Mom Needs Help with Teenager overriding Password

[SuperMom]

I MAY be wrong here, but doesn't a BIOS password simply lock one out of the system BIOS settings? I had tried that due to a bozo of a step-son who likes to use Facebook, Myspace etc. The PC still started just fine.

This thread makes me feel real insecure if passwords can be bypassed so easily!

(((SuperMom))) I know how you feel.

Two suggestions I've seen seem the best, TrueCrypt or a USB drive lock. Make two USB's in case one is misplaced. Is the girl adding or deleting programs, changing your settings or what exactly does she do you consider out of place?

Hi Britton!
Thank you for your suggestions! At this point I have just taken the network down. I mean if she can get pass the first screen no telling what else she can do. She is totally out of line as a parent and consumer it should be a law against this kind of stuff. I am looking into this whole BIOS thing sounds like it might work

 

[SuperMom]

Well, power cords are cheap or can be "borrowed" from other devices.

My first thought is to use a product like TrueCrypt:

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Main Features:

* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.

* Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.

* Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).

* Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

* Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.

* Encryption can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.


See:

TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

Maximum PC | How To: Encrypt Your Entire Hard Drive The Easy Way Using TrueCrypt

Regards,
GEWB

Thank you very much I will look into this Truecrypt. Lately the network is down and she cant get on. I am going to win this eventually

 

[SuperMom]

If the original poster could clarify for us what exactly sh's talking about: Win7 logon, internet passwords, what?

My daughter can by pass my password on the windows 7 screen when it first boost up. Trying to stop her by coming her asking the experts

 

[gregrocker]

Have you tried creating a stronger password? A strong password contains numbers and letters and is lengthy. For example: two remembered childhood phone numbers interspersed by the abbreviations of the last three states you've visited. It should be changed regularly.

Have you looked at Parental Controls in the Control Panel?

 

[SuperMom]

Have you tried creating a stronger password? A strong password contains numbers and letters and is lengthy. For example: two remembered childhood phone numbers interspersed by the abbreviations of the last three states you've visited. It should be changed regularly.

Have you looked at Parental Controls in the Control Panel?

Greggrocker-
Yes I have created an extremely difficult password as an administrator. This you tube video taught her how to override it. She has even gotten pass the Parental Controls. I try to change it every two weeks but I am so tired of doing it I just take the network down and she cant get on to that (at least not yet

 

[Alphamale]

How is she by passing this? Are you there when she does this? Is she a hacker?

Ytube video

 

[gregrocker]

Have you tried creating a stronger password? A strong password contains numbers and letters and is lengthy. For example: two remembered childhood phone numbers interspersed by the abbreviations of the last three states you've visited. It should be changed regularly.

Have you looked at Parental Controls in the Control Panel?

Greggrocker-
Yes I have created an extremely difficult password as an administrator. This you tube video taught her how to override it. She has even gotten pass the Parental Controls. I try to change it every two weeks but I am so tired of doing it I just take the network down and she cant get on to that (at least not yet

The only way I know that she can break your strong password is if she has put a keylogger on the machine. Do you have tight enough control over the installed programs to know that this hasn't been done?

Here are tips to detect a keylogger: http://www.adoko.com/keyloggers.html
http://www.tech-faq.com/how-to-remove-a-keylogger.html

Note that Spybot S&D is mentioned by all resources as a way to detect and block keyloggers: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

If you find the YouTube video which taught her to override your password then we can help you protect against whatever method is being used.

You can also consider clean reinstalling the OS slapping a strong password on the Admin account set up at install so she has no access except to a standard User account you set up later in Control Panel.
Take as much time as you want setting up the installation but the actual OS reinstall takes 20 minutes after which you'll be locked up tight so she can't get in to log or break your password. Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

 

[unifex]

The only way I know that she can break your strong password is if she has put a keylogger on the machine. Do you have tight enough control over the installed programs to know that this hasn't been done?

Well, we have rules at the Forum that prohibit discussion of such things and I personally am no expert, but ... if someone is knowledgeable and determined and has physical access to the computer in question, nothing can be done to stop them. No key-logger is necessary. It's a game of determination - you may try new tricks and hope that they give up, deciding that it's not worth their effort, but apart from that ... Let's be honest, all the advice about passwords and parental controls implicitly assumes that the daughter is a beginner as far as computers are concerned. Is that really so? No offense to the OP, but it certainly looks like her daughter knows more about computers than she does. So it's a losing battle she's fighting here.

