Getting past the password screen?

[camardelle]

I have a buddy who owns his own business. He'd hired a kid to write apps using a mbp and saw limited success with it. Long story short, the kid is now gone, and he's got a really nice mbp that he'd like to use to play with video he takes on his bike. I'm on it now as a guest but I can't tell what other software he has on it, or what OS he is running, or amount of ram, etc. as we can't get past the password limitation.

As the owner, what are his options? Is there some way he can over ride this?

 

[Stetrain]

Are there any files that he needs off of the other user account? If not, you could just do a clean reinstall of the OS. Hold Cmd-R while booting and it should take you to the recovery partition.

 

[Weaselboy]

If is has Lion or Mountain Lion, do a command-r boot to Recovery HD. Then in the utilities menu start Terminal and type in resetpassword. Then pick the account you want to reset.

 

[camardelle]

Not sure if he has the recovery discs or not. Also, it will only let me on as a guest, and into safari. How do I find out which os he is running? It won't let me click on the apple in the upper left corner.

Thanks for everyone's help. I really appreciate it. Keep the ideas coming!

 

[Stetrain]

Not sure if he has the recovery discs or not. Also, it will only let me on as a guest, and into safari. How do I find out which os he is running? It won't let me click on the apple in the upper left corner.

Thanks for everyone's help. I really appreciate it. Keep the ideas coming!

It depends on the year and OS but you may not need recovery disks at all. The newer models come with recovery partitions on the hard drive and will even download the OS via the internet if something happens to the recovery partition. Just hold command-R at startup to see if it will recovery without a disk.

 

[Giuly]

Return it to the rightful owner, or call the kid up and ask him for the password.

 

[Weaselboy]

Not sure if he has the recovery discs or not. Also, it will only let me on as a guest, and into safari. How do I find out which os he is running? It won't let me click on the apple in the upper left corner.

Thanks for everyone's help. I really appreciate it. Keep the ideas coming!

If you have Lion or Mountain Lion, you won't need any disks. There is a recovery partition on the hard drive. Just hold command-r when booting and it will go the recovery screen. If it does not... then you you don't have Lion or Mountain Lion and will need an install DVD to reset the PW.

 

[Koodauw]

If is has Lion or Mountain Lion, do a command-r boot to Recovery HD. Then in the utilities menu start Terminal and type in resetpassword. Then pick the account you want to reset.

is it really this easy? What is the point of password then?

 

[Weaselboy]

is it really this easy? What is the point of password then?

Yes, it is that easy. You can block this access by setting a firmware (EFI) password as described in this article. I agree it is a little too easy to reset. At least before Lion and Mountain Lion you had to use the install DVD to do this.

Here is what the screen looks like in Recovery HD on Mountain Lion and Lion.

First thing I do with a new Mac is set a EFI password. Word of warning though, don't forget it because the only way to reset it it to take it to an Apple Store and for a reset after you prove you own the machine.

If you turn on Filevault2 full disk encryption it also blocks this.

 

[camardelle]

Return it to the rightful owner, or call the kid up and ask him for the password.

It's not stolen, and in the posession of its rightful owner is knows less than I do about Apple computers and I'm trying to help him regain his property.

 

[Qaanol]

I agree it is a little too easy to reset. At least before Lion and Mountain Lion you had to use the install DVD to do this.

Not entirely true. You could boot to single user mode, delete the applesetupdone file, and reboot to create a new admin account, which can then change the other passwords.

Firmware passwords could even be bypassed by removing a stick of RAM.

 

[camardelle]

Update

He got the password from the guy so I think he's got that part sorted out. He keeps getting keychain password messages. The keychain can be gotten to via settings, correct?

 

[Weaselboy]

Not entirely true. You could boot to single user mode, delete the applesetupdone file, and reboot to create a new admin account, which can then change the other passwords.

Yep... that would work also.

Firmware passwords could even be bypassed by removing a stick of RAM.

That was true, but starting with 2011 models the EFI PW is no longer in PRAM, so changing the hardware will not reset the EFI PW. The EFI PW is now stored in a separate controller.

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He got the password from the guy so I think he's got that part sorted out. He keeps getting keychain password messages. The keychain can be gotten to via settings, correct?

Just reset the keychain as described here. Of course any passwords that were in the old keychain will be gone.