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I am an AD admin. I changed my colleague's password. He is also a user in active directory. Is there any way to see his old password? I need to set his old password back. I don't want him to know that I have reset his password .

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    Why? Doesn't he know it? Isn't the new one working? What's wrong? – Reaces Jan 6 '15 at 15:57
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about acting in an unprofessional manner not appropriate for the standards of this site. – TheCleaner Jan 6 '15 at 16:07
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    Admit your mistake and move on. You're about to compromise his privacy by obtaining his password... Stop. – Reaces Jan 6 '15 at 16:07
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    I dont want him to know tgat i have reset his password Well, no shit. Something to think about next time before you reset someone's password - or for that matter, when you're doing anything else you know you shouldn't be doing. Time to man up and accept the consequences of your actions. – HopelessN00b Jan 6 '15 at 16:15
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    As you don't seem to understand what we're saying, let me try again. You made a mistake, you're clearly a junior employee. That's fine, so am I. Your employer and colleagues have all been junior employees. They will understand. However they won't trust you if you go behind their backs and try to steal another users password. Because that's what you're asking us to do, how to obtain another users password without his consent. Stop and think about what you're doing. Go tell your colleague what you did. – Reaces Jan 6 '15 at 17:17
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No.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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    Greatest...answer...in history! – MonkeyZeus Jan 6 '15 at 17:33
  • If he is only wants to revert to the old password this isn't completely true. A system state backup will have the a good copy of the AD including the database. You could use your recent backup and do an authoritative restore. Sure it would be like killing a cockroach with a nuke, but it could be done. – Zoredache Jan 7 '15 at 1:11
  • @Zoredache It's also possible for AD passwords to be stored encrypted rather than hashed (GPO option), and if there are old cached credentials on a machine somewhere, you could conceivably find them and crack them. Maybe. If the stars align. – Wesley Jan 7 '15 at 2:25
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    Theoretically, given a backup, you could extract the old hashed password and overwrite the current one with it ... but it's still a crazy question. – SamB Jan 11 '15 at 3:02

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