More Mac Password Hacking (Snow Leopard)
About 4 years ago I wrote a post on Mac password hacking in OS X. The versions of OS X I wrote about was current at that time but, obviously, there have been a few updates since then. Here’s a method I recently read about that works on the Snow Leopard version of OS X:
- Startup the computer while hold down “Command-S” until you hear the startup sound. This boots the computer into single user mode. As with the previous steps I outlined you’ll see text scrolling through the window before you get a command prompt.
- If you don’t know the user names on the machine you can type the following to pull up a list of user folders that most often correspond to all the users on that machine:
ls /Users - At the command prompt type:
/sbin/fsck -fy [Enter]
/sbin/mount -uw / [Enter]
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist [Enter]
dscl . -passwd /Users/[username] [password] [Enter](Replace [username] with the username you want to change and [password] with new password you’d like to use for this user account. In both cases leave out the brackets I’ve used to enclose the placeholders.)
- After entering the new password, type:
reboot [Enter] - At the login window, enter the username with the new password.
Tada!
Related Posts
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Hi. I have/had snow leopard and then my system was stolen from me. I recovered it, but now I can’t get in. This is awful. Any way you could do a personal tutorial? I’m desperate b
Sarah Milder
Sarah -
If what’s in this post and it’s comments don’t work for you then try my other post specific to Snow Leopard (http://nothing.golddave.com/?p=1834). Beyond that I have nothing else to offer at this time.
- Dave
Hello guys, I tried this and it didn’t work, saying to me that “Socket not found”… Can anyone explain what does that mean? And another question.. Do you have to be administrator to do such process? Thanks in advance, Greetings, Chris.
I really appreciate this article, however I am afraid if I reboot my computer then I will lose all my data, which cannot happen as I am in the middle of writing essays. What’s the chance if I reboot that I will lose all my data?
burn an iso of ubuntu or yellow dog linux for mac. boot to the dvd or cd and setup an install with dual boot so you can still try to fix the mac o/s later. after linux reboots you can access your mac data from linux.
i cannot get past the Comand-s part, my laptop just goes direclty into the log in screen again and coman-s seems to do nothing, i have a macbook air. what can i do man! D:
what happens after i type /System?LibraryDeamons/com.apple.DirctoryServices.plist and it says : Permission denied
[...] 1 Minute Ago There was also this method that I haven't tried yet: http://nothing.golddave.com/2010/12/…-snow-leopard/ If that doesn't work, do you think installing Lion would be the best bet? I had someone tell me [...]
My laptop returns the message: “launch_msg(): Socket is not connected” after I input the “launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist” command. If I attempt the dscl command after I get that message, it returns an error saying I need to run the following command:
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist
dscl localonly
My laptop returns the message: “launch_msg(): Socket is not connected” after I input the “launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist” command. If I attempt the dscl command after I get that message, it returns an error saying I need to run the following command:
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist
dscl localonly
Any advice?
i ve lost my macbook pro, i am affraid if they can hack into my admin login but i’ve created a mounted disk in the main drive, ive created a password for that mounted disk, can they hack into my created mounted disk even i with the encrypted password. Please reply. Thanks so much.