Re: Changing local admin PW using vb logon script - can it be encrypted?

> Agreed - if your users are the least bit savvy, this trick will only buy you 5 minutes while they search for the script decoder, but if they're of the "where is the anykey?" variety, none of them will be any the wiser.

If you want to spare 5 minutes :
http://www.interclasse.com/scripts/decovbe.php

IMHO, it is not a good practice for security people to agree with a "low
grade" solution such as this one.

If you bless "script scrambling", you will be in trouble fighting
against "1-byte XOR encryption", "enterprise-wide pre-shared keys" and
"hardcoded passwords" ...

Why don't you change the local administrator password remotely (using a
WMI script for instance), or even lock down the local administrator
account if your 500 computers are part of a Windows domain ?

It would be much safer than giving away the local admin password in a
script, moreover you cannot be sure that the logon script will run on
*all* workstations in a given timeframe.

Regards,
- Nicolas RUFF
Security Researcher @ EADS-CRC

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Relevant Pages

  • SUMMARY WAS: OT? Philosophical Question on SA responsibilities
    ... helpful for managers interested in hiring new administrators. ... Would you go thru the 14,600 messages in root and admin ... If I was a new SA I would if encountering a security hole, ... I can see some use for the passwd -s part of the crontab script, ...
    (SunManagers)
  • Re: Clarification-Win2k Netstat sockets interpretation
    ... snip.. ... Before I could manually download every security upate and servicepack from MS.com but now...they send you a bit of Cop-code that fails to run unless ALL defences are down ... Are you sure the script from ntsvcfg is benign in addition to being useful? ... You are absolutely correct there HAL, er ah, Sebastian. ...
    (alt.computer.security)
  • [NT] Flaw in Windows Script Engine Could Allow Code Execution
    ... The following security advisory is sent to the securiteam mailing list, and can be found at the SecuriTeam web site: http://www.securiteam.com ... The Windows Script Engine provides Windows operating systems with the ... blocked by Outlook Express 6.0 and Outlook 2002 in their default ...
    (Securiteam)
  • Re: BUG with RES/SCRIPT/XP-SP2
    ... I consider JavaScript (known to security people as JavaVirus) as one of the Really Top ... to have a bad script cause damage to my machine. ... This security feature is called the "Local Machine Zone Lockdown". ... Tags, and the CDHtmlDialog class in this forum, and got no response. ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.mfc)
  • BUG with RES/SCRIPT/XP-SP2
    ... This security feature is called the "Local Machine Zone Lockdown". ... past week since I started posting problems with the RES Protocol, SCRIPT ... Tags, and the CDHtmlDialog class in this forum, and got no response. ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.mfc)