Asterisk Logger: Reveal/recover/monitor password behind asterisks (***)

Asterisk Logger v1.04 - Reveal/recover/monitor lost password behind asterisks (***)
Copyright (c) 2003 - 2008 Nir Sofer

Related Utilities

BulletsPassView - Alternative to Asterisk Logger which also works under Windows Vista/7/2008.
Mail PassView - Recover passwords stored in Email clients (Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, and so on).
MessenPass - Recover the passwords of 'Instant Messenger' applications.
IE PassView - Recover the passwords of Internet Explorer.
Dialupass - Recover VPN/RAS/Dialup passwords.
Network Password Recovery - Recover Windows XP/Vista network passwords (Credentials file)

Description

Many applications, like CuteFTP, CoffeeCup Free FTP, VNC, IncrediMail, Outlook Express, and others, allows you to type a password for using it in the application. The typed password is not displayed on the screen, and instead of the real password, you see a sequence of asterisk ('****') characters. This utility can reveal the passwords stored behind the asterisks in standard password text-boxes.
Asterisk Logger is a successor of AsterWin utility. It reveals the asterisk passwords in the same way as AsterWin utility, but it has some advantages over the previous utility:

You don't have to press a button in order to reveal the asterisk passwords. Whenever a new window containing a password box is opened, Asterisk Logger automatically reveals the password inside the password-box, and add a record to passwords list in the main window of Asterisk Logger.
Asterisk Logger displays additional information about the revealed password: The date/time that the password was revealed, the name of the application that contains the revealed password box, and the executable file of the application.
Asterisk Logger allows you the save the passwords to HTML file and to 3 types of text files.

Notice: This utility is obsolete and it doesn't work on Windows 7/2008/Vista. You can try the successor of this tool - BulletsPassView, which also works properly on Windows 7/2008/Vista.

Versions History

Version 1.04:
- Fixed bug: The main window lost the focus when the user switched to another application and then returned back to Asterisk Logger.
Version 1.03:
- The configuration is now saved to a file, instead of the Registry.
Version 1.02:
- 'Copy Selected Items' now copies the items as tab-delimited line.
- New option: Copy the password to the clipboard.
- Added support for Windows XP style.
Version 1.01 - Add support for translation to other languages.
Versions 1.00 - First Release.

System Requirements

This utility works properly under Windows 9x, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. If you work on Windows NT, you should download the 'psapi.dll' and place it in your system32 directory. If you don't download this file under Windows NT, the Asterisk Logger utility will properly reveal the asterisk passwords, but it won't display the information about the application that contains the passwords. (Application and Executable File fields)

If you want to reveal a password stored behind asterisks in a Pocket PC device, you may try the PocketAsterisk and RemotePocketAsterisk utilities.

Known Limitations

This utility works fine with most password text-boxes, but there are some applications that don't store the password behind the asterisks, in order to increase their security. In such cases, Asterisk Logger will not be able to reveal the password.
The following applications and OS components don't store the password behind the asterisks:

Mozilla/Firefix
Dialup and network passwords in Windows 2000
Windows NT/2000/XP user management tools.

Asterisk Logger also cannot reveal the passwords in Internet Explorer Web pages, Because they are stored in different way than in other applications. if you want to reveal the passwords behind the asterisks in Internet Explorer, you can download the AsterWin IE utility.

Known Problems

False Alert Problems: Some Antivirus programs detect Asterisk Logger utility as infected with Trojan/Virus. Click here to read more about false alerts in Antivirus programs

License

This utility is released as freeware. You are allowed to freely distribute this utility via floppy disk, CD-ROM, Internet, or in any other way, as long as you don't charge anything for this. If you distribute this utility, you must include all files in the distribution package, without any modification !

Disclaimer

The software is provided "AS IS" without any warranty, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages due to loss of data or any other reason.

Using Asterisk Logger

except for Windows NT, this utility doesn't require any installation process or additional DLLs. Just copy to executable to any folder you want, and run it.
Under Windows NT, you can still use this utility without any additional DLLs, but the information about the application that contains the asterisk password won't be displayed. In order to display the application information under Windows NT, you have to download psapi.dll and put it in your system32 directory. If this file is already exist on your system, you don't need to overwrite it.

In order to reveal the passwords inside asterisk text-boxes, follow the instructions below:

Run the Asterisk Logger utility. The main window will appear, with no items in it.
Open the windows that contains the asterisk text-box you want to reveal. The password will be instantly revealed inside the password box, and in addition, a record containing the password and other information will be added to the main window of Asterisk Logger utility.
After you reveal all the passwords you need, you can select the desired passwords in the main window of Asterisk Logger, and save them into text or HTML file.

The Asterisk Logger utility also provides 2 additional options for using in special cases:

Log Changes In Password Box: If this option is checked, Asterisk Logger automatically traces all changes in the revealed password boxes, and whenever it find a change in the password, it instantly add a new record to the passwords list, which contains the new modified password. This option can be useful for some applications, like CuteFTP. When you open to site manager of CuteFTP, the password of the current selected FTP item is revealed. In order to easily reveal the passwords of other items, check this option, and then move through all items that you want to get their password. Each time you move into a new item, the password will be added to the list in the main window of Asterisk Logger.
Log Duplicate Passwords: This option is available only if the previous option is checked. If this options is checked, a modified password will be added even if it's identical to one of the previous passwords of the same password-box.

Feedback

If you have any problem, suggestion, comment, or you found a bug in my utility, you can send a message to nirsofer@yahoo.com

Asterisk Logger is also available in other languages. In order to change the language of Asterisk Logger, download the appropriate language zip file, extract the 'astlog_lng.ini', and put it in the same folder that you Installed Asterisk Logger utility.

Language Translated By Date Version
Arabic Abo Rehaam 20/04/2011 1.04
Brazilian Portuguese Paulo Guzmán 30/06/2012 1.04
Bulgarian Plamen Penev 13/06/2005
Croatian Dominko Aždajić 13/03/2009
Czech Mikee. 28/06/2006
Dutch Jan Verheijen 26/07/2009 1.04
European Portuguese António PT 09/11/2008
Finnish Mikko Aaltonen 03/03/2007
French Jean-Michel Gillion 18/11/2006
Galician Xosé Antón Vicente Rodríguez 10/12/2004
German «Latino» auf WinTotal.de 11/03/2014 1.04
Greek Anastasios Monachos 14/08/2005
Hebrew peterg 06/04/2011
Hungarian Hevesi János 24/05/2008
Italian Giacomo Margarito 08/12/2005
Japanese X-WORKS 20/07/2005
Korean KIM JaeGeun 10/10/2005
Norwegian Espen D. 20/01/2006
Polish Szymon Ogrodnik 12/06/2005
Portuguese Ariano M. Daniel 03/08/2006
Romanian Jaff (Oprea Nicolae) 05/05/2012 1.04
Russian Rogowsky Alexander 17/12/2004
Simplified Chinese JEDI1029 01/07/2005
Slovak cassiuss 16/06/2005
Slovenian Jadran Rudec 28/11/2005
Spanish Ricardo A. Rivas 20/08/2005
Swedish Jimmy U. 09/01/2008
Swedish Leif Larsson 25/03/2009
Taiwanese Republic Of Taiwan 17/11/2005
Traditional Chinese wilson ko 28/11/2005
Thai Prasit Kaephukhieo 19/03/2008
Turkish HARUN ARI 14/05/2011 1.04
Ukrainian Sergiy Sekela 12/10/2006