Number 226 - March 2002

Saving Password Problem
by Carl Tenning, Tacoma Open Group for Microcomputers
I recently picked up the Badtrans.B@mm virus, which is a keystroke logging worm for the purpose of detecting passwords. Norton Antivirus successfully detected and quarantined the virus file, HUMOR.MP3.zlq. However, since you cannot be sure that it has not sent someone your passwords, it was recommended that you change your passwords.     After changing various login passwords, i .e. msn, hotmail, geocities, talkcity, angelfire, etc. I found that subsequent automatic logins would fail because of wrong password. Apparently Windows was still using the old password because manually entering the new password did successfully log in to these accounts. I used GOOGLE to search for "saving password" and found the following tip at: http://lonestar.texas.net/helpdesk/pwsave.html     The tip is to delete any *.pwl files in the c:\windows directory. Apparently this forces Windows to regenerate the password list. Instead of just blindly deleting these files, I used "Start, Find" to search for *.pwl. I found two files with the .pwl extension and	found that the most recent was generated that same session. I deleted the older version and rebooted. After that, automatic logins used the correct password.     Here are some other another links that discusses this problem:     http://help. csolve.net/ dialup.html     www.zdnet.com/ pcmag/ pctech/ content/ 16/21/ os1621.001.html     www.citylinq.com/ support/ 95pswd.htm     www3.sympatico.ca/ ian.hay/ sufaq/ dunpassword.html     Microsoft Knowledgebase article 0148925 also discusses this problem. It recommends renaming the extension of the .pwl file to .xxx rather than deleting it. Link to: http://support.microsoft.com/ default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q148925
Number 226 - March 2002