[redoid]

hello folks,

i need to retrieve my internet access password but unfortunately, as you know, i cant see what i entered way back (black dots)

is there a program that allow me to copy paste the paste dots and get the real password?

thnx for the help
red

[proton]

This one is remarkably easy to recover if you know what you're doing.

1. In the Finder choose Go -> Go to Folder
2. Enter /var/db/SystemConfiguration
3. Open the file preferences.xml in a Text Editor (/Applications/TextEdit will do)
4. Search for AuthPassword
5. Copy the data blob below that that looks like this:
AHAAYQBzAHMAdwBvAHIAZA== (in case you're wondering, that's for "password")
6. Head over to a Base 64 decoder
7. Paste that string in, and hit decode

There's your password.

- proton

[redoid]

Genius! It worked.

Nice one and thanks a lot!

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by proton:
This one is remarkably easy to recover if you know what you're doing.

1. In the Finder choose Go -> Go to Folder
2. Enter /var/db/SystemConfiguration
3. Open the file preferences.xml in a Text Editor (/Applications/TextEdit will do)
4. Search for AuthPassword
5. Copy the data blob below that that looks like this:
AHAAYQBzAHMAdwBvAHIAZA== (in case you're wondering, that's for "password")
6. Head over to a Base 64 decoder
7. Paste that string in, and hit decode

There's your password.

- proton

No kidding, that's awesome. I support Macintoshes for a living and those are the little things that save me hours every week (there are tons of nifty things you can do from a combination of single user mode, /var/db/shadow/hashes/, and the suite of commandline utilities for interfacing with netinfo).

Where did you manage to pick this one up?

[Turnpike]

wow, I'm saving that one to a text file because it is incredibly useful....

too bad I'm so disorganized that I'll have lost the text file long before I need to find what that password is, but it is the principle of the thing. Great tip!

if this hasn't been posted on macosxhints.com, you should head there right now and submit it. That one's killer!

[CharlesS]

Just to clarify something, in order to do this under Panther, you will need to navigate to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration instead of /var/db/SystemConfiguration. And, since /Library is visible, you don't need to use the Go To Folder dialog box to do this.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Just to clarify something, in order to do this under Panther, you will need to navigate to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration instead of /var/db/SystemConfiguration. And, since /Library is visible, you don't need to use the Go To Folder dialog box to do this.

I don't see this under 10.3.6; the file doesn't exist in either of the places you've described.

Perhaps they've fixed this security hole?

[Gerrit Vanoppen]

Just located the file in OSX 10.3.5, opened with TextEditor, but can't find AuthPassword being mentioned anywhere in the file. What am I doing wrong ?

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Gerrit Vanoppen:
Just located the file in OSX 10.3.5, opened with TextEditor, but can't find AuthPassword being mentioned anywhere in the file. What am I doing wrong ?

I don't know, but I'm guessing that, like me, you tried preferences.plist instead of preferences.xml?

I can't find a preferences.xml file anywhere. My guess is that you're not doing anything wrong, and Apple fixed this in one of the post-10.3 releases.

[Gerrit Vanoppen]

Originally posted by Millennium:
I don't know, but I'm guessing that, like me, you tried preferences.plist instead of preferences.xml?
I can't find a preferences.xml file anywhere. My guess is that you're not doing anything wrong, and Apple fixed this in one of the post-10.3 releases.

I found the .xml file in the above mentioned path, but it appears to be an alias of...
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/Preferences.plist. But no AuthPassword there. Too bad, it's an interesting tip.

[C.J. Moof]

Interesting.... I'm on 10.3.6, and I just pulled the password out of /var/db/SystemConfiguration/preferences.xml.

[CharlesS]

Okay...

1. Yes, in Panther they renamed the file to preferences.plist.

2. Your network password will only be in there if you are connecting to the network via some means that requires authentication, such as PPP, and you have the "Save Password" box checked.

3. This isn't a security hole by any means. If you asked it to save the password, then the password has to be stored in some way that it can be decoded to the plaintext password to be sent to the server. Hashing the password will not work here.

4. If you're concerned about people knowing your login password because it is the same as your network password, then that's why you shouldn't set your login password to be the same as your network password.