Discussion
Which hash algorithm is used by Windows (pre-Windows 10) to store user password hashes ?
Answer: B
Windows stores user password hashes as the NT hash.
The Security Account Manager (SAM) database stores local account passwords as NT hashes (often called NTLM hashes): the MD4 digest of the password in UTF-16 little-endian, with no salt. Older systems also stored the weaker LM hash, which is now disabled by default. Because the NT hash is unsalted and fast to compute, extracted SAM hashes can be cracked or used directly in pass-the-hash attacks, which makes them a frequent forensic and security topic.
SHA-1 is not the SAM's password hash, and bcrypt and PBKDF2 are slow, salted password-hashing schemes that the SAM does not use for account passwords.
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