How are cached Windows credentials stored on the local machine?

Posted by MDMarra on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by MDMarra
Published on 2012-12-03T15:32:05Z Indexed on 2012/12/03 17:07 UTC
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How are cached Active Directory domain credentials stored on a Windows client? Are they stored in the local SAM database, thus making them susceptible to the same rainbow table attacks that local user accounts are susceptible to, or are they stored differently? Note, that I do realize that they are salted and hashed, so as not to be stored in plain-text, but are they hashed in the same way as local accounts and are they stored in the same location?

I realize that at a minimum they're be susceptible to a brute force attack, but that's a much better situation than being vulnerable to rainbow tables in the event of a stolen machine.

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