Re: password expired

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Thanks Patrick,
I have never used EFS but the conversation prompted the questions asked.
Thanks for the informative reply.

Charlie

"Patrick Keenan" <test@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Charles May" <nunya@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Patrick Keenan" <test@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"tulio" <tulio123546@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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help me, my administrator's password just expired, i still have acess
to the Guest user, but when i try to change the password it says Acess
Denied,

This really isn't a suprise, since the Guest account doesn't have those
rights.

what can i do?

Log onto the Administrator account - the one called Administrator - and
reset your password. If this is XP Home, you need to start in Safe
Mode to get to this.

If all else fails, you can find password reset utilities, many of which
are based on Linux boot CDs.

Note that if the OS is XP Pro, *and* if you also invoked encryption, you
will instantly and permanently lose access to the encrypted files or
folders when you change the password from outside the account.

Patrick,
Wouldn't the OP be able to access the encrypted files by setting the
password back to the original one?

No, this does not work, and is a common misconception.

EFS (Encrypting File System) does not rely solely on the password, but on
account credentials, which are built from several inputs. You will not
duplicate the credentials by resetting the password.

You have to export the credentials at the time that you invoke encryption,
back them up and store them safely. Or, designate a recovery agent.

This is not a forgotton password but one that has expired.

Unfortunately that isn't a relevant difference.

If you change the password from outside the account, and do not have the
account credentials backed up or have a designated recovery agent, you
will instantly and permanently lose access to the encrypted data.

I'm only asking because if a user has encrypted files and they cannot be
recovered by setting their password back to the original if/when it
expires, why would the OS allow you to set the Password Expires bit in
the User settings when using encrypted files or folders?

User Beware.

It's the user's responsibility to educate themselves about EFS before
invoking it. There aren't safeguards. There is risk.

What you would do for the expired password is to import the backed-up
credentials after resetting the password. The problem is that many
people skip that step.

MS did a great job of making it easy to get strong encryption, but did not
do such a great job of wrapping up details around it, such as requiring
credential backup.


It's quite common for people to post questions about EFS, and
unfortunately, there are seldom happy stories attached to those questions.

HTH
-pk



Charlie






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Relevant Pages

  • Re: password expired
    ... to the Guest user, but when i try to change the password it says Acess ... Note that if the OS is XP Pro, *and* if you also invoked encryption, you will instantly and permanently lose access to the encrypted files or folders when you change the password from outside the account. ... EFS does not rely solely on the password, but on account credentials, which are built from several inputs. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Just after i reset my password
    ... EFS is very good at what it does and there is no back door. ... > files on the computer,from the Administration account. ... > that I cannot open any of my Encrypted files, ... > keys and recovery agents,but I could not do anything of ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: Decryption
    ... recovery your EFS data, even if you didn't back up your EFS certificate. ... Please do not send email directly to this alias. ... Now I have encrypted files ... > account its gone, the administrator's account for that OS ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • EFS File Encryption
    ... (SP1) ... that is full of encrypted files using EFS. ... changed his password so I could get into the account, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: EFS File Encryption
    ... EFS is very good at keeping data from unauthorized users and to EFS ... > that is full of encrypted files using EFS. ... > changed his password so I could get into the account, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)