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Frequently Asked Questions. Who is eligible for me to refer to Kinetic by Windstream? Anyone you know in Kinetic by Windstream service areas who may have an interest in purchasing Kinetic by Windstream residential services and is not already a Kinetic by Windstream customer or actively engaged with Kinetic by Windstream. How To Crack Any Software With The Help Of Ollydbg (Bypass the registration or Trail version).Facebook:. Duo Labs February 25th, 2013 Adam Goodman Bypassing Google’s Two-Factor Authentication. TL;DR - An attacker can bypass Google's two-step login verification, reset a user's master password, and otherwise gain full account control, simply by capturing a user's application-specific password (ASP).

A brief note - this article is about the theory of how to crack passwords. Understanding how cybercriminals execute attacks is extremely important for understanding how to secure systems against those types of attacks.

Attempting to hack a system you do not own is likely illegal in your jurisdiction (plus hacking your own systems may [and often does] violate any warranty for that product).

Let's start with the basics. What is a brute force attack?

This type of attack involves repeatedly trying to login as a user by trying every possible letter, number, and character combination (using automated tools).

This can be done either online (so in real-time, by continually trying different username/password combinations on accounts like social media or banking sites) or offline (for example if you've obtained a set of hashed passwords and are trying to crack them offline).

Offline isn't always possible (it can be difficult to obtain a set of hashed passwords), but it is much less noisy. This is because a security team will probably notice many, many failed login accounts from the same account, but if you can crack the password offline, you won't have a record of failed login attempts.

This is relatively easy with a short password. It becomes exponentially more difficult with a longer password because of the sheer number of possibilities.

For example, if you know that someone is using a 5 character long password, composed only of lowercase letters, the total number of possible passwords is 26^5 (26 possible letters to choose from for the first letter, 26 possible choices for the second letter, etc.), or 11,881,376 possible combinations.

But if someone is using an 11 character password, only of lowercase letters, the total number of possible passwords is 26 ^11, or 3,670,344,486,987,776 possible passwords.

When you add in uppercase letters, special characters, and numbers, this gets even more difficult and time consuming to crack. The more possible passwords there are, the harder it is for someone to successfully login with a brute force attack.

How to protect yourself

This type of attack can be defended against in a couple of different ways. First, you can use sufficiently long, complex passwords (at least 15 characters). You can also use unique passwords for each account (use a password manager!) to reduce the danger from data breaches.

A security team can lock out an account after a certain number of failed login attempts. They can also force a secondary method of verification like Captcha, or use 2 factor authentication (2FA) which requires a second code (SMS or email, app-based, or hardware key based).

Here's an article on how to execute a brute force attack.

How can you crack passwords faster?

A dictionary attack involves trying to repeatedly login by trying a number of combinations included in a precompiled 'dictionary', or list of combinations.

This is usually faster than a brute force attack because the combinations of letters and numbers have already been computed, saving you time and computing power.

But if the password is sufficiently complex (for example 1098324ukjbfnsdfsnej) and doesn't appear in the 'dictionary' (the precompiled list of combinations you're working from), the attack won't work.

It is frequently successful because, often when people choose passwords, they choose common words or variations on those words (for example, 'password' or 'p@SSword').

A hacker might also use this type of attack when they know or guess a part of the password (for example, a dog's name, children's birthdays, or an anniversary - information a hacker can find on social media pages or other open source resources).

Similar protection measures to those described above against brute force attacks can prevent these types of attacks from being successful.

What if you already have a list of hashed passwords?

Passwords are stored in the /etc/shadow file for Linux and C:WindowsSystem32config file for Windows (which are not available while the operating system is booted up).

If you've managed to get this file, or if you've obtained a password hash in a different way such as sniffing traffic on the network, you can try 'offline' password cracking.

Whereas the attacks above require trying repeatedly to login, if you have a list of hashed passwords, you can try cracking them on your machine, without setting off alerts generated by repeated failed login attempts. Then you only try logging in once, after you've successfully cracked the password (and therefore there's no failed login attempt).

You can use brute force attacks or dictionary attacks against the hash files, and may be successful depending on how strong the hash is.

Wait a minute - what's hashing?

35D4FFEF6EF231D998C6046764BB935D

Recognize this message? It says 'Hi my name is megan'

7DBDA24A2D10DAF98F23B95CFAF1D3AB

This one is the first paragraph of this article. Yes, it looks like nonsense, but it's actually a 'hash'.

