Introduction It should be noted that the recommendations given in the following material are not intended to track or intercept passwords. We only want to tell you how to restore access to your information stored on an encrypted device or Internet service account if you suddenly forget your password.
As it turns out, this is not so unlikely. More than one user has experienced problems logging into Windows after returning from a two-week vacation. Not to mention unpacking ZIP archives encrypted many years ago or logging into an account you haven’t used in years.
It's not surprising that users who don't use the same password for everything (quite wisely) find themselves having to recover or reset their passwords from time to time.
Password – degree of protection, risk of hacking and a pinch of theory
The security that strong passwords provide and the associated risk of hacking are incredibly complex issues. The theory is theory, and great technological progress in recent years has very significantly influenced the likelihood of the capture of confidential data, accounts in online stores or digital identification data of users. A long and complex password provides only superficial security - in the next part of the article we will talk about why.
On the one hand, the computing power of a relatively small computer cluster (a group of interconnected computers for high performance), which has only two dozen video cards, is so great that it can “crack” an eight-character password through simple brute force within a few hours all possible combinations of characters.
Of course, one can imagine the counterargument that increasing the password length will lead to an increase in the time required to guess the password. Although this is a correct assumption, it only works in theory. Some time ago, attackers switched to other methods of cracking passwords. Even shortcut databases, known as symbolic arrays, which collect hash values to reduce password determination time, are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
How can I find out the code if I only have an account login?
People often ask the question: “How to recover your password in Odnoklassniki if you know your login?” This is a very difficult situation; the easiest solution is to contact technical support. Write a letter, immediately indicating the subject - “recovering the password for my Odnoklassniki page”, also be sure to mark “I don’t remember the password, I only know the login.” You can also try to hack your page or, at your own peril and risk, use prohibited software, so-called “spyware”. You can also contact people who solve similar issues for money; they can be found via the Internet, through advertisements.
You can read more about how to restore your login in Odnoklassniki in other articles.
Password – list of access codes
First of all, due to the numerous cases of mass hacking of accounts on Internet services that have occurred in recent years, there are now a huge number of widely used passwords in the public domain. These intrusions resulted in the theft of millions of customer data. Some access codes were explicitly stored and published on the Internet, while others became the subject of financial transactions.
Having such a password database, it is enough to connect it with multilingual dictionaries to carry out effective attacks. Processing several million words can be done much faster than sequentially searching through a billion possible combinations of characters.
However, this is not the end, because the list of passwords stolen by attackers provides information about the patterns used to create the password. Although simple solutions such as password, 1234... or children's names are no longer used as often as before, incorporating common words and using templates is still the order of the day.
For example, the method of replacing letters according to the pattern used in Leet speak slang is very popular. So, for example, the word kalkulator becomes the slightly more complex k4lkul470r. Some users supplement the passwords created in this way with the name of the portal or service. However, such passwords do not provide an adequate level of security because they have long been included in dictionary files circulating on the Internet.
On the other hand, there are many hardware solutions for which the security leaves much to be desired. For example, earlier versions of Android only lock the screen after five failed code attempts. You can repeat the entry after 30 seconds. If you automate this process, then guessing a four-digit sequence of numbers will take no more than 17 hours.
For a price of 35 euros you can purchase a special device - USB Rubber Ducky, which will perform this task. The protection is fixed only in the latest version of Android (Marshmallow). iOS and Windows Phone are much safer in this regard.
Password for accounts in online services
Above we presented some “behind the scenes” of passwords and methods of attacking security systems. We described methods for creating and remembering strong passwords in a separate article. The question remains of resetting passwords. This operation is often necessary in the case of social media accounts.
In principle, any service, such as an online store, portal, social network or thematic forum, provides the ability to restore access to an account by email address. The system automatically sends a message to the account owner, which contains a special link. By clicking it, the user can set a new password to access the service.
This shows how important mailbox security is. If an attacker manages to obtain the password for their victim's email, they can use the password reset feature to reach all sites registered with that email address. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of the security of your mailbox to a certain extent.
In addition to the password reset function, there are several other solutions for those who forget. These include, in particular, generating a code using the application or receiving a password via SMS message. Google and other major portals even allow you to use security methods such as two-factor authentication. There is also a system for resetting passwords through the correct answer to the “secret” question. Such protection is of little value, since attackers can obtain an answer through social engineering.
