Jan 15, 2009

Recovering Forgotten Passwords I - IM Clients

As you all certainly know from reading Tuesdays' article, I am now using Digsby for my IM client. I decided to force my wife to jump on the bandwagon herself, so I removed Windows Live Messenger from her computer, and installed Digsby.

When setting up a new Instant Messenger client, obviously you need to setup your accounts. For that, you need passwords. Of course, I installed Digsby when my wife was sleeping so I couldn't ask her for her password.

I knew she had it saved in Windows Live messenger, so I needed something that could unhide her password, or just simply show me. That is when I found a handy new tool (New to me anyway).

This software is called MessenPass from Nirsoft. From their site:

MessenPass is a password recovery tool that reveals the passwords of the following instant messenger applications:
  • MSN Messenger
  • Windows Messenger (In Windows XP)
  • Windows Live Messenger (In Windows XP And Vista)
  • Yahoo Messenger (Versions 5.x and 6.x)
  • Google Talk
  • ICQ Lite 4.x/5.x/2003
  • AOL Instant Messenger v4.6 or below, AIM 6.x, and AIM Pro.
  • Trillian
  • Miranda
  • GAIM/Pidgin
  • MySpace IM
  • PaltalkScene
  • Digsby


I see some of you hackers out there drooling. Calm down a bit, because this tool can only be used for the logged on user. As in my situation above, I was running the application under my wife's account. But when I did, oh boy! Lots of passwords came up like in this example:


The makers of MessenPass have some other cool password recovery tools. Stay tuned tomorrow for Part II.



Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | stopping spam