AT&T UNIX PC - Need to hack user/password for access

[billdeg]

Hi
One of my students was able to repair an AT&T 7300 (67MB version) UNIX PC powersupply. Now it boots up, but we don't have the username and password. Any suggestions?
-Bill

 

[Trixter]

1. Take the hard drive out
2. Put it in another computer that can read it
3. Use a utility to scan the entire disk for "root:" until you find a standard /etc/passwd entry
4. Edit the data you find to take out the encrypted password between the first two colons, so that "root:fd78xuifdsjl:0:0:" etc. turns into "root::0:0:" etc.
5. Put it back in and root will no longer have a password

Finding a machine to read the disk might be tough, although if it's just MFM you could get lucky and connect it to a 1980's PC with an MFM controller and use Norton Diskedit to do the scanning and editing.

Another option is to just simply record what the password is (it's a 13-character encrypted string) and then use John The Ripper to crack the password on a very fast modern machine (brute-forcing it should only take two weeks or so).

 

[billdeg]

I got a lot of replies to this ... the answer was to use the "install" user and hope that the original password was not changed (no password/blank). It worked, and root access was granted.
Thanks
bd

 

[RETROPRINCE]

Type in Tutor, Then once your in the system you can figure it out.
I have (4) at&t unix pcs & two sets of books w/software to play with...

 

[chuckcmagee]

Proving once again that to maintain security, it helps to restrict physical access. Yes, I know, if it is on the internet, what's the diff....