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Many administrators of large networks find it necessary to grant Local Administrator rights to developers who are installing applications on a server, in order for them to properly configure or maintain the box. In this situation, the developer has the ability to determine the local administrator's password via LC3 or a similar password-cracking program. The problem lies in the fact that many network administrators have a bad habit of using the same password for the Local Administrator as that of the Domain Administrator, allowing the devious developer to easily determine the Domain Administrator's password. The lesson here: Never use the Domain Administrator's password as the Local Administrator's password on an NT server!
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Michael S. Mimoso, Editorial DirectorThis was first published in February 2002