Find Any WiFi Password on a Windows Computer

Find Any WiFi Password on a Windows computer

By Strictly-Software

The title is a little misleading as it doesn't bring you back to the early 2000's and let you go driving around estates with a laptop, breaking into password encrypted WiFi routers. Not that you used to need to as in most estates your computer could pick up an unlocked router or three without a problem.

This is slightly different in it allows you to find ANY password that belongs to a router your PC/Laptop has been connected to in the past.

You may not like writing things down and have had a memory slip or you haven't used the router for so long the password escapes any looks for it.

First - Find out what you can access

This bit allows us to find out all the WiFi routers such as friends routers and gadgets like Chromecast that you have forgotten the password to.

Open your command prompt in administrator mode otherwise this won't work.

Once you have your command prompt up lets find out what WiFi spots we have connected to in the past or have access to. If you were around a friends one time and connected but forgot the password then you may need to use this to re-gain it if his WiFi router is in the list.

Type the following into the prompt: netsh wlan show profiles

It should then list all the routers you have had connections to from the computer you are on.

C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan show profiles 

User profiles
-------------
    All User Profile     : Chromecast1034
    All User Profile     : BTHub4-NX23
    All User Profile     : TALKTALK-3ERA24
    All User Profile     : virginmedia8817891
    All User Profile     : strictlywifi10x
    All User Profile     : strictly-ukhorse-air

Now we have a list of spots and we pick the one we need the password for. The command is pretty similar to the preceding one it just needs the routers name added to it and the term key=clear. If you don't add this to the end then you won't get to view the password in clear text.

netsh wlan show profile BTHub4-NX23 key=clear

This will give you detailed info on the router, whether it connects automatically, authentication mode e.g WPA2 and even details of your current cost and whether you are over the data limit set by your provider.

Lets try and find the password for the connection BTHub4-NX23

C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan show profile BTHub4-NX23 key=clear

Profile BTHub4-NX23 on interface WiFi:
=======================================================================

Applied: All User Profile

Profile information
-------------------
    Version                : 1
    Type                   : Wireless LAN
    Name                   : BTHub4-NX23
    Control options        :
        Connection mode    : Connect automatically
        Network broadcast  : Connect only if this network is broadcasting
        AutoSwitch         : Do not switch to other networks

Connectivity settings
---------------------
    Number of SSIDs        : 1
    SSID name              : "BTHub4-NX23"
    Network type           : Infrastructure
    Radio type             : [ Any Radio Type ]
    Vendor extension          : Not present

Security settings
-----------------
    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
    Cipher                 : CCMP
    Security key           : Present
    Key Content            : r85583569z

Cost settings
-------------
    Cost                   : Unrestricted
    Congested              : No
    Approaching Data Limit : No
    Over Data Limit        : No
    Roaming                : No
    Cost Source            : Default

As you can see from the Key Content section the password for this router is r85583569z.

Open the WiFi section on your desktop and connect by adding the key and it should connect. If not you have a problem.

So if you don't like writing passwords down or just want to use your mates WiFi without spending hours hunting down where he put his WiFi routers login details then this trick can come in handy.

By Strictly-Software


© 2017 Strictly-Software

Forgotten your SSH Password?

How to quickly recover your SSH password

If you are like me your memory sometimes fails you and like today I tried to login with SSH into my server with Putty and couldn't remember my password. After about five attempts of all the ones I could remember I decided to give up incase I blocked myself.

Luckily I had added my IP into AllowHosts so I wouldn't be blocked by the DenyHosts settings which contain a long long list of IP addresses who have tried hacking my server but it was obviously doing my head in.

I then thought of a quick way of recovering it.

I could access WebMin in Chrome easily as my password was auto-filled stored but in Firefox it wasn't which had the web developer toolbar. Therefore as copying passwords doesn't work I couldn't use the web developer toolbar to show the password with a single button click.

Therefore in Chrome with the auto-filled password for my https://domain.com:10000 login page I did the following.

• Hit F12 - this opens the developers console
• Choose the Console tab
• In the console write the necessary code to change the type of the input from "password" to "text"
• If the password doesn't have an ID like VirtualMin then you can just access the first password in the form e.g:

document.forms[0].pass.type = 'text';

And if my magic your password field will change into a text input and you can retrieve your password.

And if your in any doubt about why you should leave your computers locked when you are away from your desk then this should be a reminder to you!