8/20/2011

ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The

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ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The and of Creating Obscure Passwords

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As some Microsoft Operating System geeks know, you can type many more characters than are on a standard keyboard by using the ALT+NUMPAD combination technique. For example, by holding down the ALT key, typing 234 on the number pad, then releasing ALT gives you the character. I'm writing this article mostly because when I search around for information on the topic of ALT+Number key combos I find pages that are lacking in details. Most of the pages I found are coming from the angle of using ALT+NUMPAD combinations as shortcuts for typing in non-English languages, but I have another use for them. Using ALT+NUMPAD can make for some very ugly passwords to crack. These odd characters have two major advantages over normal keystrokes: 1. They are unlikely to be in someone's dictionary or brute force list. Try brute forcing a password like "ace of s" or "I am the and the ". 2. Some hardware key loggers will not log these odd characters. Your mileage may vary on this as some key loggers can, so don't rely on it to keep you 100% safe. I'll cover the 2nd point more in an upcoming article. Using ALT+NUMPAD to type odd characters into your password also has a few disadvantages. 1. The way they are described in this article only works in Microsoft Operating Systems (DOS, Windows 9x, Vista, XP, 2000), and there may be some variation amongst the different versions. If you know of a good way to do the same thing in Linux please email me. 2. Not all applications will let you use these odd characters. For testing I tried the password "" (ALT+234 and ALT+0255) on a Windows XP local account, and on the IP.Boards at BinRev.com and it worked fine, but not all application will let you use these sorts of characters in your password. Microsoft has the following to say on the subject of ALT+NUM key codes:

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From:http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/glossary.mspx Alt+Numpad: A method of entering characters by typing in the character's decimal code with the Numeric Pad keys (Num Lock turned on). In Windows: Alt+<xxx>, where xxx is the decimal value of a code point, generates an OEM-encoded character. Alt+<0xxx>, where xxx is the decimal value of a code point, generates a Windows-encoded character. Alt+<+>+<xxxx>, where xxxx is the hexadecimal Unicode code point, generates a Unicodeencoded (UTF-16) character. Shortly I'll explain explain the first two methods further. The 3rd is more problematic to work

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Shortly I'll explain explain the first two methods further. The 3rd is more problematic to work with. First, you may have to edit your registry and add a the REG_SZ value "HKEY_Current_User/Control Panel/Input Method/EnableHexNumpad", then set it to "1". Also, depending on where you are trying to type the character the application may interpret your hexadecimal Fs as attempts to bring down the file menu. Since method three is so problematic I'll focus on the first two methods. First, make sure you are using the number pad and not the top roll number keys, only the number pad works for this. Second, make sure NUM LOCK is on. It does not have to be on in all cases for these key combos to work, but it helps by keeping the number pad from being misinterpreted. The chart below shows the relevant key codes to get various symbols. The table on the left shows the OEM Extended ASCII character set (AKA: IBM PC Extended Character Set; Extended ASCII; High ASCII; 437 U.S. English). True ASCII is only 7 bit, so the range is 0 to 127. IBM extended it to 8 bits and added more characters. To type these characters you merely have to hold down an ALT key, type the numeric value of the character, then release the ALT key.

ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The

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The table on the right shows the ANSI character set (AKA: Window's ANSI/ISO Latin-1/ANSI Extended ASCII, though technically they are not exactly the same thing.). To use the ANSI character set you do the same thing as the OEM set, but you preface the number with an extra zero. Notice that the first 127 should be the same in both sets, though values 0-31 may not be viewable in all cases. I've been in "character encoding hell" just trying to get this article on my site in a readable format. I'm only covering the first 256 characters of both sets in my chart, in some cases you can go higher but it depends on the application you are typing in. For example, ALT+257 gives me in Wordpad, but in Notepad it loops back around the character set and gives me (257-256=1 which is in the OEM set) . If you want to know what key code will bring up a particular character in a certain Windows font run Windows Character Map (charmap.exe) and look in the bottom right corner to find out. I hope this information is useful to some of you, I'll be referring back to it when I start to write my hardware key logger reviews. Check out the links at the bottom of this page for further information on the topic. IBM (AKA: OEM) / PC Extended ASCII Window's ANSI/ISO Latin-1/ANSI Extended ASCII ALT+00 ALT+01 ALT+02 ALT+03 ALT+04 ALT+05 ALT+06 ALT+07 ALT+08 ALT+09 ALT+010 ALT+011 ALT+012 ALT+013 ALT+014 ALT+015 ALT+016 ALT+017 ALT+018 ALT+019 ALT+020 ALT+021 ALT+022 ALT+023 ALT+024 ALT+025 ALT+026 ALT+027 ALT+028 ALT+029 ALT+0128 ALT+0129 ALT+0130 ALT+0131 ALT+0132 ALT+0133 ALT+0134 ALT+0135 ALT+0136 ALT+0137 ALT+0138 ALT+0139 ALT+0140 ALT+0141 ALT+0142 ALT+0143 ALT+0144 ALT+0145 ALT+0146 ALT+0147 ALT+0148 ALT+0149 ALT+0150 ALT+0151 ALT+0152 ALT+0153 ALT+0154

