6

Is there a way to log into Windows using a USB stick? (on Windows XP/7)

I have student workers whom I would like to give admin rights for maintenance, but I would like to refrain from giving out a password for various reasons (students joining and leaving the staff, students writing them down and losing them, etc). This would also allow me to keep track of who and when a student worker is allowed admin access.

0

5 Answers 5

1

There's a "hacking" dongle out there that acts as a HID keyboard and can be programmed to act on events and send keypresses to a computer...

...but I fail to see how you get accountability or track-keeping with a physical artefact without some added personal knowledge like a password or a pin number or if it's truly one-use only. The stick could easily be lent, borrowed, copied and so on unless you personally watched over it and if the password was shared there's no accountability and no incentive to keep it private for any possessor.

If there's central user administration I'd just go with creating and handing out personal accounts for those who need them, separate administrative accounts as well (or grant the regular accounts the permissions needed when needed). You could then enable and disable them at will and with some decent-level speech about personal accountability they won't be shared as often as a stick.

1
  • Right, I was going to look into copy protection once I found a method that actually worked.
    – Force Flow
    Jul 8, 2010 at 18:20
4

You want a Windows PKI USB Token. You can assign a passworded certificate to it, then control through Cert-to-User mapping. When they're done, you revoke the cert (or only make it valid in the first place for a week). If they lose it, you have to replace the Token, but no big deal. Still make them a separate User-Admin account (usually their standard login, with "-admin" appended) and give that account admin access.

If you need more details on how to set this up let me know, and I'll post more.

2
  • Sounds interesting, but the cost is certainly much higher than I was willing to spend :(
    – Force Flow
    Jul 8, 2010 at 18:20
  • 2
    Yeah, that typically happens. Features + Convenience = Cost
    – Chris S
    Jul 9, 2010 at 12:28
2

If you have a little budget for it, have a look at Yubikey (http://yubico.com/products/yubikey/). It's a very cheap device designed specifically for this purpose. They worked very well for my needs.

2
  • +1 Something with a one-time-password seems like a great idea in this case Jul 8, 2010 at 0:04
  • Interesting device, I'm not sure I'd consider $25 that much cheaper compared to PKI Tokens.
    – Chris S
    Jul 9, 2010 at 12:36
1

use konboot, you can login to windows without a password, just need to know the username. tested on all os's from 2000 and up to 7 / all server revisions also. This also works if you have novell client installed, however i have never tested with Active Directory.

you just need to take a usb stick, install grub4dos to make in bootable and then download the floppy image of konboot, mix it all together and voila, you can login into and windows workstation/server and even linux (but i will not give a tutorial on that)

peace out!

3
  • I'll have to take a look and give this a whirl :)
    – Force Flow
    Jul 8, 2010 at 18:21
  • This does not work on AD, it'll get you into the workstation; but you will have no rights on the network.
    – Chris S
    Jul 9, 2010 at 12:29
  • Rats, this won't work then. Network access would be needed.
    – Force Flow
    Jul 16, 2010 at 14:55
0

You can transform an USB Key into a smart card using EIDVirtual, then use active directory smart card login or EIDAuthenticate on stand alone computer.

(http://www.mysmartlogon.com/products/eidvirtual.html)

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .