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Find 'clear' PPP modem passwords in System Profiler Network
I forgot my modem (STN, non xDSL) PPP password. The connection was still running, but should a crash happen...

This password should have been recorded in my Keychain. Unfortunately, it wasn't (possibly because I installed Tiger as a Jaguar update). No matter. If the password wasn't in the Keychain, it was elsewhere! SO I looked in a lot of places, and tried tons of tricks, to find my password.

There are always things you never think of and places you never visit. Looking for something else, I opened System Profiler. I was browsing the window when I noticed the Network branch and the Configuration entry within it. I clicked on it, and all my configurations were there. When I clicked on my modem connection entry, I saw a magic word: password, followed by hex numbers.

After a short hex decode (each four hex digits match one character), my password was mine again. I was pleased. Now I do consider this a security concern, but I'm glad it was there.

[robg adds: I can't confirm this one, as I don't have a configured modem...]
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Find 'clear' PPP modem passwords in System Profiler | 3 comments | Create New Account
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Find 'clear' PPP modem passwords in System Profiler
Authored by: ccgaudette on Jan 25, '06 11:39:43AM
Yes. I can basically confirm this one. I don't have my computer's modem in the active Network information, but the password can be seen in the Locations sub-group. Find a location that does have the modem configured for PPP. It is a string called "Authorization Password". It contains values that decode directly to the dial-up account password.

Security-wise, this is a consern because I beleive that you can poll System Profiler data using AppleScript. On the otherhand Mac OS X would not be the first OS to store dial-up passwords so clearly. I am remembering modem log files that needed no decoding to see the password.

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Find 'clear' PPP modem passwords in System Profiler
Authored by: dkulp on Jan 25, '06 08:00:19PM
Perfect timing! I was just searching for this. Here's the obvious hex decoder in perl:

$x = '<hex password from System Profiler>'
$x =~ s/ //g;
$x =~ s/(....)/chr(hex($1))/ge;
print $x


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Find 'clear' PPP modem passwords in System Profiler
Authored by: tidjj on Feb 06, '06 04:03:19PM
An Applescript to reveal the password from the code:

set hex to "123456789abcdef"
set p to text returned of (display dialog "Paste Code without brackets:" default answer "")
set pp to ""
set pw to ""
repeat with i from 1 to length of p
   if not (character i of p = " ") then set pp to pp & text i of p
end repeat
repeat with i from 1 to (length of pp) by 4
   set c to offset of (character i of pp) in hex
   set c to c * 16 + (offset of (character (i + 1) of pp) in hex)
   set c to c * 16 + (offset of (character (i + 2) of pp) in hex)
   set c to c * 16 + (offset of (character (i + 3) of pp) in hex)
   set pw to pw & (ASCII character c)
end repeat
display dialog pw

This hole is a real security concern because lots of IAP/ISPs use the same password for both the connection itself and the POP account (and sometimes online account management). One may gain access to private data thru webmail or lock your account and more...

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