Windows User Account Escalation Hack
Aug 2

Windows User Account Escalation Hack

Liquid Web Project Streamer - r0t0r00t3r: For the record, this hack works exactly as they display here. Anyone can effectively open a Windows shell (explorer.exe) as the SYSTEM account. I don’t know the specifics of what this allows you to do, but it sure looks scary.

This could probably come in handy if I ever lost the admin password for a machine. But can it really be this simple?

(Warning: Embedded video, profane soundtrack. Fred Durst hates you, man)

by Deane   August 2, 2006 1:21 PM    |   Follow Gadgetopia on Twitter   |  Tags:  Windows

Comments

by Matt,   August 2, 2006 2:08 PM  

Wow, that really is scary.

by norcimo,   August 2, 2006 2:48 PM  

Have you actually /tried/ that on a fully patched windows xp box with a normal user account (hint, I have)

by Deane,   August 2, 2006 3:58 PM  

Yes. Twice. My box is XP Pro, SP2 and Windows Update just ran two or three days ago.

It works as advertised.

by Matt,   August 2, 2006 4:08 PM  

I just tried it from a normal Windows users account and got "Access Denied". Deane, did you run it from a User account or an Administrator account?

by moregrey,   August 2, 2006 5:28 PM  

There's lots of interesting discussion about this on MetaFilter and Ask MetaFilter. Definitely worth a read.

by Deane,   August 2, 2006 11:54 PM  

As Matt pointed out above, this very well may have worked for me because I was a local admin to start with. Never thought of that.

by Sattvik,   October 5, 2006 1:01 AM  

I JUST WANT TO LEARN TO HACK A WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL IF YOU KNOW ABOUT IT E-MAIL ME AT oot_bhoot.yahoo.com

by Nishant,   October 5, 2006 1:03 AM  

are you maiddddddddddd

by Mayank,   October 5, 2006 1:05 AM  

how to hack a site if you know e-mail me at oot_bhoot.yahoo.com

by Optikal,   November 1, 2006 2:55 AM  

This only works on a limited account if the admin hasn't disabled task sched..

by ..,   February 6, 2007 2:07 PM  

i switch off my AT process anyway so..

by veeru,   June 18, 2007 4:47 AM  

Please let me know where is hack. I donot see it.

Please help!

by Percival,   August 15, 2007 3:41 AM  

yeh my prick of a brother must have got this shit and hacks into my pc... so with my handy ol' tower with a nice lock i prevent him from getting on and breaking it like he does with everything else...

by Some guy,   March 16, 2008 2:49 PM  

I can't even find the damn hack. Either I'm blind or it's stupidly placed.

by Shyam Jaiswal,   December 6, 2011 1:03 PM  

explorer.exe is effective only in FAT32 not in NTFS format

Shyam Pratapgarh U.P

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