What would you do?

[AtYourService]

As some of you know I offer password recovery services at my shop
i get a customer come in and ask about cracking a password for a laptop,said his wife died, and he didnt know the password etc, couldnt pay the bills online because she knew all the info,so he brings the laptop in,its got his name as the other user,but hes not admin so he cant do anything to reset the other password. So he leaves the laptop with me to crack it and has to get to a doctors appointment. The reason why I'm cracking it and not just resetting it because the password could have been used somewhere else for her online billing etc, also if you reset the Windows password it renders the saved Internet explorer passwords useless because theyre hashed with the user password and if you remove it the saved passwords will be removed.

So i quickly get his SAM hash for the other user
And it takes me less than a minute to crack it with a wordlist


Ntlm Hash:20656d90b8889f01121827540adecda3 hex:6469766f726365 passwd:divorce

So here's my question, upon seeing this , what would you do?

Yea suspicious right? Well I call him to let him know its finished without letting him know the password. He says Ok ill see you on Monday.

So now I got time to contemplate, I quick do some online searches and verify she is indeed deceased. Now what do I tell him the password is? Do I tarnish her last image for him?

 

[sjlplat]

It's not your job to get involved with his personal affairs. There is no way for you to know the circumstances surrounding his personal life. Do what you would normally do with any other customer regardless of what the password is, and leave it at that.

 

[iisjman07]

My password is 'password123', but yeah just stay out of it. Tell him the password and watch his facial expression

 

[K007]

Jut to be baad... she dreamed of divorcing but instead passed the way.
You can imagine the life she had.
I would play stupid and tell him the password.
Let the ******* know.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Probably not any surprise to him, or else maybe she was a divorce attorney? Just give it to him.

 

[kagman]

Just keep detailed records of this event .. tell him the password and move on..

 

[iptech]

So here's my question, upon seeing this , what would you do?

Change my trading name to "At Your Deceased Wife's Service"? Seriously dude, is your business fixing computers for customers or passing public commentary on their lifestyle judged upon your interpretation of their passwords?

 

[K007]

change my trading name to "at your deceased wife's service"? Seriously dude, is your business fixing computers for customers or passing public commentary on their lifestyle judged upon your interpretation of their passwords?

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

 

[Elemdee]

Aww come on guys, have a heart...I would change the password to something generic and leave it at that. My husband agrees. Unless of course he was the one who 'offed' her. Then forget I said anything lol.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Aww come on guys, have a heart...I would change the password to something generic and leave it at that. My husband agrees. Unless of course he was the one who 'offed' her. Then forget I said anything lol.

From the OP, hense the reason for a password recovery rather than reset.

The reason why I'm cracking it and not just resetting it because the password could have been used somewhere else for her online billing etc, also if you reset the Windows password it renders the saved Internet explorer passwords useless because theyre hashed with the user password and if you remove it the saved passwords will be removed.

 

[callthatgirl]

yeah, who knows what is up...just give it to him. It could be a joke between them too "I'll divorce you!!" type of jokes.

I think we all see the weird pass words. I have one lady who thinks she is getting hacked into all the time, she has a 28 length password with tons of crazy stuff in it, I need to ask all the time for it too because of course of reboots, etc.

it's amazing to see, difficult to watch.

 

[rehallaz]

That brings up...

Since you now know the admin pw, you can change it via the windows user settings. If you do that rather than resetting it, will it then rehash all the IE passwords?
/r

 

[Blues]

I would think you should be able to log in as the user and change the password with out breaking the saved passwords. Either way it seems like trouble every way you slice it so I say just ignore it in the end or stop offering such services.

 

[AtYourService]

ended up changing it to a variation of the other passwords on the system

 

[sjlplat]

ended up changing it to a variation of the other passwords on the system

I thought the whole point of providing the password was to give him access to other accounts that might use the same password, like banking. Changing it doesn't help him in this respect whatsoever.

 

[hardtoremember]

My 2 cents... If it were me I would just give him the password. It's not your business what the password is. You are being paid to crack it and give it to him. It could mean any number of things.

 

[MrUnknown]

I am with everyone else here in saying just tell him the password.

Sure, it may be a shame but he couldn't have been completely clueless to know what was going on.

 

[mekon]

ended up changing it to a variation of the other passwords on the system

I'm pretty sure that is what I would have done as well; good on you.