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ALT+0 ALT+1 ALT+2 ALT+3 ALT+4 ALT+5 ALT+6 ALT+7 ALT+8 ALT+9 ALT+10 ALT+11 ALT+12 T+13 ALT+14 ALT+15 ALT+16 ALT+17 ALT+18 ALT+19 ALT+20 ALT+21 ALT+22 ALT+23 ALT+24 ALT+25 ALT+26 ALT+27 ALT+28 ALT+29

ALT+128 ALT+129 ALT+130 ALT+131 ALT+132 ALT+133 ALT+134 ALT+135 ALT+136 ALT+137 ALT+138 ALT+139 ALT+140 ALT+141 ALT+142 ALT+143 ALT+144 ALT+145 ALT+146 ALT+147 ALT+148 ALT+149 ALT+150 ALT+151 ALT+152 ALT+153 ALT+154

' " "

ALT+155 ALT+156 ALT+157

ALT+0155 ALT+0156 ALT+0157

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ALT+30 ALT+31 ALT+32 ALT+33 ALT+34 ALT+35 ALT+36 ALT+37 ALT+38 ALT+39 ALT+40 ALT+41 ALT+42 ALT+43 ALT+44 ALT+45 ALT+46 ALT+47 ALT+48 ALT+49 ALT+50 ALT+51 ALT+52 ALT+53 ALT+54 ALT+55 ALT+56 ALT+57 ALT+58 ALT+59 ALT+60 ALT+61 ALT+62 ALT+63 ALT+64 ALT+65 ALT+66 ALT+67 ALT+68 ALT+69 ALT+70 ALT+71 ALT+72 ALT+73 ALT+74 ALT+75 ALT+76 ALT+77 ALT+78 ALT+79 ALT+80 ALT+81 ALT+82 ALT+83 ALT+84 ALT+85 ALT+86 ALT+87 ALT+88 ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X

ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The

ALT+158 ALT+159 ALT+160 ALT+161 ALT+162 ALT+163 ALT+164 ALT+165 ALT+166 ALT+167 ALT+168 ALT+169 ALT+170 ALT+171 ALT+172 ALT+173 ALT+174 ALT+175 ALT+176 ALT+177 ALT+178 ALT+179 ALT+180 ALT+181 ALT+182 ALT+183 ALT+184 ALT+185 ALT+030 ALT+031 ALT+032 ALT+033 ALT+034 ALT+035 ALT+036 ALT+037 ALT+038 ALT+039 ALT+040 ALT+041 ALT+042 ALT+043 ALT+044 ALT+045 ALT+046 ALT+047 ALT+048 ALT+049 ALT+050 ALT+051 ALT+052 ALT+053 ALT+054 ALT+055 ALT+056 ALT+057 ALT+058 ALT+059 ALT+060 ALT+061 ALT+062 ALT+063 ALT+064 ALT+066 ALT+067 ALT+068 ALT+069 ALT+070 ALT+071 ALT+072 ALT+073 ALT+074 ALT+075 ALT+076 ALT+077 ALT+078 ALT+079 ALT+080 ALT+081 ALT+082 ALT+083 ALT+084 ALT+085 ALT+086 ALT+0158 ALT+0159 ALT+0160 ALT+0161 ALT+0162 ALT+0163 ALT+0164 ALT+0165 ALT+0166 ALT+0167 ALT+0168 ALT+0169 ALT+0170 ALT+0171 ALT+0172 ALT+0173 ALT+0174 ALT+0175 ALT+0176 ALT+0177 ALT+0178 ALT+0179 ALT+0180 ALT+0181 ALT+0182 ALT+0183 ALT+0184 ALT+0185 ALT+0186 ALT+0187 ALT+0188 ALT+0189 ALT+0190 ALT+0191 ALT+0192 ALT+0194 ALT+0195 ALT+0196 ALT+0197 ALT+0198 ALT+0199 ALT+0200 ALT+0201 ALT+0202 ALT+0203 ALT+0204 ALT+0205 ALT+0206 ALT+0207 ALT+0208 ALT+0209 ALT+0210 ALT+0211 ALT+0212 ALT+0213 ALT+0214

! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V

ALT+186 ALT+187 ALT+188 ALT+189 ALT+190 ALT+191 ALT+192

ALT+193 ALT+194 ALT+195 ALT+196 ALT+197 ALT+198 ALT+199 ALT+200 ALT+201 ALT+202 ALT+203 ALT+215 ALT+216 ALT+204 ALT+205 ALT+206 ALT+207 ALT+208 ALT+209 ALT+210 ALT+211 ALT+212 ALT+213 ALT+214

ALT+065 A

ALT+0193

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ALT+087 W ALT+088 X

ALT+0215 ALT+0216

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ALT+88 ALT+89 ALT+90 ALT+91 ALT+92 ALT+93 ALT+94 ALT+95 ALT+96 ALT+97 ALT+98 ALT+99 ALT+100 X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d

ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The

ALT+216 ALT+217 ALT+218 ALT+219 ALT+220 ALT+221 ALT+222 ALT+223 ALT+224 ALT+225 ALT+226 ALT+227 ALT+228 ALT+088 ALT+089 ALT+090 ALT+091 ALT+092 ALT+093 ALT+094 ALT+095 ALT+096 ALT+097 ALT+098 ALT+099 ALT+0100 X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d ALT+0216 ALT+0217 ALT+0218 ALT+0219 ALT+0220 ALT+0221 ALT+0222 ALT+0223 ALT+0224 ALT+0225 ALT+0226 ALT+0227 ALT+0228

ALT+101 e ALT+102 f ALT+103 g ALT+104 ALT+105 ALT+106 ALT+107 ALT+108 ALT+109 ALT+110 ALT+111 ALT+112 ALT+113 ALT+114 ALT+115 ALT+116 ALT+117 ALT+118 ALT+119 ALT+120 ALT+121 ALT+122 ALT+123 ALT+124 ALT+125 ALT+126 ALT+127 h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~

ALT+229 ALT+230 ALT+231 ALT+232 ALT+233 ALT+234 ALT+235 ALT+236 ALT+237 ALT+238 ALT+239 ALT+240 ALT+241 ALT+242 ALT+243 ALT+244 ALT+245 ALT+246 ALT+247 ALT+248 ALT+249 ALT+250 ALT+251 ALT+252 ALT+253 ALT+254 ALT+255

ALT+0101 e ALT+0102 f ALT+0103 g ALT+0104 ALT+0105 ALT+0106 ALT+0107 ALT+0108 ALT+0109 ALT+0110 ALT+0111 ALT+0112 ALT+0113 ALT+0114 ALT+0115 ALT+0116 ALT+0117 ALT+0118 ALT+0119 ALT+0120 ALT+0121 ALT+0122 ALT+0123 ALT+0124 ALT+0125 ALT+0126 ALT+0127 h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~

ALT+0229 ALT+0230 ALT+0231 ALT+0232 ALT+0233 ALT+0234 ALT+0235 ALT+0236 ALT+0237 ALT+0238 ALT+0239 ALT+0240 ALT+0241 ALT+0242 ALT+0243 ALT+0244 ALT+0245 ALT+0246 ALT+0247 ALT+0248 ALT+0249 ALT+0250 ALT+0251 ALT+0252 ALT+0253 ALT+0254 ALT+0255

Links: How to enter Unicode characters in Microsoft Windows http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/enter_unicode.htm ASCII and Unicode and other character encodings http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~nixon/links/asciiUnicode.html Microsoft Character sets http://www.microsoft.com/typography/unicode/cs.htm Wikipedia Article on Windows Alt Keycodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Alt_Keycodes 21

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ALT+NUMPAD ASCII Key Combos: The

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