VSS admin password reset

Feb 26

ErinTechnology No Comments

MS Visual SourceSafe is the worst version control software that I have ever used. I won’t ever use it again if I had my way with it. I won’t even list down why you should avoid VSS, I will just refer you to this link. 🙂

Now what would you do if you have to exhumate (yeah, I chose that word since any data versioned in VSS should be considered dead) data from an old VSS backup and nobody remembers their password? Thankfully VSS security sucks (for various reasons) and some helpful VSS users have provided a way to easily reset any VSS user password which is apparently the way Microsoft support will tell you. I am mirroring it here because I see a lot of exhumation on my future and I can’t risk losing this gem of a resource.

NOTE: Even if VSS security sucks, using this information without prior authorization can get you in trouble. Use it for non-destructive and legal purposes only.

Dont forget to make a backup!

[tip starts here]
Edit the um.dat file to remove the Admin password from offset 80 the bytes are (all numbers are hex)

0:80  55 55 bc 7f 41 64 6d 69 6e 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0:90  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0:a0  00 00 00 00 90 6e 00 00 a8 01 00 00 00 00 00 00

This information is at YOUR OWN RISK.

As the um.dat is ordered alphabetically by login. If you have a user name that appears aplhabetically before “Admin” they will appear at offset 80. And Admin will appear further down the file. morgancrr’s tip is useful to know – as it will help you locate the Admin password on your own particular set up.

[tip ends here]

ciao!

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