Internet Password Retrieval

[jassenna]

Is there a way to retrieve a saved password used by an Internet

connection, short of tapping the phone line ?

Assume the user has admin rights in that machine.

O/S: Win 7 home

[jaclaz]

Is there a way to retrieve a saved password used by an Internet

connection, short of tapping the phone line ?

Assume the user has admin rights in that machine.

O/S: Win 7 home

Yes / No

http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html

Now , if you would be so kind as to provide the "standard litany":

http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/problem-report-standard-litany.html

This might help in giving you an actually useful/appropriate answer (as opposed to "assuming" and then risking to wait time in providing you with unuseful advice).

What do you mean by "internet connection"?

There are several possibilities about passwords "connected" to "internet usage".

How do you know that the password is saved?

Why are you talking of the phone line? Is it a Dial up connection to the internet?

jaclaz

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I suspect that he means passwords used on websites and forums through a browser. In this case it depends. Using several Nirsoft utilities, if they were used in Internet Explorer they will be easy to get. Firefox and Chrome are a little less easy. Opera even less so.

I'll leave it to him to study Nirsoft security tools.

[jaclaz]

I suspect that he means passwords used on websites and forums through a browser. In this case it depends. Using several Nirsoft utilities, if they were used in Internet Explorer they will be easy to get. Firefox and Chrome are a little less easy. Opera even less so.

I'll leave it to him to study Nirsoft security tools.

Hmmm.

Try googling for "Internet Password Retrieval" (the title of this thread)

Strangely enough FIRST result is http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/network_password_recovery.html

jaclaz

[vinifera]

Is there a way to retrieve a saved password used by an Internet

connection, short of tapping the phone line ?

Assume the user has admin rights in that machine.

only by keylogger

or if they are cached, as mentioned above one of nirsoft util's

Edited August 2, 2013 by vinifera

[jassenna]

Clarifying my question:

It is a DSL connection, computer to modem to phone line.

There is not a phone number to dial, but it is neither

permanently on.

On the control panel, it is identified as a wideband connection,

WAN miniport (PPPoE).

On the desktop there is a connection icon, that opens a window

with "connect", "cancel" and "properties" options, plus username

and passwword text fields. The password field appears filled

with fat dots and there is also a checked checkbox named

"remember password".

I want to retrieve this password.

All this happens without any browser being active.

[jassenna]

Some more info;

I tried nirsoft´s utilities.

bulletspasswords did not work in this case,

but dialuppass did. Thank you for the tip.

Anyway, I would like to dig deeper. Any of

these programs must look for the the saved

password in some file or other. Any idea

about the names of such files?

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Some more info;

I tried nirsoft´s utilities.

bulletspasswords did not work in this case,

but dialuppass did. Thank you for the tip.

Anyway, I would like to dig deeper. Any of

these programs must look for the the saved

password in some file or other. Any idea

about the names of such files?

Most passwords are stashed in the registry in a variety of ways. Most Nirsoft utilities take stuff out of the registry and make it presentable to the end user.

There are exceptions though. I can't remember in this particular case but they can use separate files ( I think Outlook ). The help file for each of his utilities typically explains where the information comes from ( and he usually has command line switches allowing you to change it to other customized locations ). If not, you can just Google that case.

[jaclaz]

There is a "flaw" in the implementation of some Windows dialogs (of the kind that replace actual characters with "bullets", "dots" or "asterisks"), dialup dialog is one of them, the actual plain text password is only hidden, and can be "reverted" by simple programs (about that specific kind of password there are tens similar utilities around).

Surely the password is stored *somewhere*, it may be "safe storage" (and there is a nirsoft thingy for that too) or somewhere else, cannot say.

Also consider that more often than not an "average" user will re-use a password for more than a single specific access/dialog/use.

This means that - example- if the password you found was "mickeymouse", if other tools find "a" password "mickeymouse" (or you find it by direct disk carving, etc.) that string may be connected to that dialog or "belong" to something else.

jaclaz

[buyerninety]

"Is there a way to retrieve a saved password used by an Internet

connection, short of tapping the phone line?"..."It is a DSL connection"...

It is unclear whether you are viewing the username and password for your

DSL MODEM or the username & password for your INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER

(ISP).

You may not be aware that (assuming here that your physical connections are

Computer-TO-Modem/Router-TO-Wall Connection) the DSL Modem itself can often

be 'talked to' by your computer for the purpose of viewing/changing modem settings

(one such setting is the user address and connection password for your ISP, which

when set in your modem's memory, may AUTOMATICALLY connect you to your

ISP[& hence, Internet] when you communicate out via your Modem.) The DSL Modem

may require you to 'log-in' to it to input such settings, only upon INITIAL SETUP of it.

Incidently, this is why you may not need to 'sign-in' to your ISP every time you use the

internet connection; the modem may do it automatically for you.

(This is separate, and has nothing to do with, other 'log-in's, such as log-ins to websites

or email providers that you use.)

Refering to the DSL Modem Wiki;

"Many routers provide an internal web page to the local network for device

configuration and status reporting." You may also care to refer to the PPoE Wiki.

