Change password on Window 7 Using Kali Linux
Over time my family has accumulated a heap of old computers, so in order to clean these in order to get them handed over to recycling, I need to clean them. Some of them are so old nobody can remember the credentials, so I was looking into hacking them to get access so I could backup valuable data prior to resetting the machines.
I found out that a Kali Linux live USB is a great tool.
I followed this guide, it is however a tad crappy since it is drowning in ads and the original blog post referenced is gone.
Here follows my write-up with own notes.
Boot with the Kali Linux USB, open a terminal/console.
Mount the Window hard drive.
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
I had to try a few times before finding the right drive, I tried /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 before succeeding with /dev/sda3.
Then go to the config/ directory:
cd /mnt/Windows//System32/config/
You can list the entries in the PAM file, using the tool chntpw. samdump2 is another interesting tool for inspecting SAM files.
chntpw -l SAM
Decide on what user you want to reset the password for:
chntpw -u Administrator SAM
Use the dialog and reset the password.
Reboot and log in as the designated user.