Hack any Windows PC in 2 minutes
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,164 words · ~5 min read
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n
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n
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what are you doing oh
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uh yeah I'm trying out this uh thumb drive that claims to let you unlock any
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Windows-based PC in in just a couple
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minutes Zotac GeForce 10 series cards
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feature NVIDIA's Pascal architecture as well as other features like their ice
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storm Cooling and spectral lighting system check them out at the link in the
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video description how's my hair whatever okay
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so silliness aside this little thing right here is the password reset key too
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the followup to the original password reset key that was kickstarted by jonty
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lvll back in 2014 raising about 34,000
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Great Britain pounds now they sent me the original one for consideration for
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one of my handy Tech under 100 episodes about four months ago but I ended up
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rejecting it due to its strange behavior in Windows 10 particularly around
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Windows Live accounts versus local accounts however it turns out they were
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already in the process of working on a follow-up that that's the one they've
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sent me and that's the one that we'll be checking out today so with the password
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reset key to they've dramatically improved the UI they've added Windows 10
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support they've added Windows Live account detection though to be clear
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password reset key cannot break through the password of a Windows Live account
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and will simply redirect you to Microsoft's account recovery page and
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they've added bit Locker encrypted volume detection although again it just
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prompts you to enter your password or backup key if you want want to access
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any of those files they haven't broken bit lockers encryption that would be
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pretty big news so then what does it do
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well in the time you've spent listening to me explain the limitations you've
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pretty much witnessed the basic functionality I stripped the password
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off of a computer that was just using a local Windows account but there's more
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so by inserting the password reset key into any Windows PC and changing the
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boot mode to Legacy instead of UEFI that's an important St please note you
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will also have to disable some security features like secure boot for example
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and then changing your boot device to the PRK you'll get dropped into this
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menu which allows you to do a bunch of things really you can clone a local
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account which allows you to then strip the password off of that cloned account
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this is useful if you're a tech trying to get into a PC and you don't want the
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customer to have to reset their password after the fact you can open up a
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registry editor you can make changes to the PC using the command prompt you can
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recover files from it either directly through a file explorer and then you can
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just copy to or move to some other attached storage device or you can
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actually recover deleted files from it and finally and this one's kind of scary
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if you didn't know how easy it was to break into a Windows PC you can take the
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local administrator account which is on every Windows 10 computer and you can
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unlock and activate it which means as soon as you reboot pull out the PRK go
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back into UEFI mode if applicable you will be landed on the Windows login
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screen you'll be able to log into that account with no password required from
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there you'll be able to do anything you want to the computer including deleting
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the existing Windows Live account keeping all of that person's files and
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even setting up new accounts using it as though it had never belonged to anyone
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else so if you're a well-intentioned technician out there you're probably
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looking at this going well gee that looks great that could make my life a
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lot more useful thanks for that lus but if you're a general consumer who had no
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idea that you could break into a Windows computer in a couple minutes with a $20
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dude D that you can buy online I can see how this would be a little scary and
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what I'm about to say probably won't make you feel much better this is not
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the only way to break into a Windows computer it's actually quite easy this
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just makes it accessible enough that anyone can do it even with no dinking
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around in the registry or the command prompt so the next question people are
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bound to ask is how do I protect myself against this cuz even if you did put a
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password on that built-in administrator account well I can strip it off in
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seconds and the answer is there are a few ways so full dis encryption using
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bit Locker within Windows is one of those ways it can detect the volume but
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it can't read any of the files off of it and you can also buy ssds or hard drives
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that feature self- encryption so you have to enter a password right when you
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turn on the computer in the first place in order to unlock the encryption on
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that drive if your computer doesn't have a trusted platform module or you're
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trying to keep your files safe without going and buying a new drive though
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there are other options there too so Luke has a video which you can check out
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over here on programs that you can install within Windows to create
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encrypted containers for your files that even if someone used a PRK ripped that
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file off the computer they would need the key in order to open so thanks for
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watching guys if you dislike this video go ahead and hit that dislike button but if you liked it hit the like button get
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subscribed maybe even consider checking out the the password reset key that's
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the product we feature today at the link to Amazon in the video description we
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will get a kickback if you buy one using our link also in the video description
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is our merch store where you can buy cool t-shirts just like this one as well as our community Forum which you can
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join to discuss this video or really anything else Tech I think that pretty much wraps it
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up don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and don't forget to check out our other channels like
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Channel Super Fun super fun over there by the time you watch this video we
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could have this like super weird video of me like playing a Japanese mobile
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game it's like bizarre but you might actually enjoy en it just don't admit to
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anyone you know that you enjoyed it see you next time