RE: more info on a hopefully unsuccessful compromise

From: Deus, Attonbitus (Thor_at_HammerofGod.com)
Date: 07/14/03

  • Next message: james: "Fw: qmail smtp-auth bug allows open relay"
    Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 13:29:42 -0700
    To: Dial Joe <joe.dial@siemens.com>, "'herman@mediachron.com'" <herman@mediachron.com>
    
    

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    At 10:23 AM 7/14/2003, Dial Joe wrote:

    >Hi Herman,
    >I'll jump in on the renaming the administrator account.
    >First My disclaimer: I am not a (fulltime) Windows Administrator and
    >I don't even have an MCSE, but I have been told that renaming the
    >Administrator account is of little value (Well, actually the MCSE
    >that told me said *no* value) since the Security ID for the
    >Administrator account is a well known value, and this is what
    >hacking/cracking attempts use instead of the user name. My (so
    >called) expert said that an NT/2K/XP script kiddie could connect to
    >the machine and exploit it without even knowing that the
    >Administrator account was renamed. I (personally) usually rename
    >it, then create a disabled guest account called
    >administrator, just in case someone gets physical access to the
    >machine and wants to *let their fingers do the walking*...
    >
    >If anyone on this list can confirm or deny the value of renaming the
    > Administrator account with more info than just *somebody who has
    >been right before told me* then I would love for them to enlighten
    >me.

    Hey Joe- et al-

    To be specific, renaming the administrator account when one can hit
    the
    machine with NetBIOS/CIFS is of little value for the reasons you
    state. However, when it comes to deploying Terminal Services,
    renaming the
    administrator account has real value. Since a TS logon is a "local"
    logon,
    and the administrator account cannot be locked out for "local"
    logons,
    renaming the administrator for machines accessible via a TS logon can
    most
    definitely help thwart brute force attacks. IOW, if I know you have
    not
    renamed your admin account from "administrator," then I can hammer on
    it
    all day long knowing that the account won't be locked out.

    T
      

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