Securing NT

By default, NT 4.0 displays the last person who logged onto the

system. This can be considered to be a security threat, especially in

the case of those who choose their password to be same as their

Username.

To disable this bug which actually is a feature, go to the

following key in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVer

sion\Winlogon

Click and select the ReportBookOK item and create a new string

value called DontDisplayLastUserName. Modify it and set it's value

to 1.

As a system administrator, you can ensure that the passwords

chosen by the users are not too lame or too easy to guess. NT has

this lovely utility called the User Manager which allows the

administrator to set the age limit of the password which forces the

users to change the password after a certain number of days. You

can also set the minimum length of passwords and prevent users to

use passwords which already have been used earlier and also

enable account lockouts which will deactivate an account after a

specified number of failed login attempts.

When you log on to Win NT, you should disable Password Caching,

this ensures Single NT Domain login and also prevents secondary

Windows Logon screen.

Simply copy the following lines to a plain text ASCII editor like:

Notepad and save it with an extension, .reg

----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer

sion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001

----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------

To Enable Password Caching use the following .reg file:

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer

sion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU

The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the

Registry. To do this go to the following Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name:

NoRecentDocsMenu and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save

the changes.

You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in

the key:

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete

History of Find listings go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find Spec MRU

and delete.

Customizing the Right Click Context Menu of the Start Menu

When you right click on the start menu, only 3 options pop up:

Open, Explore, and Find. You can add your own programs to this

pop up menu( which comes up when we right click on it.)

Open Regedit and go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell

Right click on the shell and create a new Sub Key (You can create a

new SubKey by right clicking on the Shell Key and selecting New >

Key.). Type in the name of the application you want to add to the

start menu. I want to add Notepad to the Start Menu and hence I

name this new sub key, Notepad. Now right click on the new

registry key that you just created and create yet another new key

named Command. Enter the full path of the application, in this case

Notepad in the default value of Command in the right

pane. So I Modify the value of the default string value and enter the

full pathname of Notepad:

c:\wndows\notepad.exe.

Now press F5 to refresh. Now if you right click on the Start Button

you will find a new addition to the Pop Up Menu called Notepad.

Clicking on it will launch Notepad.

We can not only add but also remove the existing options in this

pop up box.

To delete the Find option, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Find

Delete Find. DO NOT delete Open else you will not be able to open

any folders in the Start Menu like Programs, Accessories etc.

BMP Thumbnail As Icon

You can actually change the default BMP icon to a thumbnail version

of the actual BMP file. To do this simply go to

HKCU\Paint.Picture\Default. In the right pane change the value of

default to %1. Please note however that this will slow down the

display rate in explorer if there are too many BMP thumbnails to

display. You can use other icons too, simply enter the pathname.To

restore back to the normal change the vale of default back to:

C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1.

Customizing the Shortcut Arrow

All shortcuts have a tiny black arrow attached to it's icon to

distinguish from normal files. This arrow can sometimes be pretty

annoying and as a Hacker should know how to change each and

everything, here goes another trick. Launch the Registry Editor and

go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons.

Now, on the right pane is a list of icons ( we found out that on some

systems, Windows 98 especially, the right pane is blank. Don't

worry, just add the value as required ). Find the value 29. If it isn't

there, just add it. The value of this string should be

C:\Windows\system\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means the 30th icon in

shell32.dll - the first one begins with 0 ). Now, we need blank icon

to do this. Just create one with white as the whole icon. Go here to

learn how to create an icon. Once done just change the value to

C:\xxx.ico, 0 where "xxx" is the full path of the icon file and "0" is

the icon in it.

Now for some fun. If the blank icon is a bit boring, change it again.

You will find that under shell32.dll there is a gear icon, a shared

folder ( the hand ) and much more. Experiment for yourself!

Use Perl to Get List or Services Running on your NT box

Use the following Perl Script to get a list of Services running on your

NT system

--------------script.pl-----------------

#!c:\per\bin\perl.exe

use Win32::Service;

my ($key, %service, %status, $part);

Win32::Service::GetServices(' ',\%services);

foreach $key (sort keys %services) {

print "Print Name\t: $key, $services{$key}\n";

Win32::Service::GetStatus( ' ',$services{$key};

\%status);

foreach $part (keys %status) {

print "\t$part : $status{$part}\n" if($part eq "CurrentState");

}

}