I have reviewed Kon Boot about a year ago and later on attempted to install it into USB flash drive using UNetbootin for convenience. During that time Kon Boot v1.0 was not made to support many types BIOS and also booting from USB which explains why it did not work for some of you.
Kon Boot has been recently updated to version 1.1 and it contains a lot of improvements over the version 1.0. It has been recoded from scratch to support booting from USB using the custom Kon Boot USB Loader Install Utility. It can now support both 32 and 64bit of Windows and also fixed bugs to work on the latest Windows 7. Kon Boot 1.1 internally still supports Linux, but it is not commercially supported due to the fact that there is way too many distros. If you have not heard of Kon Boot, basically it is a software which you boot up the computer with and allows you to log in to any user without knowing the password. Kon Boot works by hooking the BIOS and make changes to the Windows kernel temporarily to allow a user bypass the step of Windows authentication.
I personally don’t think that Kon Boot is an ultimate hacking tool that can be used to prank people or hack computers. Firstly, you have to be in-front of the computer and secondly, you must have access to BIOS to change the boot priority. There is no way to do it remotely. In my line of work, I had to deal with hundreds of computers everyday that are used by computer newbies. Many times I am faced with the annoyance of being asked to troubleshoot a computer but the user account is password protected. Kon Boot allows me to log in to the Windows computer and perform troubleshooting tasks without resetting or knowing the actual user account password.
Kon Boot is also capable of performing privilege escalation. For example, you can boot up the computer with Kon Boot, log in as Guest, copy cmd.exe to a different name and run it. You now have System privileges. You can then make use of “net user” command to add a new user, reset administrator password and etc FROM A GUEST ACCOUNT!
Unfortunately Kon Boot 1.1 is no longer free. The personal license cost $15.99 and it gives you free updates and support for a period of 6 months. You can still continue using Kon Boot 1.1 without restrictions even if you do not renew. As for Commercial license, it cost $75.99 for a year support and updates, allowing you to use on company or business environment. The commercial license can be transferred to any member in a registered business entity.
Kryptos Logic is very generous to offer 2 promotions to Raymond.cc readers and they are:
1: Everyone can get a 20% discount by using the following discount coupon:RAYCCREADER20
2. 30 Kon Boot personal license for free. Leave a comment and make sure you are a subscriber to be in the draw. Winners will be chosen and announced tomorrow.
I have been informed that a trial version of Kon Boot 1.1 will be made available in Kryptos Logic’s website. It will be a free 32bit version without Windows server support, essentially a much cleaner version of 1.0 but I couldn’t find the download link. I am not sure if Team Kryptos Logic has scrapped the idea of the trial version or there are some delays. Let’s wait for their response.
30 winners has been selected and will be receiving an email from me shortly on how to obtain the full Kon Boot v1.1.
