Cracking the root passowrd

[Guest_imported]

Hi,
I have an AIX box running on AIX 4.3 OS.
But the password is unknown to each and every one.
Is there a way to crack the root password.

I have AIX 4.2 OS installation CD with me -But not 4.3 OS.

Thank you in advamce.

 

[csoc]

John:

I just finished IBM's System Administration 1 and there is a way to crack the root password:

Boot from a CDROM or tape of mksysb.

Invoke the service boot list with F5 by pressing it within 15 seconds of startup (press F5. . . press F5 . . . you know the drill)

Define the system console and select a language, which displays the installation and maintenance window.(saves

Select Option 3 - Start Maintenance Mode for System Recovery

Activate thr root volume group and start a shell (ksh) This gets you access to rootvg without any passwords. Once you get the prompt just use the <passwd> command like normal

Run # sync;sync which ensure the memory buffer is written to disk saving the new password.

Hope this helps.

 

[gheist]

aix stores shadow of password file containing encrypted hashes of each and every local password in protected directory /etc/security as file passwd. As aix passwords are limited to 8 terminal symbols (95 different) encrypted with DES - you could be able to estimate computing powers required for &quot;cracking&quot; root's password

 

[avadh]

Hello,
The steps from CSOC are the right steps to recover the root password. You do need AIX 4.3 CD. If you do not have the CD then call 1-800-274-7755 option 2 option 2 to order AIX 4.3 CD in USA.

 

[gheist]

Although AIX 4.3.3 will be supported from IBM - there is no big need for it - an original instalation CD from AIX 4.2.whattheyhave will do the password removal, maybe john will need to press 5 on ASCII terminal when multiple &quot;RS/6000&quot; apears, not F5 like on graphical terminals, booting from older AIX cd might be without success if you used overlarge partitions/files etc features not seen in older system

 

[Yegolev]

yes if you can boot from any CD you should be able to varyon rootvg (or other vg), which will be good enough to get data off of it as long as you did not use new features like setting vg to &quot;big&quot;.

 

[Guest_imported]

Thank you all of you for the information provided.
I managed to get into the machine . It was an easy task with all of your ideas.

Once again very many thanks.