So let's review how we hacked into a Windows box with no username, no password from before, and created
our own user account at the administrator level.
So we were a super user on that Windows box.
Well, first of all, we used our first special key combination that was an EF two or F one to delete
whatever it takes to get into your bios so that we could boot from that windows install disk.
We click, troubleshoot, clicked command prompt.
And then we issued our three or two of our three of two of our four commands code to just change directories
into C Windows System 32 two or D System Windows System 32.
We copied that old set HHC to high contrast or sticky keys file over to something else so that we could
put it back eventually.
We might want to be able to use sticky keys again in the future.
Then we copied Command XY, the command prompt over to the set H.S. We restarted the computer.
So our second boot at the login screen, we pressed our second key combination, the shift key five
times and now instead of Sticky Keys assistant coming up, we got a command prompt window.
So if we wanted to change our username, all we'd have to do at that point is a net user, our username
and the password.
If we wanted to add a new user, we had to do net user and the username password add.
And then if we want to promote either us or someone else, that new user to an administrator net local
group administrators, the user name like Ironmen, for example, add that's all it took.
Then when we rebooted the machine, we were in complete control, or when we logged in using that administrative
password, we had complete access.
So what are some of the things we learned?
First of all, physical access is total access.
If you leave your laptop behind, if you leave your desktop unattended with or at work or school, you
can come back.
And if someone has access to stick in just a USB drive or if they have a chance to stick a physical
DVD and they can run this simple hack, it takes about five or six minutes once you're pretty good at
it, less on a faster computer that reboots more quickly.
One of thing we learned is that ethical hacking can be really practical, very useful.
So if you have an old computer or someone's given you a computer that you own and have total permission
to use, then you can use this this quick Windows hack to set up a user account to protect against it.
Whenever we learn how to hack something, we're going to talk about how we could protect against it.
Now, first of all, this works on machines from Windows XP 2000 all the way up to Windows ten point
one, the newest windows right now and the only way to protect against it.
Well, first of all, never leave your computer unattended so that no one has access to it.
But you can change a by setting usually to require a password to change the boot order or to change
the boot device.
In fact, that's what we do here on my campus, this old computer.
I was able to do this, too, because it was before we started changing the bias settings so that you
had to have a password, an administrative level password or an IT password to be able to boot from
a USB drive or from a CD-ROM.
But for older computers, this is pretty much the standard way to do it.
Even for new computers that haven't been set up with a bias password, you'll be able to create a user
and change the make them an administrator pretty easily.
So really practical stuff shows us that we we have to be careful who has access to our things, shows
us that we can really do some Hands-On useful work with ethical hacking.
And we've even learned a little bit about how to protect against it.
In the next section, we're going to see how to set up an entire lab or a virtual lab of computers that
will let you work on Windows, Linux, even Android devices so that we can do a little bit of practice
on our ethical hacking skills and see how to test for vulnerabilities and then how to fix certain vulnerabilities
across lots of different types of machines.
We'll see in the next section.