A hash function allows a computer to input a string (some combination of letters, numbers, and symbols), take that string, mix it up, and output a fixed length string. That's why both strings above are of the same length, even though the strings' inputs were very different lengths.

Hashes can be created from nearly any digital content. Basically all digital content can be reduced to binary, or a series of 0s and 1s. Therefore, all digital content (images, documents, etc.) can be hashed.

There are many different hashing functions, some of which are more secure than others. The hashes above were generated with MD5 (MD stands for 'Message Digest'). Different functions also differ in the length of hash they produce.

The same content in the same hash function will always produce the same hash. However, even a small change will alter the hash entirely. For example,

2FF5E24F6735B7564CAE7020B41C80F1

Is the hash for 'Hi my name is Megan' Just capitalizing the M in Megan completely changed the hash from above.

Hashes are also one-way functions (meaning they can't be reversed). This means that hashes (unique and one-way) can be used as a type of digital fingerprint for content.

What's an example of how hashes are used?

Hashes can be used as verification that a message hasn't been changed.

When you send an email, for example, you can hash the entire email and send the hash as well. Then the recipient can run the received message through the same hash function to check if the message has been tampered with in transit. If the two hashes match, the message hasn’t been altered. If they don’t match, the message has been changed.

Also, passwords are usually hashed when they're stored. When a user enters their password, the computer computes the hash value and compares it to the stored hash value. This way the computer doesn’t store passwords in plaintext (so some nosy hacker can't steal them!).

If someone is able to steal the password file, the data is useless because the function can’t be reversed (though there are ways, like rainbow tables, to figure out what plaintext creates the known hash).

What's the problem with hashes?

If a hash can take data of any length or content, there are unlimited possibilities for data which can be hashed.

Since a hash converts this text into a fixed length content (for example, 32 characters), there are a finite number of combinations for a hash. It is a very very large number of possibilities, but not an infinite one.

Eventually two different sets of data will yield the same hash value. This is called a collision.

If you have one hash and you're trying to go through every single possible plaintext value to find the plaintext which matches your hash, it will be a very long, very difficult process.

However, what if you don't care which two hashes collide?

This is called the 'birthday problem' in mathematics. In a class of 23 students, the likelihood of someone having a birthday on a specific day is around 7%, but the probability that any two people share the same birthday is around 50%.

The same type of analysis can be applied to hash functions in order to find any two hashes which match (instead of a specific hash which matches the other).

To avoid this, you can use longer hash functions such as SHA3, where the possibility of collisions is lower.

You can try generating your own hash functions for SHA3 here and MD5 here.

You can try to brute force hashes, but it takes a very long time. The faster way to do that, is to use pre-computed rainbow tables (which are similar to dictionary attacks).

It seems really easy to get hacked. Should I be concerned?

The most important thing to remember about hacking is that no one wants to do more work than they have to do. For example, brute forcing hashes can be extremely time consuming and difficult. If there's an easier way to get your password, that's probably what a nefarious actor will try first.

That means that enabling basic cyber security best practices is probably the easiest way to prevent getting hacked. In fact, Microsoft recently reported that just enabling 2FA will end up blocking 99.9% of automated attacks.

Additional Reading:

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The recent update to one of our oldest tools, Elcomsoft System Recovery, brought long-overdue compatibility with Windows systems that sign in with online authentication via Microsoft Account. While the tool can reset Microsoft Account passwords to allow instant logins to otherwise locked accounts, this is not the point. The point is that we have finally laid our hands on something that can help us break into a major online authentication service, the Microsoft Account.

For that to happen, Elcomsoft System Recovery can export the locally cached hash to the user’s Microsoft Account password for offline recovery. Running a GPU-assisted attack on the password (using Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery or similar tool) allows quickly enumerating the passwords with a combination of dictionary and brute-force attacks, in many cases resulting in the recovery of the original plain-text password. This isn’t exactly new, since the same thing could be done to local Windows accounts a decade ago. What DOES change though is the types and amounts of information can be accessed with the Microsoft Account password we’ve just recovered. This is one of those cases where a seemingly small change brings a plethora of new possibilities to digital forensics.

Microsoft Account: What’s Inside

Microsoft Account (previously known as Windows Live ID) is a single sign-on solution provided by Microsoft that covers a wide range of services. Since Windows 8, users are urged to enhance their Windows sign-on experience by adding Microsoft Account credentials to their local account. Once a Windows 8, 8.1 or Windows 10 user uses their Microsoft Account credentials to sign into Windows, they automatically gain access to a range of cloud backup and synchronization options via Microsoft OneDrive.