How to recover your password via phone
Of course, you don’t need to have a computer at hand to regain access to your AliExpress account. The simplest thing is to open the Chinese site from your smartphone and go through all the steps indicated above. Even if you have an old smartphone, you can restore your Aliexpress account through your phone.
The second option is to install the official Aliexpress mobile application. It is available on both Google Play and the App Store. The program is called “AliExpress online store” . Here are brief instructions on how to recover your Aliexpress password via phone:
- We launch the program, allow/disable notifications at our discretion;
- In the bottom menu select “My Profile” ;
- At the very top, click on the word “Login” ;
- Here you will see a registration and login item. But there will be no password recovery button. “Login” button again ;
- And here will be the long-awaited “Forgot your password?” ;
- Next, we follow the same steps as in the case of the AliExpress website.
It should be noted here that the system prompts us to indicate the choice of telephone number and E-mail. If you registered only by email, of course, it will be impossible to recover your password using your phone number on Aliexpress. Because your number is not in the service database. If you registered by number, please indicate it.
To summarize, if you have an account registered via E-mail, you need to use it to recover your password. If we don’t have access to mail, we write to the support service and follow their “advice.” If you registered using a phone number, you need to install the Aliexpress mobile application. This is the only way to recover your Aliexpress password using your phone number. The site does not accept numbers in this regard.
Access to a Windows computer
Don't panic if you suddenly forget your Windows account password. You can gain access to the system without using password cracking tools. The whole operation is somewhat risky, but only takes a few tens of minutes. Even works on Windows 10.
Restoring access to Windows without an installation disk
When the login screen appears, turn off the computer by pressing the switch on the back of the computer or unplugging it from the electrical outlet.
Attention! The editors are not responsible for possible damage to the computer. Although this happens rarely.
the Start Windows normally button, select Run Startup Repair Tool (recommended) . Wait while the system sorts out the data loading. Windows will ask if you want to restore your system using the recovery feature. Click Cancel. The system will begin actions to eliminate them. After a few minutes, a Show problem details list box will appear at the bottom of the screen. Expand it and scroll to the very bottom.
Click on the link X:/windows/system32/ru-RU/erofflps.txt to open a text editor. In the editor window, select the menu File → Open and go to the /windows/system32 directory on the system partition C:
In the lower right corner there is a drop-down list with the default option Text documents (*.txt) selected. Select All files (*.*) in it. Select the Utilman.exe file, right-click it, and select Rename. Temporarily change the file name to, for example, Utilman1.exe. Similarly, replace the file name Cmd.exe with Utilman.exe. Click Cancel, then close the editor window and system recovery tools.
After you confirm the action with the Close button, the system will restart. The login screen will appear on the screen. Click then the Accessibility icon in the lower right corner. A command prompt window will appear. Type net user [name_user] * , replacing the variable [name_user] with your own name.
The system will ask you to enter and repeat a new password. Press Enter. Close the text console window. You can now log in without entering a password. Remember, however, that you must assign a new password to your account.
How to log into the site using a security question?
Many people are interested in how to log into Odnoklassniki if they have forgotten their password and neither a phone number nor an e-mail are attached to the page. There used to be a password recovery feature using a security question, but for a long time it no longer exists on the site.
It is useful to know that you can only recover a password in Odnoklassniki without a phone number and email with the help of the support service, so it is advisable to be prudent when registering.
Password – access for mobile devices
When you lose access to your account on your mobile device, it is not at all necessary to reset it and lose all your data. With access to your Google account, you can use the app to unlock your lock screen, just like you can with other apps.
A free application for Android smartphones is [Free] Screen UnLock/Lock. A commercial application, Screen Lock Bypass Pro, is also available. Both applications are very easy to use. A little more effort is required to remove the block using Android Debug Bridge.
Users of a locked iPhone have at their disposal only the methods proposed by the manufacturer. Apart from them, there are no tricks that would help remove the screen lock. But at least you can restore your device from a previously created iTunes backup, so you don't have to set everything up again, as is the case when using Safe Mode.
Windows Phone smartphones can be reset remotely and even their contents can be deleted. Alternatively, you can get a similar effect by pressing a specific key sequence. One way or another, you will have to come to terms with the loss of all data in the smartphone’s memory.
