Server 2003 password recovery

[Mike-CTS]

Hi

 

I have taken over a network from a former Technician who has passed away.

He hasn't written down any password information, and has disabled any other interactive logons...

I do not know the Directory Recovery Partition password either, so cannot log onto it at all..

 

Is there any way of getting onto this server??????

[cpjitservices]

I would boot into the Offline Password Live CD and change the password!!

 

Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor

 

Hope this helps!

[jamesreedersmith]

Unless its a DC in which case you are about screwed (unless you can find another account thats a domain admin!)

[PiqueABoo]

Naah.. Petter's CD should get you into AD Restore mode. All you need to do then is persuade something running under the SYSTEM account to run a net.exe command or similar... there are a variety of ways kicking around on the net e.g. petri.co.il has stuff on this, there are videos on youtube etc.

[jamesfed]

Can I assume you have checked any options for a 'in the event of' box?

 

By that I mean we have a sealed envelope in the schools safe with the admin details on - the school you are at might have something similar.

[markcuk]

utilman.exe is built in Windows application held in WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory which allows the user to configure Accessibility features such as Magnifier and the On Screen Keyboard etc.

 

The keys to its use to us techs are that you can trigger it BEFORE the login by pressing Windows Button + U and that it runs as SYSTEM ACCOUNT. Normally this just pops up Accessibility features but you can replace utilman.exe with another executable or batch file by using an offline disk such as the Windows installation disk or Linux. This gives you power to access the operating system before login with system account

 

It uses are many and include: getting past corrupted profiles, interfering with malware before login, solving password problems and others.

 

I recently used this to change the lost Domain Admin password on an SBS 2008 box. In fact it was more serious than that because the passwords were not actually lost but the main admin account had been deleted entirely. There are various methods to solve this usually using Directory Services Restore Mode to set up a new service. The utilman hack makes it easier and more immediately interactive. FYI the domain PW hack works like this: you backup utilman for future use, copy cmd.exe and rename the copy utilman.exe and boot, Windows Button + U gives you a prompt and you can use NET USE and DSQUERY, DSMOD and so on to find a domain admin level account, enable it and change its password.

 

If you wanted to change a SAM password on a non domain system you could swap in a batch file whist you're renaming utilman:

 

net user newadminaccount password1 /add

net localgroup administrators newadminaccount /add

 

When you press the key sequence you'll get a new admin account called "newadminaccount" with password "password1". You can then just log into it. Might be handy for making those password change jobs look more complicated for the money!

 

Just remember to rename it back afterwards.

 

taken from another forum!