Long weekend... (Score:4, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Long weekend... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:physical access == game over (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Long weekend... (Score:4, Funny)

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