Bypass Windows Login - Part 1 Installing Kon Boot.

Kon Boot is a prototype software which edits the contents of the operating system's kernel on the fly while booting allowing the user to bypass the security log in screen. Therefore you can access a secured account without knowledge of the credentials for that specific account. Kon Boot works for most Linux distributions and also for Windows Operating System. This post will aim at bypassing Windows Passwords. In the future Linux will be covered!

This post will guide you though the steps for preparing a Bootable USB drive for Kon Boot. In the same manner in which we are creating a bootable USB drive you can also create a bootable CD or Floppy. This is not recommended because CD's can be bulky and new computers don't come with the capability to read floppy disks. A USB stick is the best way to go. Insert , boot and you're into the system.  With that said, let's start the simple process of making a bootable Kon Boot USB drive.  

Firstly you'll need a USB drive. Size doesn't matter because Kon Boot is fairly small (a few megabytes). You'll also need the following files:

• Kon Boot Image
• USB Kon Boot Files
• UNetBootin Software

Download and save these files in a suitable location such as you desktop. These files will be needed shortly.

Insert your USB drive into your computer. If you have any information on this drive, you will need to back up the data because the drive has to be formatted. To format a drive, Go to "Computer" or "My Computer" and right click on the USB drive and select format. Ensure QuickFormat is selected so the process takes less time.

Now that you've formatted the drive, you have to extract the floppy image (.img file) from the Kon Boot Image file (kon-boot-all.zip). Double click and open the compressed folder.

 Look for the file "FD0-konboot-v1.1-2in1.zip *", double click once more and you'll be required to enter a password. The password is "kon-boot" without the quotes. Extract the .img file to your desktop.

The next step is to launch the UNetBootin Software. Select the "Diskimage" option and from the drop down menu choose "FLOPPY". Now click on the button with the 3 dots and  navigate to the path where you extracted the .img file. To the bottom of the window, ensure Type is set to "USB Drive" and then select the Drive in which the USB is plugged into your computer. If you are unsure of the drive, navigate to "My Computer", note the letter of the USB Drive location and then select that drive letter in UNetBootin. Click Ok and then the bootable USB drive will be created. If prompted by your antivirus, allow the software.

The final setup is to copy two files(chain.c32 & syslinux.cfg) to the USB drive once UNetBootin is finished creating the drive. These files can be found in the downloaded file - USB Kon Boot Files. Open the compressed folder and then extract the two files to the USB drive. You are now finished creating the bootable Kon Boot USB drive.

If you have any problems with this guide or any suggestions, please leave a comment. In Part 2 - we'll test out Kon Boot on a Windows 7 Operating System. You can also watch my Youtube Tutorial of this guide.

Thanks and I hope you enjoyed my quick guide!

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Install Backtrack In VMware.

Backtrack is a customized version of the Linux operating System, Ubuntu. It includes a wide array of TCP/IP and wireless networking tools. This operating system is specifically designed for security and penetration testers, however it is used by many outside of this field.

Most Linux distributions like Backtrack are free, and over time have built a large community of helpful users. Therefore if you run into problems with Linux, there's always help. This is a great alternative to a Windows operating system. 

Today we're going to install Backtrack 4 as a virtual machine. Simply meaning that we can use the full capability of the operating system, and not affect our current operating system. This is a great way to test out operating systems or even software. So let's start!

The first thing that we need to do is grab a copy of the Backtrack ISO image which is available for free download from the official Backtrack website. You'll need to download the latest and greatest version.

Currently Backtrack 4 is the newest release.  Download and save the ISO image.






Select and download Backtrack 4 Final Release ISO Image.

 



Next we need to download the software which will allow us to install Backtrack 4 as a virtual machine. For this guide I'll be using VMware Workstation. VMware Workstation is a paid software but you can register for a free 30-day trial or consider checking out VMware Player which lacks some of the advance features.

After downloading, install the Vmware Product. The installation process is fairly simple and  user friendly. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

Once you've installed VMware and downloaded the Backtrack ISO, we can start to setup the virtual machine. Open up VMware either by double-clicking the icon on your desktop or going to your start menu and clicking on VMware from there.

Select the "New Virtual Machine" option and then a virtual machine wizard will launch allowing you to customize the settings that your machine will use when being vitalized. Once the Wizard is launched, select "Typical Install" and click "Next" to continue.

The next step in the wizard asks to identify where you want to install the operating system from, select "Installer disc image file (iso)" and then browse to the location where you downloaded the Backtrack ISO Image. Click Next.

Now you'll need to select the name of the guest operating system. Backtrack 4 is a customized version of a Linux system known as Ubuntu. Therefore select Linux and then navigate in the version section to Ubuntu. After clicking Next, select a name for the operating system, this doesn't matter but i recommend choosing a suitable name, like Backtrack 4. Then select a location that you prefer to store all the files for the OS. Next, specify the amount of hard drive space that you want the system have for its usage. I recommend about 20 gigabytes which is the default but you can select more if necessary. You can "Store virtual disc as single file" as this option is user preference.  Click Next and Then Finish!

Your virtual operating system is completed. Now when you open VMware Workstation, you can select your operating system from the sidebar and in the main panel you can customize the amount of memory, processors etc to allocate to the system. Power on the virtual machine. Select the "Start Backtrack " option in the boot menu and then the system will load necessary files. It should stop at a command line/bash. Type "startx" without quotes and then the OS will boot! You're done.

Although the operating system, Backtrack is installed as a virtual machine, it is known as a Live Boot. Meaning you can't save your work that you've done on Backtrack. One final step is to double click on the "Install" script on the desktop and run though the simple install process.

I hope you guys enjoyed this guide. Don't worry, I'll make a Youtube Tutorial when I get the chance. Till next post, thanks for reading!

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