Re: [ILUG-BOM] how to get account passwords

On 19 Mar 2003, rahul revo wrote:

can i get the password for another user if i am the root user?

yes you can. as root user, send a mail to the other user telling him to give you his password or you will delete his account.

Alternately, you could try a password cracker on the pasword file. You could use either a dictionary attack - which is good for badly chosen passwords, or a try everything attack (brute force) - which could last for potentially infinite time.

Another option is to write a password sniffer and run it on the network - assuming you have a network. Then wait for one of the users to telnet, ftp or pop3 in. This will not work with ssh like protocols.

Philip