Not really. If there is more than one administrator defined, then one administrator can reset another administrator's account. Of course that solution isn't perfect, resetting a password like that makes encrypted data inaccessible.
A better solution is for an administrator to create a Password Reset Disk which they can use to reset their password if they forget it. That approach works even if there is only one administrator. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/ServerHelp/4a9a74b7-eb52-4920-b251-02c7e851d837.mspx
Yes you can reset the builtin Administrator's password from another account with administrative privileges. I just tried it on a Virtual PC I have.
I think we are talking at cross purposes here. I accept that (for whatever reason) Microsoft will not help a customer recover a password they have lost. That's water under the bridge.
What I'm suggesting is that, for the benefit of future victims of this not uncommon problem, Microsoft change Visual SourceSafe to add some suitable mechanism to allow customers to fix the problem themselves.
This isn't the place to design such a mechanism but just to be clear...
One example of such a mechanism would be a VSS Password Reset Disk. I don't much care for that as a solution - it still leaves you in the position that if the disk is lost or damaged you lose the ability to reset your password. Still, it would be better than what we have today (nothing that's supported).
Another example of a suitable mechanism would be to allow a Windows user called Admin to reset the Admin password without first supplying the old password so long as certain criteria were met, for example
- 'Use network name for automatic logon' is set
- Admin was logged on at the server console
- Admin was a member of the local administrator's group
- Admin was the owner of the um.dat file
The second criterion ensures some level of physical security (assuming the site keeps their SourceSafe server in an area with access controls). The third criterion ensures that not just any user called 'Admin' can be used and increases the liklihood that more attention than usual is payed to who has access to the account. The fourth criterion ensures that a Security event log entry is written (when Admin takes ownership) providing some level of auditability. VSS could also write a suitable Security Event Log Entry
The third and fourth criteria also mean that the Admin user had enough privilege and access to be able to perform the um.dat hex edit hack anyway.
