DOCUMENT:Q199323  06-AUG-2002  [winnt]
TITLE   :How to Automate Specific Passwords for Existing or New Accounts
PRODUCT :Microsoft Windows NT
PROD/VER:winnt:4.0
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 
 - Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition 
 - Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes how to assign specific passwords to existing accounts or
create new accounts and assign specific passwords to them (for example, during
domain migration, bulk addition of new users, Novell NetWare migration, and so
on).

If user and password lists already exist, you can use the FOR command to automate
the process. For example

   For /f "tokens=1,2 delims=," %b in (<FileName>) do net user %b %c

where the file reads:

   ,user1,password1
   ,user2,password2

If you have a list of users in a text file but do not have a password list, the
following QBASIC code automates the password creation process:

   DECLARE FUNCTION IsDuplicated% (mPwd AS STRING)
   DECLARE FUNCTION CreatePassword$ (mNumChar AS INTEGER)

   '-- Declare variables you are using
   Dim gNumCreated As Integer  '-- Keeps track of number of passwords created
   Dim NumPass As Integer      '-- Number of passwords you want

   Dim NumChar As Integer
   Dim Tempstr As String

   '-- Program starts

   Randomize Timer

   Cls
   Print "Password Creater"
   Print "----------------"
   Print
   INPUT "How many characters per password? ", NumChar
   INPUT "How many passwords do you want to generate? ", NumPass
   Print
   INPUT "Press Y to continue, or any key to quit: ", Ans$

   '-- Generation begins
   If UCase$(Ans$) = "Y" Then

       '-- Create a temp file to hold passwords for comparison
       '-- Note that this file is not readable using a text editor
       Open "~temp.txt" For Random As #1 Len = NumChar + 2

       '-- Begin creating passwords up to specified numbers
       gNumCreated = 1
       While gNumCreated <= NumPass
           Tempstr = CreatePassword$(NumChar)
           '-- Continue fetching new password until not a duplicate
           While IsDuplicated(Tempstr) = 1
               Tempstr = CreatePassword$(NumChar)
           Wend
           '-- If this point is reached, Tempstr contains a unique password.
           '-- Assign it to the Password array
           Put #1, gNumCreated, Tempstr
           LOCATE 10, 1: Print "Number of Password Created: "; gNumCreated
           gNumCreated = gNumCreated + 1
       Wend

       '-- Transfer passwords stored in ~temp.txt to Password.txt 
       '-- (which is more readable)
       '-- ******* This is the final output file you want *******
       Open "password.txt" For Output As #2
       For x = 1 To NumPass
           Get #1, x, s$
           Print #2, s$
       Next x
       '-- Close all open files
       Close

       '-- Notify the user that the program is done
       Beep
       Print
       Print
       Print "Done...."
       Print
       Print "The passwords are stored in the Password.txt file in the current folder."

   End If

   Function CreatePassword$(mNumChar As Integer)

       '-- Generate characters up to mNumChar
       s$ = ""
       For x% = 1 To mNumChar

           '-- Randomly generate ASCII values
           i% = Int(Rnd(1) * 48) + 74

           '-- Exclude certain range of characters (like {!@# and etc.)
           While (i% >= 58 And i% <= 64) Or (i% >= 91 And i% <= 96)
               i% = Int(Rnd(1) * 48) + 74
           Wend
           s$ = s$ + Chr$(i%)
       Next x%

       '-- Return the created password
       CreatePassword = s$

   End Function

   Function IsDuplicated%(mPwd As String)
       '-- Loop through all the passwords already created so far
       '-- (loop until gNumCreated - 1)
       For x = 1 To gNumCreated - 1
           '-- If mPwd happens to be equal to one of the passwords
           '-- then exit out of this function and return 1
           '-- to indicate that it is a duplicate
           Get #1, x, s$
           If mPwd = s$ Then
               IsDuplicated = 1
               Exit Function
           End If
       Next x
       '-- If this point is reached mPwd is unique, so return 0
       '-- to indicate that it is a valid password
       IsDuplicated = 0

   End Function

This creates a list of randomly generated unique passwords, and places them all
in a Password.txt file in the current folder.

Within an existing domain, you can extract the domain user list using the "NET
USER /<Domain><FileName>" command, where <Domain> is the name
of your domain, and <FileName> is the name of the file.

This lists all users in the domain and exports them to the file you specified.
You can then merge the user list and the password list with any spreadsheet
program. After the merged file exists, you can use the FOR command to to
automate the process of assigning specific passwords to existing accounts.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTSEntSearch kbWinNTSEnt400 kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400 kbNTTermServ400 kbNTTermServSearch
Version           : winnt:4.0
Issue type        : kbinfo

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