sjfinch said:
My father has been having problems with his Outlook server. He's forgotten
his username and password, and he can't access his email. He keeps asking me
to help him, but I've no idea what his username and pass are. Is there some
way to retreive this information from outlook similar to how windows live
allows you to answer secret questions and stuff.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Nope, it's encrypted. A cache of login credentials is retained in the
registry (if you enable the option to Remember Password). That cache of
info is encrypted so no one else can use it. It is tied to the SAM database
of Windows account info which grants you access to the decrypted content of
that cache. You get to use it but you don't get to query it.
Well, normally you can't get access to the cached passwords. Go take a look
at Nirsoft's Mail PassView utility. It uses the same CryptoAPI that your
applications use to retrieve their cached login credentials. You will need
to log under the Windows account for whose cached credentials you want to
expose. Obviously you'll need physical access (even if remotely accessed)
to the host to login under a Windows account.
Is there a reason why Dad can't use the "Forgot Password" procedure usually
found as a link on the login page when using the webmail interface to his
e-mail account?
NOTE: Once you install any Nirsoft utilities, many anti-virus programs will
see them as hacker tools and alert on them as PUPs (Probably Unwanted
Programs) because they are used to break security (and have sometimes been
incorporated into malware).