email - Retrieve Hotmail password with Google Chrome

06
2014-04
  • Mark Miller

    I have a Hotmail account that I have used since the 1990s. Recently I forgot my password after being asked to change it. Google Chrome still logs in to my Hotmail account automatically on my laptop, but not on other computers. In the past if I forgot my password I had a text message sent to my cell phone. However, I also lost that cell phone.

    The only other option Hotmail offers me is to fill in a questionnaire with detailed information about recent messages and folders I have created. However, no matter how much information I provide, the automated response refuses to provide the password.

    Recently I thought maybe Google Chrome would reveal the passwords it saves and would tell me what my Hotmail password is. However, when I go to: chrome://settings/passwords my Hotmail account is not listed (although various other passwords for various other sites are listed).

    Is there some way I can retrieve my Hotmail password from Google Chrome?

    Alternatively, is there some way I can obtain my Hotmail password from Microsoft by speaking to a live person?

    I can read every email sent and received, create folders, provide old passwords, and answer security questions. But none of that is good enough. I can even provide the phone number to which texts used to be sent before I lost the cell phone. However, I cannot change the password without knowing what the current password is.

    Thank you for any advice. I do not wish to lose the Hotmail account given that I have used it since perhaps 1998.

  • Answers
  • Matthew Williams

    Ok give this a try.

    Go to your login screen on Chrome where it shows the email and hidden password. Right click the password box and click "Inspect Element". On the highlighted line of code double click and change type="password" to type="text" and press enter.

    Should show you the password

  • seloh77

    If you can't get access to your account through the questionnaire your best bet is to call support, maybe they can help you further.

    When you have full control of your account again make sure to change your account settings and add a current phonenumber AND secondairy e-mail address, you might also want to think about password management software like keepass. (I know this doens't help you right now but I've learned to use it the hard way and never lost a password again.)

  • Mark Miller

    I had a phone number associated with the account. However, as explained in the original post, I lost that cell phone.

    Fortunately, that phone number was out of service this month. I had to purchase another cell phone and have that old phone number assigned to the new phone. Then I was able to have a security code sent to that new phone and I created a new Hotmail password.


  • Related Question

    Google Chrome Domain Authentication and Clear Text Passwords in the HTTP Header
  • ahsteele

    In an answer to Windows Authentication with Google Chrome it is indicated that Chrome does not yet support Auto NTLM Authentication which means that users authenticating to sites using Windows Authentication are prompted for a login. Which is annoying but not a problem. Where the problem resides is that the users password is then sent in clear text to the authenticating site.

    I whipped up a quick ASP.NET script that pulls the password out of the AUTH_PASSWORD in Request.ServerVariables collection. Both Safari and Opera prompt for user credentials but neither sends the password in clear text in the HTTP header. I find this especially odd since Chrome like Safari is based on WebKit.

    What is the difference between the way Chrome Authenticates in comparison to other browsers and why does it send the password to a site in this manner?


  • Related Answers
  • harrymc

    NTLM is currently being ported to Chrome. See this. Just wait for the next version.

  • bdonlan

    One possibility is that chrome may not support NTLM at all, and Chrome simply falls back to HTTP BASIC authentication. Can you obtain the exact headers in use with wireshark or similar?

  • grawity

    In reply to your comment on bdonlan's answer:

    I am guessing I won't be able to see the authentication because the site I am running against is using SSL.

    The burp proxy tool allows watching (and even modifying) HTTP requests and responses, and it can act as a HTTPS proxy too. (It may or may not work, depending on how Chrome uses HTTPS proxies.)

  • dlux

    From what I can tell via Wireshark, Chrome does support NTLM authentication. What it does not support is single sign-on by passing through your existing credentials.

    This is why the AUTH_PASSWORD field is empty.