How to Remove Syskey Password Window 8?

A syskey password is a startup password used to lock the windows SAM database or your data. Scammers also use the tool to hack your computer and steal your data. We will give you a complete guide about removing and restoring syskey passwords on Windows 7/8/10.

What is SysKey Encryption?

Skykey is a Windows utility that allows the creation of an encryption key in the SAM database that has been stored in the Windows Registry. It is not configured in any of the Windows Operating Systems by default. It works on all previous versions of Windows like Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, and Windows 10 computers. This can be optional if you create a startup password (syskey) that can ask you for a boot password. However, it is not required. But do you know how to remove startup passwords from your Windows?

Uses of Syskey Encryption?

Syskey is a Windows internal root encryption key used to encrypt other sensitive OS state data, such as user account password hashes. The SysKey utility is used to add an extra layer of protection by encrypting the syskey to use an external password. The keys are not mandatory but are always an excellent option to keep your data protected.

Scams by Syskey Password

Nowadays, many people misuse this Windows utility by locking up users’ computers and demanding money to unlock their computers. There are so many Windows users who have been facing this problem. Sometimes they could be a victim of scammers by creating a Syskey password without the user’s information. You might be stuck in Windows boot-up because you don’t know that you can remove the startup password easily. But by using this utility, all the passwords of your local user accounts will be re-encrypted and set to blank automatically.

Basic Requirements to Disable Syskey

A blank USB drive with 4GB of minimum space

A computer with an Internet connection
A password resetting software for Windows 8

Step 1. Boot your computer from Windows installation USB flash drive. When you see the Setup screen, press SHIFT + F10 keys to open the Command Prompt option.

Step 2. Now, you have to figure out the folder where your Windows was installed by successively typing drive letters followed by dir until you found the right one.

Step 3. Run the following commands to backup your registry hives to a temporary location. Replace C:\ with the folder location of your Windows installation.

mkdir C:\regbackup

xcopy C:\Windows\System32\Config C:\regbackup /y

You will see these directories in your system, which will be used to backup your registry location and help remove the Syskey.

Step 4. Run the following command to restore your registry with the backup files in the RegBack folder.

xcopy C:\Windows\System32\Config\RegBack C:\Windows\System32\Config /y

Step 5. When it’s done, reboot your computer. Windows will run an automatic startup repair and reboot to the login screen: no SysKey, all good to go.

Bruteforcing the Syskey

While SYSKEY was not using the most robust encryption, attacking (brute-forcing or resetting) the user’s Windows login and password would not be possible without first decrypting the SAM database. As a result, an SYSKEY password would require the attacker to brute-force or reset SYSKEY protection before accessing the system’s Windows accounts. More importantly, an unknown SYSKEY password would prevent the user’s system from entirely booting. This fact was widely exploited by ransomware and commonly abused by “tech support” scammers who locked victims out of their computers via fake “tech support” calls.

Cracking Syskey password

With an LC5 tool that can directly from the SAM file restore crack a password to log in. But if the user is located in the “system32” folder “Syskey.exe” program, there will be a prompt interface encrypted database account. Click on the “update,” choose a password start, and enter the activation code. In the dialog box, after setting, you will need more than entering a password when you start, playing a two encryptions role. Syskey tool is on the SAM file for re-encryption so that the general can not crack password cracking tools. This is a bit complicated but the most effective way to remove the Sys key from windows 8.

Import SAM password file

First, run the SYSKEY encrypted local SAM password file, and then run the Saminside program. Click on the toolbar’s first drop-down menu button next to an icon, the pop-up menu, and you can see a variety of password cracking method options commands. One of the “Import from SAM and SYSKEY files” menu commands is what we focus on today, and you can use this feature to crack the SYSKEY encrypted password.

Import SYSKEY encrypted files

The dialog box mentioned “SYSKEY-File ” results from SYSKEY encrypted generated SYSTEM files, but directly specifying system SYSTEM files is not enough. We have to use a Saminside development together “get syskey” gadget used in conjunction with. This tool is a DOS application using the following command line in the following format: GetSyskey <SYSTEM-file> [-SYSKEY the Output File] wherein SYSTEM-file represents a system with SAM files in the same directory after SYSKEY encrypted “System” file path, generally located in “c windows system32 config” under. Run the command “GetSyskey c: samsystem the Syskey,” The author first in DOS under the SAM copy the password to the document: “c sam ” folder. After the command prompt “Done,” you can generate in specified directory16 bytes of binary code file “Syskey,” which was introduced into Saminiside can be.

Select the type of hack

SAM file and SYSKEY After importing the encrypted document, in Saminiside middle of the list of the program window, you can see all usernames and passwords in the system LM value. Click on the toolbar “Attack Options” button in the pop-up menu to view the password hack currently available.

First, choose the “LMHash attack” or “NTHash attack” hack, wherein LMHash’s only crack length is 14 code characters, and NTHash can crack a length of 32 code-bit characters. Since this is a test in the machine, we know the password length is 7, so choose the “LMHash attack” hack. Then to select the means to crack, like other software Saminiside program offers a variety of password cracking tools, such as brute force ( Brute-Force Attack ), dictionary attack ( the Dictionary Attack ), cracked mask ( Mask Attack ), and so on.

Click the pop-up menu in the “Options” command. You can break a variety of means to make detailed settings. Brute force way to set; here, the selection is selected to crack the code for combining numbers. Lowercase letters, numbers, and the program will automatically carry out permutations and combinations of notes to find the correct password. Here special mention is the need to break the mask ( Mask Attack ) setting. If you already know some of the characters in the password, select this hack, you can quickly get the password.

As passwords are the first known to break a lowercase letter. The rest is a few numbers of 9564 permutations and combinations. You can make the following settings: Click on “Mask attack” Settings tab in the interface of “X – Symbol from the custom set “enter” 9564″, and then in the bottom of the “Mask first small given input setting items “a”; the second input “N,” and then the rest of you enter “the X-.” Wherein “a” indicates that the bit code for the lowercase letters, “N” indicates that the bit code is a number, “X-” represents the seek positive decrypted from the character string preset in; additional “A” and “S” represent from all uppercase letters and special characters in character to break the correct password. Click OK After setup is complete, check the menu command “Mask attack” hack can be.

Start cracking

Once you set a password hack, click on the “Set password recovery” toolbar to start cracking the user login password. Soon you can see the results of the break. In the “LM Password” and “NT Password,” the field will show a gap of passwords. Sometimes the contents of both are not identical, such as showing the user “puma_xy” password is “123PUMA” when “NT Password” content is displayed prevail.

Finally, you can click on the toolbar “Check” Button to break out of the password check, check, and correct; then, you can use this password to log in. Once you set a password hack, click on the “Set password recovery” toolbar to start cracking the user login password. Soon you can see the results of the break. In the “LM Password” and “NT Password” fields will show a broken password, sometimes the contents of both are not the same, such as showing the user “puma_xy” password are “123PASSWORD” and “123password”, this when to “NT Password” content displayed prevail. Finally, you can click on the toolbar “Check” Button to break out of the password check, check, and correct; then, you can use this password to log in.

Conclusion

In this article, we told you how to remove the Syskey password from the Windows 8 hack. It is a modern-day scam targeted to lock someone’s data and demand ransomware to unlock that password. We told you about its definition and how scammers misuse it. To open Syskey, we told you about how to crack and also Bruteforce the Syskey password.