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This is a weird question to ask, but where are the passwords saved? I mean they must be somewhere for comparing every time. So where are system and network passwords saved?

1 Answer 1

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System account passwords can be found in /etc/shadow. You need root privileges to read the file. The passwords are hashed with SHA. Additional information can be found on the corresponding manpages.

Network or wifi passwords can be found in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. There is a file for each connection with its configuration, also you need root privileges to read them but the password isn't encrypted.

Passwords handled by Gnome's password store, the Gnome Keyring, are stored in ~/.gnome2/keyrings. The files are not human readable and should be accessed with Gnome's default password manager Seahorse. On older systems (before precise/12.04) wifi passwords were stored in Gnome Keyring and PINs for Mobile Broadband are still stored there.

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  • Okay...any means to decrypt them? And any info about network passwords?? And i would also like to know about windows.. XP/7/8
    – Nirmik
    May 19, 2012 at 12:48
  • i'v update my answer about connection passwords . about decrypt i think it's hard but if you have privileges you can replace the old hash with new one you know its password.
    – eyadof
    May 19, 2012 at 12:51
  • Oh yeah that can be done but then how to create a sha encryption of a password?
    – Nirmik
    May 19, 2012 at 12:54
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    Want to add that other passwords that can be managed through the default password manager (seahorse I believe) are stored in ~/.gnome2
    – LiveWireBT
    May 19, 2012 at 13:01
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    For windows there is ophcrack.sourceforge.net that might give you the right direction.
    – LiveWireBT
    May 19, 2012 at 13:04

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