3 ms·

New Windows 10 vulnerability allows anyone to get admin privileges

27 points by 0xC0ncord 5y ago

casual-dev 5y ago
I admit it. I hate Windows 10. Probably 11 too. Maintaining four machines, two of which family related, I'm not able to say how much of a hassle it is to just keep them running, unsupervised and supervised. We are not talking rocket science here: mail and web browsing, some light gaming here and there. No malware, no miners, just plain and simple machines. After 6-12 months, they are not usable anymore. Final straw for my private machine: I was not allowed to save in my own working folder. This was on a fresh out of the box install. I'm still angry. I switched to Linux full time after this. I can not image how it must feel like when you are not having admin privileges. Given it is not a work machine, I would just refuse to go near it. No meditation would be enough to help me stay calm. My heart goes out to everyone who has to deal with this crap, I hope you get good money for it.
- cosmie 5y ago
  If you haven't, check out the Windows Admin Center app[1]. It's targeted primarily at managing Windows Server, but works fantastically for managing Windows 10 too (and they even mention that on the doc homepage). This[2] page in particular gives you a good visual and overview of the actual management features. I originally tinkered with it to see if I could straighten out a Windows 10 dev VM that got mangled over time but I didn't want to wipe. It was a bit of a bear getting it setup and learning as I went, but once I got it going it was shockingly to actually find and cleanup all the little gremlins that had accumulated and started bogging things down and/or causing issues. That sold me on it, and I've since set up all the Windows machines in the house so I can use WAC for maintaining them. It's been far more pleasant keeping everyone's computers chugging along. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/overview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windo... [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/use/manage-servers https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windo...
  - casual-dev 5y ago
    Thanks for the info, that looks promising. I will have a look into it, maybe it helps straighten some problems out.
- Thorentis 5y ago
  Linux Mint is great for all these things, even for family members not used to Linux. I would say LM is closer to Windows 7 that it is 10, and that's a good thing.
vgeek 5y ago
So this + Rainbow tables = pretty quick administrator rights for anyone?
gnu8 5y ago
I am unable to copy the SAM file out of that shadow copy path without becoming local admin. My regular user account cannot do it. So this might be overblown unless my environment is not standard somehow.
- warhorse10_9 5y ago
  I had the same issue. I am wondering if this wasn't a mess up on the OP's computer configuration. I have checked older systems that have been upgraded repeatedly as well. None have the issue.
- 0xdeadb00f 5y ago
  The vuln only affects specific versions/builds of W10. Is yours one of the affected versions?
  - gnu8 5y ago
    1909 at work and I also tried on 21H1 at home.

27 points by 0xC0ncord 5y ago

I admit it. I hate Windows 10. Probably 11 too. Maintaining four machines, two of which family related, I'm not able to say how much of a hassle it is to just keep them running, unsupervised and supervised. We are not talking rocket science here: mail and web browsing, some light gaming here and there. No malware, no miners, just plain and simple machines. After 6-12 months, they are not usable anymore. Final straw for my private machine: I was not allowed to save in my own working folder. This was on a fresh out of the box install. I'm still angry. I switched to Linux full time after this. I can not image how it must feel like when you are not having admin privileges. Given it is not a work machine, I would just refuse to go near it. No meditation would be enough to help me stay calm. My heart goes out to everyone who has to deal with this crap, I hope you get good money for it.

cosmie 5y ago
If you haven't, check out the Windows Admin Center app[1]. It's targeted primarily at managing Windows Server, but works fantastically for managing Windows 10 too (and they even mention that on the doc homepage). This[2] page in particular gives you a good visual and overview of the actual management features. I originally tinkered with it to see if I could straighten out a Windows 10 dev VM that got mangled over time but I didn't want to wipe. It was a bit of a bear getting it setup and learning as I went, but once I got it going it was shockingly to actually find and cleanup all the little gremlins that had accumulated and started bogging things down and/or causing issues. That sold me on it, and I've since set up all the Windows machines in the house so I can use WAC for maintaining them. It's been far more pleasant keeping everyone's computers chugging along. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/overview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windo... [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/use/manage-servers https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windo...
- casual-dev 5y ago
  Thanks for the info, that looks promising. I will have a look into it, maybe it helps straighten some problems out.
Thorentis 5y ago
Linux Mint is great for all these things, even for family members not used to Linux. I would say LM is closer to Windows 7 that it is 10, and that's a good thing.

vgeek 5y ago

So this + Rainbow tables = pretty quick administrator rights for anyone?

gnu8 5y ago

I am unable to copy the SAM file out of that shadow copy path without becoming local admin. My regular user account cannot do it. So this might be overblown unless my environment is not standard somehow.

warhorse10_9 5y ago
I had the same issue. I am wondering if this wasn't a mess up on the OP's computer configuration. I have checked older systems that have been upgraded repeatedly as well. None have the issue.
0xdeadb00f 5y ago
The vuln only affects specific versions/builds of W10. Is yours one of the affected versions?
- gnu8 5y ago
  1909 at work and I also tried on 21H1 at home.