Kon-Boot – Reset Windows & Linux Passwords

Kon-Boot is an prototype piece of software which allows to change contents of a Linux kernel (and now Windows kernel also!!!) on the fly (while booting).

In the current compilation state it allows to log into a Linux system as ’root’ user without typing the correct password or to elevate privileges from current user to root. For Windows systems it allows to enter any password protected profile without any knowledge of the password.

It was mainly created for Ubuntu, later the author has made a few add-ons to cover some other Linux distributions.

Entire Kon-Boot was written in pure x86 assembly, using old grandpa-geezer TASM 4.0.

Latest Updates – Kon-Boot for Windows

Kon-Boot was moved to Windows platforms. So now it provides support for Microsoft Windows systems and also the Linux systems listed below. Kon-Boot for Windows enables logging in to any password protected machine profile without without any knowledge of the password. This tool changes the contents of Windows kernel while booting, everything is done virtually – without any interferences with physical system changes. So far following systems were tested to work correctly with Kon-Boot:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard SP2 (v.275)
  • Windows Vista Business SP0
  • Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
  • Windows Vista Ultimate SP0
  • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise
  • Windows XP
  • Windows XP SP1
  • Windows XP SP2
  • Windows XP SP3
  • Windows 7

No special usage instructions are required for Windows users, just boot from Kon-Boot CD/Floppy, select your profile and put any password you want. You lost your password? Now it doesnt matter at all.

It has been tested with the following Linux distributions:

  • Gentoo 2.6.24-gentoo-r5 GRUB 0.97
  • Ubuntu 2.6.24.3-debug GRUB 0.97
  • Debian 2.6.18-6-6861 GRUB 0.97
  • Fedora 2.6.25.9-76.fc9.i6862 GRUB 0.97

You can download Kon-Boot here:

Floppy Image – FD0-konboot-v1.1-2in1.zip
CD ISO Image – CD-konboot-v1.1-2in1.zip

Or read more here.

BackTrack 4 Pre

You may remember back in February the BETA of BackTrack 4 was released for download, the team have made many changes and have now released BackTrack 4 Pre Release.

For those that don’t know BackTrack is the top rated linux live distribution focused on penetration testing. With no installation whatsoever, the analysis platform is started directly from the CD-Rom and is fully accessible within minutes.

It’s evolved from the merge of the two wide spread distributions – Whax and Auditor Security Collection. By joining forces and replacing these distributions, BackTrack has gained massive popularity and was voted in 2006 as the #1 Security Live Distribution by insecure.org. Security professionals as well as new-comers are using BackTrack as their favorite toolset all over the globe.

The new version has busted the 700mb file size though so it’d DVD or USB, it’s recommended to use a USB drive to run it or install it on your HDD as running from a CD isn’t exactly speedy.

Full details available in the PDF guide:

BackTrack 4 Guide [PDF]

You can download BackTrack 4 Pre Release ISO here:

bt4-pre-final.iso

Or read more here.