Security Basics mailing list archives
Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability?
From: "Jones, Bob" <JonesB () students svcc edu>
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 19:37:29 -0500
Greetings to all, I've noticed on my WinXP machines that if I rename an existing user to another name (doesn't matter what), and rename the Administrator account to the former name of that user account. That I could log in to more than one account with this name, simply depending upon which password was entered. Something is not right with this, but I'm not at a level to determine whether this can pose any kind of security vulnerability or not. Microsoft says: "Since you must enter the password for the accounts then the system is operating by design." Is this just a strange bug? For example: Rename user account "user1" to "someone" rename administrator account "administrator" to "user1" Now with user1 entered in the login field, and user can enter either password to gain access to either account. Any thoughts/explanations/insights? Cheers! Bob Jones
Current thread:
- Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability? Jones, Bob (Oct 24)
- Re: Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability? Mark Kahn - Lists (Oct 25)
- Re: Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability? Mike Dresser (Oct 28)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability? Orr, Brian D (EMA) (Oct 25)
- RE: Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability? Mike Dresser (Oct 29)
- Re: Win XP - Renaming administrator, possible vulnerability? Mark Kahn - Lists (Oct 25)