Product Review
Review by Hakim
Just how secure do you think your password protected files are these days? Well, that all depends upon the amount of determination (and money!) of the First Amendment violator in question.
A password cracking software program by AccessData Recovery has helped many governments and law enforcement agencies scrutinize word processor files that were believed to be "secure" from prying eyes. AccessData Recovery has a line of software programs that will recover lost or forgotten passwords. These programs are not general file decrypters. They are special purpose products that decrypt only the file lock password; they do not decrypt the entire contents of the file. Decryption time is reportedly a function of size of the protected file. AccessData Recovery estimates that less than a minute is very common.
AccessData's programs will only work with files generated by specific programs such as WordPerfect, Word for Windows, Lotus Symphony, Lotus 1-2-3, and other similar products. The password cracking programs do not decode an encrypted file and convert it to plaintext. Instead, they attempt to figure out the password used to encrypt the file.
Although these programs refer to their file locks as password protection systems, what they actually do is use a user selected password as the encryption/decryption key. Analysis of the file can yield the lost/unknown password.
AccessData Recovery currently carries several variations of this program. They are as follows:
- WRPASS: WordPerfect password recovery (available for Macs and IBM).
- LTPASS: Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Symphony, Quattro Pro password recovery.
- XLPASS: Microsoft Excel password recovery (available for Macs and IBM).
- WDPASS: Microsoft Word password recovery.
- PXPASS: Paradox password recovery.
- NTPASS: Novell NetWare password recovery.
The NTPASS Snag
The best thing about the Novell program is that it is made to allow you to change the System Administrator's password to what you want without ever knowing the original password. AccessData realized that network security could be breached with its program and they have incorporated the following features into it to avoid unauthorized use:
1.) NTPASS is a standard NLM which can only be loaded at the file server. The file server is almost always located in a secure location. (Not at my school!) NTPASS will not work on any other computer.
2.) In order to run NTPASS, an access code must be entered. When NTPASS is shipped, it is shipped without the access code. In order to activate NTPASS, the user needs to call AccessData to get the access code.
3.) AccessData requires that users of NTPASS register the program with them before the access code will be issued.
4.) Since the access code is a derivative of the NTPASS serial number and the Novell NetWare serial number, each version of NetWare will require a different access code thereby requiring you to call them again. All access codes must be obtained directly from AccessData Corp.
5.) Once the user changes the password, a network-wide bulletin is broadcast informing everybody that the supervisor's password has been changed.
6.) You never find out the original password and will therefore be unable to change it back to the original.
Fortunately, the other password cracking programs do not have such drawbacks.
If you become slightly interested in this, call AccessData for a demo copy. They send a working copy of WRPASS that only works with passwords that consist of exactly 10 characters.