You did not state maker/model of your DSL Modem/Router - here is an example

of a webpage describing log-in procedure to a DSL Modem/Router.

http://support.iprimus.com.au/index.php?Itemid=120&id=196&option=com_content&task=view

Kindly refer to the manual for the maker/model of your own DSL Modem/Router

for its equivalent procedure. Incidently, it is quite possible that the

'ISP password' may only be stored in the Modem's memory, and is nowhere

found in any file on your computer (nor catcheable by any keylogger, now

to be attached).

Edited August 4, 2013 by buyerninety

[jaclaz]

buyerninety ,
do read the thread.
The OP ALREADY FOUND what he was looking for :

Some more info;
I tried nirsoft´s utilities.
bulletspasswords did not work in this case,
but dialuppass did. Thank you for the tip.

And shifted the question to:

Anyway, I would like to dig deeper. Any of
these programs must look for the the saved
password in some file or other. Any idea
about the names of such files?

jaclaz

[buyerninety]

jaclaz;

Do read and understand the question by jassenna.

"Anyway, I would like to dig deeper. Any of these programs must look for the saved

password in some file or other. Any idea about the names of such files?"

He is enquiring now about any "saved password" generally, and any location of such

password 'in some file OR OTHER'. My reply draws to his attention that should he look

for an ISP PASSWORD, he may NOT be able to find it within such a file in his computer -

but rather within the stored memory in his DSL modem/router.

ALSO he DID NOT state which "password used by an Internet connection" he found, so

why should you take the view that my post is automatically invalid? You said also;

"Surely the password is stored *somewhere*"... "somewhere else, cannot say." Well,

I can and did say an example of where a "password used by an Internet connection" is

kept, (if you couldn't), so there is no reason to you to attack me for doing so.

Also you say, "The OP ALREADY FOUND what he was looking for" - so what!! AS YOU

THEN ACKNOWLEDGE the OP has 'shifted the question', (He wants to dig deeper!) so

your statement "The OP ALREADY FOUND what he was looking for" has no relevance -

unless your intention is to deliberately annoy.

_

ALTHOUGH I make it a hard and fast rule to only post when my post INCLUDES information

relevant to the THREAD TOPIC, (unlike yours above) I'll make an exception in THIS post -

because you TOO OFTEN descend into nonrelevant 'carping' and 'borderline sniping' about

other posters contributions (- and I am aware of one long time project-maintaining Member

who has started posting at another Board because of just such behaviour as yours - how do

I know this? BECAUSE HE CITED YOUR NAME SPECIFICALLY).

Understand, we are all interested in relevant information you have to share, because you

often know 'dove il diavolo tiene la coda', -BUT please-, 'ridurre il piagnistei irrilevante,

perché il risultato è solo un }diavolo per capello{!!'.

[jaclaz]

ALSO he DID NOT state which "password used by an Internet connection" he found, so

why should you take the view that my post is automatically invalid?

But he did describe where the password was:

Clarifying my question:

It is a DSL connection, computer to modem to phone line.

There is not a phone number to dial, but it is neither

permanently on.

On the control panel, it is identified as a wideband connection,

WAN miniport (PPPoE).

On the desktop there is a connection icon, that opens a window

with "connect", "cancel" and "properties" options, plus username

and passwword text fields. The password field appears filled

with fat dots and there is also a checked checkbox named

"remember password".

I want to retrieve this password.

All this happens without any browser being active.

And he also reported how the Nirsoft tool "dialuppass" did reveal the password.

Hence an educated guess would have been that it was a "dial up password dialog" or "connection dialog".

A quick check on the page of the tool used successfully would have revealed:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/dialupass2.html

Description

When you use the "Dial-Up Networking" module for connecting to the internet or to other networks, the operating system give you the option to store the password and use it when it needed. Although the password is constantly stored in your computer, the operating system doesn't allow you to watch it. if you forget your password and you want to extract it from your computer, you can use the Dialupass utility for viewing the password.

This utility enumerates all Dial-Up entries on your computer and reveals their logon details: User Name, Password and Domain.

it works perfectly in the following operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the Dialupass utility can reveal the Dial-Up passwords only if you are logged on with administrator privileges.

I do trust that piece of info, particularly since it is coming from someone that wrote a tool that can (and actually did in the specific case) reveal the password.

You said also;

"Surely the password is stored *somewhere*"... "somewhere else, cannot say."

My bad I should have specified

... but surely it is on the computer's hard disk, possibly in the Registry or in another system file or system settings file, I can exclude that it is saved on the DSL modem, in the sense that while it is very possible that it is saved additionally on the DSL modem internal memory (from which it may be retrieved by the DSL modem firmware to authenticate the access) there is no way on earth that the systems connects to it to retrieve the password.

It seemed to me like your otherwise interesting post might unwantingly induce the OP to go on a "wild goose chase", that password (besides being possibly also on the DSL modem) is definitely on the PC's hard disk (*somewhere*), and the OP expressed the wish to look for it there.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

jaclaz