Re. where you said, "yes, if the system is off and you can turn it on (e.g. no bios or hdd encryption passwords) you can bypass the logon screen. this is because the tool searches for the function "MsvpPasswordValidate" in memory and patches it to allow any password."
That's correct, but not entirely. Yes, you can patch Winlogon to allow any password, but that does not necessarily mean you can access the user's data. #1, you will not be able to access any resources which are encrypted using Windows protected storage. This includes all EFS-protected files, as well as stored passwords for IE, Outlook, etc. All of these secrets are protected using keys which are derived from the user's credentials. Obviously if the system is unable to reconstruct these keys, then the protected data will be out of reach. (This would be true regardless of whether or not the logged-on account belongs to a domain.) #2, you will not be able to access network resources as the user. Again, this is because when the machine authenticates to remote resources, it does so by providing a proof which is calculated from the user's credentials. And again, without access to the user's credentials, the system won't be able to perform network authentication on the user's behalf. In a real-world scenario, as the attacker, I would prefer to install a Trojan in order to capture the user's credentials the next time they log on. - Eric -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FD Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:50 AM To: Larry Seltzer Cc: full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Firewire Attack on Windows Vista > How much should the average user worry about this? Not very much. Most > notebooks from average users don't even have Firewire on them and you > would have an easier time cracking them with a dictionary attack on > the password and other such things, which means that this attack > makes you no more vulnerable to compromise if you've already granted > physical access than you were before. you don't need a firewire port on your laptop, a pcmcia slot is enough where an attacker inserts a firewire card. but still.. it's a physical access attack.. regarding your other email: > OK, I guess I misunderstood the original paper > (http://www.sec-consult.com/fileadmin/Whitepapers/Vista_Physical_Attacks > .pdf). It now looks to me like they are claiming they can disable > password authentication *even while the system is not logged on* - do > I have that right? yes, if the system is off and you can turn it on (e.g. no bios or hdd encryption passwords) you can bypass the logon screen. this is because the tool searches for the function "MsvpPasswordValidate" in memory and patches it to allow any password. FD _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/