Guest Rosivaldo Fernandes Alves Posted December 12, 2007 Posted December 12, 2007 I have a Win98 and a WinXP in a home LAN. In this group I've learned that a Win98 account may access WinXP shared resources provided the latter has an account with name and password identical to those of the account in the former. Since I think that Win98 stores the passwords in a much less safe way than WinXP does, I'm somewhat worried about the risk of these passwords to be cracked via this possible vulnerability, compromising my WinXP security. Could some one help me about this? Thanks in advance and forgive my poor English. Rosivaldo.
Guest glee Posted December 13, 2007 Posted December 13, 2007 Re: Password security in Win98 I have a Win98SE machine and a WinXP Pro machine that I network at home. I do NOT use a password (or more exactly, I use a blank password) to log onto the Win98SE machine, so I do not see any log-in screen when using that machine. On my XP Pro system, I log on at the Welcome screen with a specific username and a password. I can access shared files and folders on the XP system from the 98SE system, and vice versa. So, your initial premise is not necessarily correct. I suggest you ask your questions on this subject in an XP group or a networking group. -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+ "Rosivaldo Fernandes Alves" <rfa@jfse.gov.br> wrote in message news:OwbWmXRPIHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >I have a Win98 and a WinXP in a home LAN. In this group I've learned that a Win98 >account may access WinXP shared resources provided the latter has an account with >name and password identical to those of the account in the former. > > Since I think that Win98 stores the passwords in a much less safe way than WinXP > does, I'm somewhat worried about the risk of these passwords to be cracked via > this possible vulnerability, compromising my WinXP security. > > Could some one help me about this? > > Thanks in advance and forgive my poor English. > > Rosivaldo. >
Guest Nigel Stapley Posted December 13, 2007 Posted December 13, 2007 Re: Password security in Win98 glee wrote: > I have a Win98SE machine and a WinXP Pro machine that I network at home. > > I do NOT use a password (or more exactly, I use a blank password) to log > onto the Win98SE machine, so I do not see any log-in screen when using > that machine. > > On my XP Pro system, I log on at the Welcome screen with a specific > username and a password. > > I can access shared files and folders on the XP system from the 98SE > system, and vice versa. Slightly curious about this. I now have a similar setup, i.e. XP Pro on one machine, 98SE on the other. When I boot up the 98 box, I'm presented with two logon prompts. The first one is for the network, where I log on with the name and password from a second account on the XP Pro machine. Then comes the 98 logon prompt. I've always logged in on that too (rather than cancel it). I haven't tried seeing what happens if I just cancel the second one. -- Regards Nigel Stapley http://www.judgemental.plus.com <reply-to will bounce>
Guest glee Posted December 13, 2007 Posted December 13, 2007 Re: Password security in Win98 "Nigel Stapley" <unet@judgemental.plus.com> wrote in message news:13m1me883se649d@corp.supernews.com... > glee wrote: >> I have a Win98SE machine and a WinXP Pro machine that I network at home. >> >> I do NOT use a password (or more exactly, I use a blank password) to log onto the >> Win98SE machine, so I do not see any log-in screen when using that machine. >> >> On my XP Pro system, I log on at the Welcome screen with a specific username and >> a password. >> >> I can access shared files and folders on the XP system from the 98SE system, and >> vice versa. > > Slightly curious about this. I now have a similar setup, i.e. XP Pro on one > machine, 98SE on the other. > > When I boot up the 98 box, I'm presented with two logon prompts. The first one is > for the network, where I log on with the name and password from a second account > on the XP Pro machine. Then comes the 98 logon prompt. I've always logged in on > that too (rather than cancel it). I haven't tried seeing what happens if I just > cancel the second one. If you Cancel the log-on for 98, I don't know if you'll be able to connect to the XP machine or not....let me know. I don't Cancel in 98, I simply do not have a password, so there is no log-in box. I don't keep the network cable attached unless I am going to use it, so I don't get a log-on for the XP machine until I try to access a resource. Also, you may have your 98 networking configured differently than I do, as far as the Primary Network Logon and so forth, in the Network control panel. -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
