Note the salt is stored with the hash, as to check a password you need to use the salt. – dr jimbob Jun 7 '13 at 17:46 3 @Rox - Furthermore, the linux kernel being open-source is not relevant either. The hash is in binary format by default and we want to convert it in to XML. On macs terminal I switch path to Desktop, then create a folder for our mission and moved the hash into that folder: $ cd. $ cd Desktop/. $ mkdir password-crack. $ mv tuukka.plist password-crack/. $ cd password-crack/.
A researcher at the Defense in Depth blog has discovered a flaw in Apple’s recently released operating system, OS X 10.7 (Lion), which allows passwords to be changed without knowledge of the logged in user’s password.
The flaw appears related to Apple’s move towards a local directory service which has permissions set in an insecure manner.
An attacker who has access to a logged in Mac (locally, over VNC/RDC, SSH, etc) is able to change the currently logged in user’s password without knowing the existing password as would normally be required:
testmac:~ TestUser$ dscl localhost -passwd /Search/Users/TestUser
New Password:
Historically (in Snow Leopard) you would have needed to enter your existing password first to verify that you in fact are the account holder:
What Hash Does Os X Use For Password Windows 7
testmac:~ TestUser$ passwd
Changing password for TestUser.
Old Password: -OldPass-
New Password: -NewPass-
Retype New Password: -NewPass-
Not only can a logged in user change their password without knowledge of the existing password, but you can read any other users password hash and make attempts at brute forcing it.
Defense in Depth showed how you can parse the hash from openly readable directory information and recover both the hash and the salt used to encrypt the password.
This is another great reason to be sure you have secured your Mac properly until Apple makes a fix available. Taking the following steps will help ensure you are protected:
- Use a secure password to prevent brute force attacks against your account using stolen hashes.
- Enable the screensaver and set it to prompt you for your password.
- Disable automatic logon.
- Never leave your Mac logged in and unattended. Use a “Hot Corner” or the Keychain lock to lock your screen.
Keychain preferences windows on OS X 10.7 allows for status bar icon for locking.
For more tips on securing your Mac check out our three part series on top tips for Mac OS X security.
This is particularly dangerous if you are using Apple’s new FileVault 2 disk encryption. If your Mac were left unlocked and someone changed your password you would no longer be able to boot your computer and potentially would lose access to all of your data.
Cnet had reported that you can also change other users passwords, but I was unable to replicate their findings.
Hopefully Apple will release an update soon, I was able to confirm with testers of OS X 10.7.2 that the flaw still exists in test builds.
Creative Commons photo of lions courtesy of fortherock’s Flickr photostream.
Over the last year, Microsoft had been dropping lots of hints it would be reworking its authentication system in Windows 10. Multi-factors, support of FIDO, and the use of virtualization technology to secure credentials were all slated to be in its latest and greatest OS. With the general release of Windows 10 late last month, we now get to see what’s in the sausage.
Hardened Authentication
For starters, you should read the July 28 announcement on their blog. In the very first bullet point, they announce Windows Hello, which is Microsoft’s take on password-free authentication, using either facial, thumbprint, or iris recognition for validation. Hello will support the FIDO open-standard as well.
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“This really opened my eyes to AD security in a way defensive work never did.”
Also in that first bullet point is a reference to something called Credential Guard. It’s described as a way to “protect corporate identities by containing them in the hardware-based secure execution environment.”
Ok, Credential Guard must be using the virtualization technology they had been yakking about for the last few months— for example, see this presentation by Microsoft’s Nathan Ide at this year’s RSA conference.
To find out more, I searched the TechNet portion of the Microsoft website and came across this overview article on Credential Guard. As I read more, it was beginning to look like this was the long awaited PtH messiah.
![What Hash Does Os X Use For Password What Hash Does Os X Use For Password](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126555550/212556032.jpg)
For those who’ve been following along with us, Pass the Hash (and Pass the Ticket for Kerberos) is a way for hackers to directly exploit user credentials that are kept in memory. The hash of the password — remember hashing? — is at the core of Windows NTLM challenge and response authentication protocol.
If you have the hash, it’s the same as having the password: you just pass or feed it into the NLTM protocol to gain entry. Once inside a system, hackers love PtH because they don’t have to crack hashes to take over a user’s identity.
Great news, for hackers. So how do they get the hash?
The answer: Windows keeps hashes in LSASS memory, making it available for Single Sign On or SSO. In an SSO environment, the computing world most of us live in, you enter passwords once when logging in to your corporate laptop. When you need to access other services, Windows just dips into LSASS to pull out the credential — the hashed password — so you don’t have to re-enter it.
It’s a user convenience that we all take for granted, but it has the side effect of giving hackers a huge opening to exploit.
Pen test tools like Mimikatz, for example, access LSASS memory, thereby allowing cyber thieves to pull out credentials (preferably of users with elevated privileges) and take on multiple identities as they traverse the target system.
Bottom Line: Hashes Will Be Really Hard to Get
Mr. Softee has known about PtH for many, many years. To its credit, it sort of recognized the problem and has given very good advice on how to reduce the risks of credential stealing — see this paper.
And that’s where Credential Guard finally comes in. In Windows 10, the designers reworked the LSASS process so that it lives in its own virtualized container. Yeah, it’s using similar ideas and techniques to those found in virtual machines that enable a host operating system to run various guest operating systems.
These guest operating systems are sort of like their own min-universes, separate from each other, except through some well-defined worm holes — I’ll get to that in a second.
So what’s going on in Credential Guard?
Last month at Black Hat, Microsoft heavy weights, Seth Moore and Baris Saydag, gave a presentation, Defeating Pass-the-Hash, that explained the implementation details.
It gets gnarly, but the LSASS address space is now really, really separated from other user processes so that apps like Mimikatz can’t peek into it. You’ll have to read the paper to understand the fine points — note the use of the words hypervisor and ring levels.
But here’s the speedy executive overview based on my current understanding. The developers left the LSASS programming logic intact to continue supporting credential processing as before. The memory space, though, is walled off from other apps with Credential Guard acting as the gateway.
Neat Wormhole Technology
System and other apps, of course, still need to verify the credentials of users, but now they do so through a well-protected and authenticated connection to Credential Guard. So you can think of Credential Guard as the guardian of the wormhole between its special memory space and everything on the other side.
I know this post is starting to sound like Interstellar. Nevertheless, the technology is quite interesting and really does seem to finally close off PtH.
I’d like to think that Pass the Hash will eventually become a problem of the past as companies migrate to the Windows 10 Enterprise Edition — the only version that Credential Guard runs on.
Of course, you shouldn’t discount hackers’ power to find weaknesses and zero-day exploits.
Os X Download
So the wiser security view to take is that the cost to play Pass the Hash has gone up immensely. It may still be possible in the future, but it will require a far more sophisticated effort than is currently the case.