Administrator abuse

[Taylor King]

I let a friend of my wife's on my administrator account on my computer.
Her and I never did really get along much, and one day when I was at
work, she setup her own account and made mine a limited account. She
went back to her home in Antlers Oklahoma and I can't get her number to
get her password off of her. Is there any way at all that I can fix this
problem? I have an Inspiron 1000 notebook with Windows XP. Please
respond with haste.

 

[Demmpa]

I let a friend of my wife's on my administrator account on my computer.
Her and I never did really get along much, and one day when I was at
work, she setup her own account and made mine a limited account. She
went back to her home in Antlers Oklahoma and I can't get her number to
get her password off of her. Is there any way at all that I can fix this
problem? I have an Inspiron 1000 notebook with Windows XP. Please
respond with haste.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Malke]

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

While NTpasswd is great, if you have an XP Home machine you may not need
to use it. In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by
repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will
get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse
will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden
Administrator account. The default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen,
do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up
Windows.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or
have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the
built-in Administrator account's password to a blank.

However, if your wife's friend was so untrustworthy I think I'd back up
the data, wipe the machine and clean-install Windows. Who knows what
else she did? Be sure your machine really belongs to you and not her.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand

Malke

 

[Michael A. Covington]

Others have proposed technical solutions, but I'd sue her or charge her with
theft. It's the same as changing the lock on somebody else's building or
car without permission.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I let a friend of my wife's on my administrator account on my computer.
Her and I never did really get along much, and one day when I was at
work, she setup her own account and made mine a limited account. She
went back to her home in Antlers Oklahoma and I can't get her number to
get her password off of her. Is there any way at all that I can fix this
problem? I have an Inspiron 1000 notebook with Windows XP. Please
respond with haste.

Simply log in using the built-in Administrator account (which
cannot be deleted) and modify the desired account(s) and use Start > Run

"control userpasswords2" to modify the desired account(s). By

design, the only way to log into the Administrator account of WinXP Home
is to reboot into Safe Mode. For WinXP Pro, pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL twice
at the Welcome Screen will produce the standard login dialog box.

Failing that, Linux-based password cracking utilities abound on the
Internet, freely available to anyone who can use Google.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Others have proposed technical solutions, but I'd sue her or charge her with
theft. It's the same as changing the lock on somebody else's building or
car without permission.

He's get laughed out of court. After all, he's the one who gave her
free rein on the computer, in the first place. If he gave her access to
an account with administrative privileges, it's a clear statement that
she had his permission to do whatever she wanted with the computer.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[John Browning]

He's get laughed out of court. After all, he's the one who gave her free

rein on the computer, in the first place. If he gave her access to an
account with administrative privileges, it's a clear statement that she
had his permission to do whatever she wanted with the computer.

Any law that upholds that position would be absurd IMO. Voluntarily giving a
person of trust access to your computer or anything else is not an implied
statement that they can then cause you damage with malicious intent. By that
logic the same person of trust can lock you out of your home and steal
whatever they want with impunity just because you gave them the keys to your
house.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Any law that upholds that position would be absurd IMO.

So you think that laws should be designed to protect you from yourself,
and not require you to learn from your own mistakes? Do you also want a
government employee on hand at all times to wipe your nose when you get
the sniffles? Giving someone full access to one's property and then
changing one's mind later on doesn't absolve the trust-giver from
responsibility from ensuring that the trustee can indeed be trusted
before hand.

Voluntarily ...

..... being the key word.

giving a
person of trust access to your computer or anything else is not an implied
statement that they can then cause you damage with malicious intent.

Nothing in the OP's post indicates any sort of harm. At most, the
changed password can cause no more than a few minutes' inconvenience.

By that
logic the same person of trust can lock you out of your home and steal
whatever they want with impunity just because you gave them the keys to your
house.

Nonsense. Nothing has been taken.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[John Browning]

Any law that upholds that position would be absurd IMO.

So you think that laws should be designed to protect you from yourself,
and not require you to learn from your own mistakes? Do you also want a
government employee on hand at all times to wipe your nose when you get
the sniffles? Giving someone full access to one's property and then
changing one's mind later on doesn't absolve the trust-giver from
responsibility from ensuring that the trustee can indeed be trusted before
hand.

Specious argument which amounts to blaming the victim. A person of trust is
not allowed to victimize you anymore than a perfect stranger is. Using your
logic, anyone you choose to trust in life can inflict any damage on you they
please (even bodily) since you should have known better than to trust them.
So you let someone into your house that you had good cause to believe was
trustworthy - and he/she robs you. Well it's your fault so don't go crying
to the law, is that your position? You and most others would have the cops
at your door in an instant.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Specious argument which amounts to blaming the victim.

