12:57 65,536 SAM <-some system secrets included They’re kept in a special, and supposedly secure, folder under the Windows directory called C:\Windows\System32\config, as you see here: These hive files include a trio called SAM, SECURITY and SYSTEM, which between them include secret data including passwords and security tokens that regular users aren’t supposed to be able to access. The moniker HiveNightmare comes from the fact that Windows stores its registry data in a small number of proprietary database files, known in Microsoft jargon as hives or hive files.
…here’s another bug, disclosed by Microsoft on, that could expose critical secrets from the Windows registry.ĭenoted CVE-2021-36934, this one has variously been nicknamed HiveNightmare and SeriousSAM. As if one Windows Nightmare dogging all our printers were not enough…