Logging in with Microsoft Account requires using email and password (as opposed to username and password used for local Windows accounts). username@live.com, username@hotmail.com and username@outlook.com can be used as Microsoft Account logins. Importantly, Microsoft Account is used as a single sign-on solution for a number of Microsoft services such as Hotmail, OneDrive, Skype, and employed by many third-party service providers authenticating via Microsoft Account.

So let’s see what all this means in practice.

BitLocker Recovery Keys

BitLocker encryption is secure. Full-disk encryption is activated automatically on devices equipped with TPM once the administrative user logs in with their Microsoft Account (yes, logging in with a Microsoft Account is a required pre-requisite for triggering automatic full-disk encryption on many tablets and ultrabooks). Breaking into a system like that would be extremely hard. Even running a cold-boot attack is not feasible as tablets have soldered memory chips that do not allow for this type of attacks.

However, Windows automatically creates BitLocker escrow keys, and automatically deposits them into the user’s Microsoft Account. Once you know the account password, you can access all BitLocker Recovery Keys from that account.

Personalization

First, let’s visit https://www.bing.com/account/personalization

We’re greeted with a notice that “When you’re signed into your Microsoft account, Microsoft services like Bing, MSN, and Cortana personalize your experience.” Which means that Microsoft collects some data, and that we could possibly access that data by logging in with the correct authentication credentials.

Bing

OneDrive

Using Microsoft Account on a Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10 PC allows users to access one of the best cloud backup systems for personal computers. Microsoft OneDrive is pre-installed with those versions of Windows, and is automatically authenticated with Microsoft Account credentials once the user signs in.

OneDrive automatically backs up any files (such as Office documents, pictures etc.) that are saved into its folder. Moreover, since Office 2013, users are encouraged to save their files to the cloud. Finally, it is possible to configure OneDrive to replace the default Documents location, in which case ANY file or document saved to that location will be automatically backed into the user’s OneDrive account.

OneDrive is extremely convenient. All that’s needed to gain access to the most recent copies of work documents on a new computer (running Windows 8, 8.1 or 10) is simply signing in with a Microsoft Account. Windows will automatically configure the desktop and sync everything stored in the user’s OneDrive account, including documents, settings etc.

OneDrive is not limited to just Windows computers. Android and iOS users can install OneDrive to enable automatic photo backup, while Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile have OneDrive pre-installed and pre-configured. Accessing OneDrive also gives access to synced information from other devices.

OneDrive is accessible at www.onedrive.com

Search History

In an attempt to compete with Google, Microsoft introduced Bing, its very own search engine. In the US, Microsoft pays users for searching with Bing (via the Bing Rewards program). Bing is the default search engine in Internet Explorer (Windows 8, 8.1) and Edge (Windows 10) Web browsers. Obviously, Bing is also the default on Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile devices.

According to CNN, Bing is used for about 20% of all search requests (the rest are served by Google and Yahoo). The use of Bing on desktop platforms is on the rise:

Bing stats

(Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/16/technology/bing-usage/)

If a user has Bing as their search engine, we can then access their entire search history by visiting https://www.bing.com/profile/history and logging in with their Microsoft Account credentials:

Hotmail and Outlook.com

No, not that Outlook. Outlook.com (used to be Hotmail) is Microsoft’s competitor to Gmail. Users with username@live.com, username@hotmail.com and username@outlook.com accounts can access their mail by visiting www.outlook.com (also www.hotmail.com). By knowing the correct password, experts can have access to that email address as well:

Outlook

Reset Protection and Find My Device

One more thing that experts can do with Microsoft Account credentials is disabling Find My Phone and Reset Protection (account.microsoft.com/devices) functions of a Windows 10 Mobile device (that may come handy to help prevent suspects from remotely wiping seized smartphones).

One can also use “Find My Device” to discover the last location of the device.

