Log in as User "X" without changing PW

[rayen99]

Is it possible as an administrator of a Win2003 domain to log in as a domain user without knowing their password and without changing their password? This is trivial in say Solaris - you simply log in as the user but use the admin's password. But this doesn't work in Windows. Any ideas?

 

[Mike555]

I don't believe this is possible.

 

[Roeee]

Not sure this is possible.

As an administrator you can access the resources which the other person can see however you will only be able to connect as them by knowing their login credentials.

 

[rayen99]

Thanks for your help, both of you. I figured there must be some way, but maybe not. If not, that's a major downer. I know I can always just change the PW of the user account and then log in as them. But that poses another problem... How do I change the password back to their old one without the user's intervention? Is there a way to export their "key" out of the PAM file and then re-insert it back in?

I work nights and many times I need to log in as a user to test things. I know about the "runas" command but that isn't always sufficient. If I do change their password to a temporary one I have no way of discretly notifying the user of the change.

 

[fs483]

I ask all my users to send me a backup password which is different from their current password. If I ever have to logon as that user, I change the user's password to the backup password and do my tests. Next morning, the users will try to login using their usual password and of course it won't work, so then they try with their backup password. This method avoids having to leave post-its under the keyboard or stuck to the screen with their new passwords! I used to have the same default password for everyone that I would reset to but found it to be unsecure.

 

[Mike555]

Maybe I'm 'in the box' but I just don't see a practical reason to need a user's password so that I (the administrator) can log onto that user's machine.