When the "victim" voluntarily grants permission, certainly.

A person of trust is
not allowed to victimize you anymore than a perfect stranger is.

How was the OP victimised? Someone else used his computer with his
permission, and now he doesn't know the admin password. There's nothing
to indicate any sort of causual link between the two events. For all we
know, the OP simply forgot the password, is too ashamed to admit his
absent-mindedness, and chose the visitor as "scapegoat for a day."

Using your
logic, anyone you choose to trust in life can inflict any damage on you they
please (even bodily) since you should have known better than to trust them.

No, that doesn't follow, at all. There's no evidence that any damage
has been done.

So you let someone into your house that you had good cause to believe was
trustworthy - and he/she robs you. Well it's your fault so don't go crying
to the law, is that your position?

The commission of a crime (theft) is an entirely different matter;
naturally, one would report such to the authorities and expect the
perpetrator to be apprehended and punished. By why change the subject?
Nothing the OP said indicated that any crime had been permitted, nor
is there any reason to believe that any sort of malicious act took place
at all.

You and most others would have the cops
at your door in an instant.

For a crime certainly, but for foolishly granting administrative
privileges to somewhat who didn't know how to use them? That's no ones
fault but the OP's. He's now learned not to do that again.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Guest]

When the "victim" voluntarily grants permission, certainly.




How was the OP victimised? Someone else used his computer with his
permission, and now he doesn't know the admin password. There's nothing
to indicate any sort of causual link between the two events. For all we
know, the OP simply forgot the password, is too ashamed to admit his
absent-mindedness, and chose the visitor as "scapegoat for a day."




No, that doesn't follow, at all. There's no evidence that any damage
has been done.




The commission of a crime (theft) is an entirely different matter;
naturally, one would report such to the authorities and expect the
perpetrator to be apprehended and punished. By why change the subject?
Nothing the OP said indicated that any crime had been permitted, nor
is there any reason to believe that any sort of malicious act took place
at all.




For a crime certainly, but for foolishly granting administrative
privileges to somewhat who didn't know how to use them? That's no ones
fault but the OP's. He's now learned not to do that again.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

Yeep, or notebook been stolen and need free technical help to get into it,
also he could be a victim of his own deeds/mistakos. LOL
Beside that he need to trouble (shot) his wife of having a friend like this
one, if all the stroy is true?.
nass

 

[Michael A. Covington]

He's get laughed out of court. After all, he's the one who gave her free
rein on the computer, in the first place. If he gave her access to an
account with administrative privileges, it's a clear statement that she
had his permission to do whatever she wanted with the computer.

I don't think so. People routinely trust other people with access to
buildings, cars, etc., and the means to damage them, trusting them not to do
the damage. What if someone lent me the key to a building and I had the
lock changed without his permission, subsequently keeping him out?
Possessing a key is not the same as having permission to make any and all
changes whatsoever.

This is an interesting dialogue, though, because it shows how people assume
computers aren't part of the same world as cars or buildings.

 

[Michael A. Covington]

When the "victim" voluntarily grants permission, certainly.

The victim did not grant permission to change the password, only permission
to use the password.

This is a common misconception on the part of 13-year-old hacker wannabees.
(You are not one, of course.) Possession of a password is not the same as
actually having people's permission to do *everything* the password permits,
just as possession of a car key is not permission to do anything and
everything with the car, even changing the locks.

How was the OP victimised? Someone else used his computer with his
permission, and now he doesn't know the admin password. There's nothing
to indicate any sort of causual link between the two events. For all we
know, the OP simply forgot the password, is too ashamed to admit his
absent-mindedness, and chose the visitor as "scapegoat for a day."

Ah, now you are arguing a different point. We have no evidence that the
situation is as you describe, and that is not the situation we were
discussing.

 

[Taylor King]

"Bruce Chambers" (e-mail address removed)3t wrote in message
Michael A. Covington wrote:-
Others have proposed technical solutions, but I'd sue her or charge
her
with theft. It's the same as changing the lock on somebody else's
building or car without permission.
-

He's get laughed out of court. After all, he's the one who gave her
free
rein on the computer, in the first place. If he gave her access to an

account with administrative privileges, it's a clear statement that
she
had his permission to do whatever she wanted with the computer.-

I don't think so. People routinely trust other people with access to
buildings, cars, etc., and the means to damage them, trusting them not
to do
the damage. What if someone lent me the key to a building and I had
the
lock changed without his permission, subsequently keeping him out?
Possessing a key is not the same as having permission to make any and
all
changes whatsoever.

This is an interesting dialogue, though, because it shows how people
assume
computers aren't part of the same world as cars or buildings.

Indeed you are correct. I have solved the problem, thank you everyone.