Bing location history

Skype Timeline

Accessing user’s Skype communications timeline is possible via Skype for Web (web.skype.com)

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Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile Backups

Windows smartphones (as well as Windows PCs since Windows 8) can back up their data into the cloud. While we can see those backups at https://onedrive.live.com/options/DeviceBackups, we don’t have the tools to actually download or decrypt their contents (at least not yet):

What we can do, however, is using Elcomsoft Phone Breaker to download certain types of data such as the user’s Contacts, Messages (SMS/text messages) and Notes. To do that, we would first need to run Elcomsoft Phone Breaker and log in to the Microsoft Account using the password we’ve just recovered:

Once the data is downloaded, we can use Elcomsoft Phone Viewer to access Contacts, Messages and Notes:

Messages:

Roadblock: Two-Factor Authentication

If enabled, two-factor authentication is a real roadblock to accessing cloud data even after recovering the correct password. Since forensic acquisition is normally performed on what’s considered to be a “new device”, the authentication system (if activated) will require verifying user’s identity with the second authentication factor. As such, one will need to have access to the secondary authentication factor in order to be able to authorize with Microsoft services.

So what is this “secondary authentication factor” we’ve been talking about? Let’s first see how two-factor authentication works in Microsoft Accounts.

Microsoft Account logins can be protected with two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication can be used to protect access to Microsoft’s online services when such access is requested from a new device.

Microsoft uses a hybrid approach to two-factor authentication. The user can verify their identity by either approving the online verification request on a trusted device (this requires running the Microsoft Account app on an Android device), or by entering a code generated by the offline Authenticator app.

Online Authentication

The verification request can be pushed to an authorized Microsoft Account app running on a trusted PC or mobile device (again, the app is only available for Android devices). Once the request is approved with an app, the new device is added to the list of trusted devices.

Offline Authentication

Other platforms (Windows Phone 8 and 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, iOS) can use either Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator app for generating time-sensitive single-use codes. Interestingly, Microsoft’s and Google’s authentication apps are fully compatible to the point of being interchangeable, so one can use Google Authenticator on an Android device to generate offline authentication codes as well.

The difference between the two types of authentication is that the former requires an active Internet connection to receive authentication request, while the latter works completely offline. Both authentication methods can be active at the same time.

Two-Factor Authentication

Microsoft has compiled a comprehensive FAQ on how to configure authentication apps on the different mobile platforms at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows/identity-verification-apps-faq

Verification methods can be configured at https://account.live.com/proofs/Manage

More about Microsoft two-step verification at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/two-step-verification-faq

Microsoft allows using two-factor authentication to either protect all interactions with Microsoft Account. However, the user can choose to only enable this type of authentication for accessing sensitive information such as establishing Microsoft Account on a new Windows 10 device (which automatically enables full access to all files synced via Microsoft OneDrive, access to stored passwords, and the ability to restore backups including configuration settings and application data).

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Extracting Microsoft Account Passwords

Microsoft Account passwords are not normally stored anywhere on the computer. As a result, simply extracting the password is not possible. However, in order to facilitate logins in the absence of network connectivity, Microsoft had to cache a password hash and store it on the computer. On the one hand, this allows users to log in to their computer while using it offline. On another hand, this also allows extracting the cached hash file and running an offline attack to recover the original password.

As you can see, recovering Microsoft Account passwords is a two-step process. During the first step, you will be extracting the password hash (and attempting a range of quick attacks to try some of the most common passwords). If the first step does not reveal the original password, you will need to attack the password offline using one or more computers equipped with GPU units. These attacks are straightforward and very well optimized, allowing to enumerate password combinations extremely quickly.

In order to extract the user’s Microsoft Account password, you would need two tools: Elcomsoft System Recovery and Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery.

1. To extract password hashes, run Elcomsoft System Recovery, select one or more accounts, and click Next. The tool will export the hashes into a file.
2. Now when you have the hash file (let’s say its name is “x.pwdump”), transfer it to the computer where you have Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery installed. Launch Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery and choose to recover a Windows account password. Select “x.pwdump” you’ve just exported. Configure attacks (dictionary, brute force, or combination). Schedule the task and wait while Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery enumerates all allowed password combinations.

Once Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery discovers the correct password, you can use it for logging in to the user’s online Microsoft Account.

Conclusion

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As opposed to local Windows accounts, Microsoft Account credentials are stored remotely on Microsoft servers, and are authenticated online. Running a full-scale attack on a Microsoft Account password online is impossible. However, since Internet connectivity may not be always available to the user, a local copy of the password hash is stored locally to provide offline authentication. Elcomsoft System Recovery makes use of the local cache to extract password hashes, enabling experts to run a GPU-accelerated attack (with Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery) to recover the original password. With the original Microsoft Account password in hands, experts can access many types of data from the user’s online account.

How To Crack Authentication Required Windstream Email

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