About the Project

Post date: Dec 7, 2013 3:07:39 PM

I wrote "Cerberus Alpha" under a pen name, so that means that if you're here then I either linked you to this page or you stumbled upon it. I'm writing this project up as a sort of "blog" style, although I'm actually already in version 1.4 of the project. The project is still not done, but I have made a lot of progress. Hopefully, each post will contain information about a particular challenge and how I overcame it.

Following is a cut-out of the about page that the program will print if you enter 'a' at the main menu:

┌─────────────────────── ABOUT CERBERUS ALPHA ─────────────────────────────┐ │ Cerberus Alpha │ │ version 1.1 - Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013 8:31 PM local time │ │ Created by ThreeNine --> threenine @ gmail . com │ │ Feel free to write me an email, but it may take me a while to reply │ │ Put Cerberus Alpha in the subject! │ │ I hope you enjoy and only use it for good not evil! ;) │ ├─────────────────────── WHAT DOES IT DO? ─────────────────────────────────┤ │ Cerberus Alpha is a script designed to launch from a linux OS and access │ │ Windows files systems, then replace utilman.exe with cmd.exe, and back it up.│ │ There is also a mode to replace sethc.exe with cmd.exe │ ├─────────────────────── WHY DOES IT DO THIS? ─────────────────────────────┤ │ Replacing utilman with cmd is a way to exploit a security vulnerability in │ │ Windows, allowing us to get a command prompt by pressing win+U (or shift x 5)│ ├─────────────────────── WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS? ───────────────────────────┤ │ I had a friend who forgot her password to a Windows 8 Laptop. │ │ There are utilities to change passwords on older systems, but the only way I │ │ could find to fix her password was to use this exploit! │ │ This is what inspired me to write this script and create this CD │ ├─────────────────────── ABOUT THE CD ─────────────────────────────────────┤ │ I also created a Boot CD to run this program from, to make it run almost │ │ automatically. The CD runs a version of Tiny Core Linux that I specifically │ │ modified. You have the option to boot into the standard OS during startup │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

There is another 'hidden' function in the program, see if you can find it!