System Account Manager
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The Security Account Manager (SAM) is a database stored as a registry file in Windows NT and Windows 2000. It stores users' passwords in a hashed format. Since a hash function is one-way, this provides some measure of security for the storage of the passwords.
In an attempt to enhance the security of the SAM database against offline software cracking, Microsoft introduced the SYSKEY utility in Windows NT 4.0.
- This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.