Security account Manager - wikipedia Security account Manager hide This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve it to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details. ( March 2012 ) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2014 ) The Security Account Manager ( SAM ), often Security Accounts Manager, is a database file in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 that stores users ' passwords. It can be used to authenticate local and remote users. Beginning with Windows 2000 SP4, Active Directory authenticates remote users. SAM uses cryptographic measures to prevent unauthenticated users accessing the system. The user passwords are stored in a hashed format in a registry hive either as a LM hash or as a NTLM hash. This file can be found in % SystemRoot % / system32 / config / SAM and is mounted on HKLM / SAM. In an attempt to improve the security of the SAM database against offline software cracking, Microsoft introduced the SYSKEY function in Windows NT 4.0. When SYSKEY is enabled, the on - disk copy of the SAM file is partially encrypted, so that the password hash values for all local accounts stored in the SAM are encrypted with a key ( usually also referred to as the `` SYSKEY '' ). It can be enabled by running the syskey program. Contents 1 Cryptanalysis 1.1 Removing LM hash 1.2 Related attacks 2 See also 3 References Cryptanalysis Since a hash function is one - way, this provides some measure of security for the storage of the passwords. In the case of online attacks, it is not possible to simply copy the SAM file to another location. The SAM file can not be moved or copied while Windows is running, since the Windows kernel obtains and keeps an exclusive filesystem lock on the SAM file, and will not release that lock until the operating system has shut down or a `` Blue Screen of Death '' exception has been thrown. However, the in - memory copy of the contents of the SAM can be dumped using various techniques ( including pwdump ), making the password hashes available for offline brute - force attack. Removing LM hash LM hash is a compromised protocol and has been replaced by NTLM hash. Most versions of Windows can be configured to disable the creation and storage of valid LM hashes when the user changes their password. Windows Vista and later versions of Windows disable LM hash by default. Note : enabling this setting does not immediately clear the LM hash values from the SAM, but rather enables an additional check during password change operations that will instead store a `` dummy '' value in the location in the SAM database where the LM hash is otherwise stored. ( This dummy value has no relationship to the user 's password - it is the same value used for all user accounts. ) Related attacks In Windows NT 3.51, NT 4.0 and 2000, an attack was devised to bypass the local authentication system. If the SAM file is deleted from the hard drive ( e.g. mounting the Windows OS volume into an alternate operating system ), the attacker could log in as any account with no password. This flaw was corrected with Windows XP, which shows an error message and shuts down the computer. However, there exist software utilities, which, by the aforementioned methodology of using either an emulated virtual drive, or boot disk ( usually Unix / Linux, or another copy of Windows like Windows Preinstallation Environment ) based environment to mount the local drive housing the active NTFS partition, and using programmed software routines and function calls from within assigned memory stacks to isolate the SAM file from the Windows NT system installation directory structure ( default : % SystemRoot % / system32 / config / SAM ) and, depending on the particular software utility being used, removes the password hashes stored for user accounts in their entirety, or in some cases, modify the user account passwords directly from this environment. This software has both a highly pragmatic and beneficial use as a password clearing or account recovering utility for individuals who have lost or forgotten their Windows account passwords, as well as a possible use as a malicious software security bypassing utility. Essentially granting a user with enough ability, experience, and familiarity with both the cracking utility software and the security routines of the Windows NT kernel ( as well as offline and immediate local access to the target computer ) the capability to entirely bypass or remove the windows account passwords from a potential target computer. Only recently, Microsoft released a utility called LockSmith, which is part of MSDart. MSDart is not freely available to end - users, however. See also chntpw Password file References Jump up ^ `` Security Account Manager ( SAM ) ''. TechNet. Microsoft. Retrieved 11 April 2014. Jump up ^ `` How to use the SysKey utility to secure the Windows Security Account Manager database ''. Support. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved 12 April 2014. Jump up ^ An example of offline NT password attack utility : http://cdslow.org.ru/en/ntpwedit/index.html This article is based on material taken from the Free On - line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the `` relicensing '' terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later. hide Microsoft Windows components Management tools App Installer Command Prompt Control Panel Applets Device Manager Disk Cleanup Disk Defragmenter Driver Verifier Event Viewer IExpress Management Console Netsh Performance Monitor Recovery Console Resource Monitor Settings Sysprep System Configuration System File Checker System Information System Policy Editor System Restore Task Manager Windows Error Reporting Windows Ink Windows Installer PowerShell Windows Update Windows Insider WinRE WMI Apps Alarms & Clock Calculator Calendar Camera Character Map Cortana Edge Fax and Scan Feedback Hub File Manager Get Help Groove Music Magnifier Mail Messaging Maps Media Player Movies & TV Mobility Center Money News Narrator Notepad OneDrive OneNote Paint Paint 3D People Phone Companion Photos Quick Assist Snipping Tool Speech Recognition Skype Sports Sticky Notes View 3D Store Tips Voice Recorder Wallet Weather Windows To Go Windows Story Remix WordPad Xbox Shell Action Center Aero AutoPlay AutoRun ClearType Explorer Search Indexing Service IFilter Saved search Namespace Special folder Start menu Taskbar Task View Windows Spotlight Windows XP visual styles Services Service Control Manager BITS CLFS Multimedia Class Scheduler Shadow Copy Task Scheduler Error Reporting Wireless Zero Configuration File systems CDFS DFS exFAT IFS FAT NTFS Hard link Junction point Mount Point Reparse point Symbolic link TxF EFS ReFS UDF Server Domains Active Directory DNS Group Policy Roaming user profiles Folder redirection Distributed Transaction Coordinator MSMQ Windows Media Services Rights Management Services IIS Remote Desktop Services WSUS SharePoint Network Access Protection PWS DFS Replication Remote Differential Compression Print Services for UNIX Remote Installation Services Windows Deployment Services System Resource Manager Hyper - V Server Core Architecture Architecture of Windows NT Startup process NT Vista CSRSS Desktop Window Manager Portable Executable EXE DLL Enhanced Write Filter Graphics Device Interface hal. dll I / O request packet Imaging Format Kernel Transaction Manager Library files Logical Disk Manager LSASS MinWin NTLDR Ntoskrnl. exe Object Manager Open XML Paper Specification Registry Resource Protection Security Account Manager Server Message Block Shadow Copy SMSS System Idle Process USER WHEA Win32 console Winlogon WinUSB Security Security and Maintenance AppLocker BitLocker Credential Guard Data Execution Prevention Family Safety Kernel Patch Protection Mandatory Integrity Control Protected Media Path User Account Control User Interface Privilege Isolation Windows Defender Windows Firewall Compatibility COMMAND.COM Virtual DOS machine Windows on Windows WoW64 Windows Subsystem for Linux API Active Scripting WSH VBScript JScript COM ActiveX ActiveX Document COM Structured storage DCOM OLE OLE Automation Transaction Server DirectX. 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Mahjong Minesweeper Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Security_Account_Manager&oldid=855683738 '' Categories : Microsoft Windows security technology Access control software Hidden categories : Wikipedia articles that are too technical from March 2012 All articles that are too technical Articles needing expert attention from March 2012 All articles needing expert attention Articles needing additional references from September 2014 All articles needing additional references Articles with multiple maintenance issues Talk Search Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia עברית Русский Edit links This page was last edited on 20 August 2018, at 03 : 00 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: where is sam file stored in windows 7
Answer: %SystemRoot%/system32/config/SAM