Tool makes mincemeat of Windows passwords

A security researcher has released an easy-to-use tool that accesses locked Windows computers in seconds without entering a password.

The tool, which was released Tuesday by Adam Boileau, works by connecting a Linux machine to the Firewire port of the target PC and modifying the password protection that's stored in local memory.

The attack exploits a well-known weakness in Firewire that makes it easy for connected devices to read and write to the memory of the host machine. Similar hacks work on machines running OS X and Linux.

Read the whole story here: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/04/windows_password_bypass_tool...