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  • behindthesailboats@lemmy.world
    180·
    11 months ago

    Right, So I actually did something similar. On some version of windows I noticed that ctrl-backspace was adding another character to the password, instead of deleting it. So I included it in my password. Then I updated to a new version of windows and got locked out since they updated the password backend to where it would actually delete the password instead of a adding the character, so I had no way of typing out my password. Ended up just nuking the computer.

    • x4740N@lemmy.worldEnglish
      54·
      11 months ago

      Could have just researched what character was being inserted by the ctrl backspace and then used the keyboard to insert the character from its ascii or unicode code to login and then changed your password before nuking your computer

      • this_1_is_mine@lemmy.ml
        26·
        11 months ago

        early win98 and i think even into second edition you could just click the close window x button on the login window and it would just dump you onto the desktop. my parents thought adding a password would stop late night gaming… nope worked till i got discovered one fateful nigbt and i was grounded till i revealed how i found out what the password was.

        was eye opening for my father who then started just taking the power cords off the monitor and psu.

        • oyenyaaowEnglish
          19·
          11 months ago

          My parents had the power cord in locked box, so you need a key to turn the computer on, which only they have.
          Me and all my siblings learnt to pick lock.

        • Piecemakers@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          11 months ago

          TBF, my parents tried that power cord solution first as I was the “techy type” in the family. It just taught me to hide the fact that I had extras. 🤪

      • yum13241@lemm.ee
        2·
        11 months ago

        All the login prompt did back then was let users save user specific settings. Your best bet back then was a BIOS password.

    • Knusper@feddit.de
      211·
      11 months ago

      I know, this is easier said than done for someone unfamiliar with this stuff, but maybe still good to know that this is an option in future:

      You can prepare a “Linux Live USB” and select in the BIOS that it should boot off of that.
      It’ll start a complete OS off of that USB, so you can access the hard drive (assuming you didn’t enable disk encryption) and at the very least backup your files, or sometimes even resolve whatever keeps you from accessing Windows.

      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        14·
        11 months ago

        Remember: Those were probably the times of a single computer at home and having a spare laptop somewhere ready for that is not the default.

        • RustySharp@programming.dev
          9·
          11 months ago

          Those were the times when I had to pull out my hard drive, ride my bike to my best mate’s house, and plug it into their PC so I could finish up a report due the next day. All because Windows 95 didn’t shut down cleanly and refused to boot.

        • Knusper@feddit.de
          2·
          11 months ago

          I did actually remember that, but figured, they must have had some way of reinstalling Windows, too.

          I guess, though, they might have had a physical Windows install disk at home. So, yeah, would have had to prepare a Linux Live CD before disaster struck…

          • locuesterEnglish
            31·
            11 months ago

            CD? Windows 98 first edition was released on floppies. And Linux was not some simple thing. Red hat hadn’t even created yum and Debian hadn’t even created apt.

            The late 90’s was a chore of library visits and 14.4k baud XModem transfer interruptions.

        • bort@lemmy.sdf.org
          6·
          11 months ago

          This sort of nonsense right here is why infosec people warn about having physical access to machines

          • jvisick@programming.dev
            3·
            11 months ago

            It’s not just because of nonsense, it’s more that it doesn’t really matter what you do - the only thing stopping someone with physical access to your machine is their level of determination.

            At some point, there’s no stopping the laws of physics. Your data is physically stored there. You can do a lot to make it really difficult to access it, but the best you can do is full disk encryption with a sufficiently strong key, and only store that key on external hardware that isn’t accessible to the attacker.

            Even then, you better make sure that your encryption key wasn’t hanging around cached anywhere in memory before you shut down your computer.

      • this_1_is_mine@lemmy.ml
        3·
        11 months ago

        this i do all the time. you can even make a persistance on the drive so its not just like a fresh install every boot. really nice if you wont have access to internet on the host hardware so if you need sometool inparticular you can have it installed already

  • Norgur@kbin.social
    762·
    11 months ago

    Doing that to annoy devs who didn’t sanitize their database inputs is like walking along parking lot just to see if anyone has forgotten to lock their car, just to put a post it in the steering wheel.

    • daw_germany@feddit.de
      81·
      11 months ago

      Nah man, not sanitizing Inputs could pose serious security risks as someone could use this shit to escape and run arbitrary database queries potentially leaking passwords or other info or just wiping it (Afa I have learnt on the internet)

  • Neato@kbin.social
    21·
    11 months ago

    Is this anything that a simple admin password reset wouldn’t fix? It’s not like admins can see your passwords anyways. (if the system is even remotely competent)