Just think about it for a moment: a high-speed offline attack on the computer’s NTLM database can break a password to an online account containing sensitive personal information. This in turn enables the attacker to brute-force the hashed password and gain access to the entire content of the user’s Microsoft Account complete with pictures and documents they store in their OneDrive account, Skype conversations, browsing history, all passwords kept by the Edge browser and a lot more ( Breaking into Microsoft Account: It’s No Google, But Getting Close). The hashed Microsoft Account password is then cached on the local computer to facilitate offline sign-ins. The first Microsoft Account sign-in requires an active Internet connection as the account credentials are sent to Microsoft for authentication. The Microsoft Account credentials can be used to sign-in to Windows to any computer that runs Windows 8, 10, or Windows 11. Microsoft continued pushing these online accounts in subsequent Windows updates, up to the point that certain Windows editions can no longer be installed with a local account. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft introduced a new way to sign-in by using the online credentials to the user’s Microsoft Account. A local (or managed, which is another story) Windows account was the only way to authenticate in Windows 7 and earlier versions. Traditionally, Windows users used to sign-in to their computers with a password. What has been changed compared to Windows 10, how these changes affect forensic extraction and analysis, and to what extent can one overcome the TPM-based protection? Read along to find out! Windows 11 “passwordless” accounts Windows 11 introduces increased account protection, passwordless sign-in and hardware-based security.
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