Guest Brian A. Posted December 14, 2007 Posted December 14, 2007 Re: Password security in Win98 "Rosivaldo Fernandes Alves" <rfa@jfse.gov.br> wrote in message news:OwbWmXRPIHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >I have a Win98 and a WinXP in a home LAN. In this group I've learned that a Win98 >account may access WinXP shared resources provided the latter has an account with >name and password identical to those of the account in the former. AFAIK that's only in a Domain on a server. You should only need to have the proper components/protocols installed in order to share folders/files in a Workgroup. > > Since I think that Win98 stores the passwords in a much less safe way than WinXP > does, I'm somewhat worried about the risk of these passwords to be cracked via this > possible vulnerability, compromising my WinXP security. Depending on the XP version depends on how well you can lock up the XP machine from compromise, XP Pro is much more secure than Home. Also, as long as you keep you LAN secured from any unauthorized access from the WAN it will minimize any security breach. Lastly you should not let any unauthorized access on any machine from anywhere by anyone that can not be 100% trusted. > > Could some one help me about this? > > Thanks in advance and forgive my poor English. > > Rosivaldo. > -- Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User } Conflicts start where information lacks. http://basconotw.mvps.org/ Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Guest MEB Posted December 14, 2007 Posted December 14, 2007 Re: Password security in Win98 "Rosivaldo Fernandes Alves" <rfa@jfse.gov.br> wrote in message news:OwbWmXRPIHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... | I have a Win98 and a WinXP in a home LAN. In this group I've learned that a | Win98 account may access WinXP shared resources provided the latter has an | account with name and password identical to those of the account in the | former. | | Since I think that Win98 stores the passwords in a much less safe way than | WinXP does, I'm somewhat worried about the risk of these passwords to be | cracked via this possible vulnerability, compromising my WinXP security. | | Could some one help me about this? | | Thanks in advance and forgive my poor English. | | Rosivaldo. | | It appears that this party either has a need to use passwords, or believes that they do. Also, the networking help groups generally supply the recommendation to use passwords and USERS to increase the security of one's system. It would be interesting to review why this party, who presently uses passwords, believes they need or wishes to use passwords. Others have posted personal preference or personal setup, but may have overlooked the question itself [though perhaps I have mistaken the query]. The query appears to relate to HOW to ensure passwords were not exposed, and whether there was any way to ensure they were protected. Simple File Sharing would be the easiest configuration, particularly if the Internet accessing system was the XP system using a firewall, perhaps in an ICS configuration, with a firewall and preferably a router. However, this still leaves the issues which appeared to be included in the query. If the computers in question, are not part of a domain [and protected by other aspects therein], then the Windows 98 system is not really protected related to password protection. Using blank passwords would be a security hole, and easily found and circumvented, the same as using some easily guessable password would be. IF the concern is a more secured system, both local and Internet, then Users and passwords within the local system is one more layer of protection. The original poster is correct, in that 98 stores its passwords in a much more insecure way. In fact, its been something that I also was once concerned with, to the point that third party programs were used to encrypt and protect them [and related files]. The decryption was done automatically and essentially invisibly. The old PGP suite included networking security, which could use various forms [encryptors] to increase security. There were also other programs which could be used to encrypt/decrypt passwords and supplied such *on demand*. I'm not sure, however, whether some of these were *network aware*. It might be of interest, to review some of those programs, and whether they could, perhaps, provide additional security in the 9X environment. -- MEB http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com ________
Guest Nigel Stapley Posted December 15, 2007 Posted December 15, 2007 Re: Password security in Win98 glee wrote: > > If you Cancel the log-on for 98, I don't know if you'll be able to > connect to the XP machine or not....let me know. Yep, you can. -- Regards Nigel Stapley http://www.judgemental.plus.com <reply-to will bounce>
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