MailPsw
Virtually all e-mail clients use password caching because it's very inconvenient
to enter a password every time you get your mail. This means it is very easy to find out a
password. The universal solution lies in POP3 server imitation. E-mail client will tell
the password during the transaction (MailPsw can do this). Yet, for many e-mail clients
such complications are not necessary. Internet Mail & News from Internet Explorer
program set version 3.0 and earlier stores the password in the registry. The password is
encrypted, but as for the encryption algorithm… Popular Eudorra uses the same algorithm;
the only difference is that passwords are stored in its .ini file instead of registry. MS
Outlook is a bit more complex. I was too lazy to explore it thoroughly, yet it looks like
the key is randomly generated and is stored in a PWL file. Netscape Navigator up till
version 3.x also used to store its password in the registry, using an apparently weak
encryption algorithm. Netscape Communicator seems to be the only program which uses a
decent method of password storage. Nevertheless, if a user used to use (forgive this pun)
earlier versions of the Netscape browser, Netscape Communicator will not delete passwords
left by its predecessor from the registry in the process of upgrading, leaving them easily
accessible. But even Netscape Communicator's passwords can be easily obtained with the aid
of a program which imitates a POP3 server.
How to use MailPsw ?
Run it. To see cached passwords for MS Internet Mail & News v3.0 and/or Eudorra
just press button 'View passwords for Eudorra & MS Internet Mail'.
To use POP3 email server emulator:
1. Quit your email program
2. Locate file named 'hosts' in your Windows directory
3. Using any text editor add follow line into that file
127.0.0.1 xxx
(replace xxx with POP3 server name for which you want to grab a password).
4. Start MailPsw and press 'Run email server emulator'
5. Start your email program
6. Check for new mail
7. See results
8. don't forget to remove from hosts file line that was added at step #3
POP3 email server emulator will NOT work if your email program was configured to use
resolved IP address for POP3 server (i.e. something like 194.58.127.11 instead of
someserver.com). In this case try to reconfigure email program to use IP address
127.0.0.1 as POP3 server (it is possible for some email clients, but not for Netscape
Communicator v4.x).