This is clearly a parenting issue and the real solution lies outside of the realm of passwords and encrypting. I think the OP has to understand clearly what is it that she wants to achieve. What she wrote so far - and we know nothing else - she's trying to prevent her daughter from using the Internet. I don't think that can be done by setting a password, since she can always go to a friend, neighbor, or a library, making all these efforts futile.

 

[wilywombat]

Hi Supermum...are you reading all the posts and not just the ones you want? Please read my post #38 it explains how your daughter can BYPASS any password you set except the BIOS, but that can be reset by pulling the motherboard battery.

 

[allend66]

... I think the OP has to understand clearly what is it that she wants to achieve. What she wrote so far - and we know nothing else - she's trying to prevent her daughter from using the Internet...

Er, nope.. supermom's post (post #43) says the daughter logs on to her admin account on Win7 boot.

Encrypt the system truecrypt thus requiring a password way before the win7 logon screen appears.

 

[unifex]

... I think the OP has to understand clearly what is it that she wants to achieve. What she wrote so far - and we know nothing else - she's trying to prevent her daughter from using the Internet...

Er, nope.. supermom's post (post #43) says the daughter logs on to her admin account on Win7 boot.

Encrypt the system truecrypt thus requiring a password way before the win7 logon screen appears.

Well, later on she writes that she pulled the network and for now that's her solution.

Now, by saying "achieve" I don't mean any immediate goal such as prohibit the use of the internet or the home PC. The point is, why would the OP want that? To what purpose? Granted, this is a technical forum and she came with a technical question, but I still don't see how locking the home PC would prevent her daughter from using computers in general - will she also lock her daughter at home and not let her go to school?

I repeat - there is no 100% bulletproof security tool to completely lock up a PC. The only thing that can be achieved, is to set up security measures which would be above the daughters skill level. But if she's really determined, she could learn and eventually bypass that as well. Or if her goal is not some particular data on that very PC (and it looks like it's not, judging by the network-pulling solution), she can just go some place else.

That's why I think this is a parenting issue more than a technical issue. Prohibitive measures just drive children and parents further apart, which in my opinion is counterproductive. But I guess I will stop here.

 

[seekermeister]

This is an area that I have no experience with, but depending on the computer, the side panel may be lockable, and if one installs an intrusion switch, which disables the computer until reset, and a BIOS password is set, I suppose that it is possible for all of that to be defeated, but it would take a lot of determination to do.

 

[Britton30]

Off Topic:
I have to ask, unifex, what is OP?

 

[wilywombat]

Hi Britton, It stands for Original Poster...ie supermum.

 

[pdxireland]

Lock up the room the computer is in - use the door lock and add a serious pad lock or something?
fmg

 

[allend66]

Lock up the room the computer is in - use the door lock and add a serious pad lock or something?
fmg

Or cut her hands off. (joke! DON'T do this!)

 

[geeve420]

Hi Supermum...are you reading all the posts and not just the ones you want? Please read my post #38 it explains how your daughter can BYPASS any password you set except the BIOS, but that can be reset by pulling the motherboard battery.

This again! If she is at the PC there are many tools that are undetectible and require no keylogger. with out to much detail, I use these tools sometimes when repairing computers and they forget to tell me what the password is or I can't get a hold of the owner. Again as well, BIOS passwords on a desktop are easy to get around as well.

A serious talk/grounding (Beating! just kidding DO NOT beat her) would do more than trying to stop her with software. It sounds to me like she has a better idea of what she is doing than given credit for here

 

[Shootist]

Sorry I have to say this.
Someone in that house hold need to get straighten out. Whether that is the daughter or first the mom and dad has yet to be determined.

This is just totally ridiculous. And you expect your daughter to have any real moral judgement for the rest of her life when you can't even get her to obey some simple computer restrictions.
Has she stolen the car yet? That will be next as soon as you tell her she can't use it.

GET REAL. With yourself and your daughter before it is to late.

 

[gregrocker]

Mr. 420: For those of us who don't have the "special abilities" you have:

Please explain how a computer which is clean reinstalled, given a strong password during setup, then only allowed access via a Standard User account can be hacked to bypass the password without reinstalling again.

I am assuming a keylogger or other bypass has been installed which would not be there if a clean reinstall was done. But apparently there are other methods and it would be good to know what they are.

 

[FliGi7]

Mr. 420: For those of us who don't have the special abilities you have:

Please explain how a computer which is clean reinstalled, given a strong password during setup, then only allowed access via a Standard User account can be hacked to bypass the password.

NT Boot Disc. She has physical access.

At any rate, this doesn't sound like a problem where the fix lies in Seven Forums technical help. We've listed all the options possible to deter or prevent someone from logging in to a local machine. The rest of the answer lies in SuperMom.