eeep.
Hindu,
You really have no clue how to go about hacking distributed systems do you? You don't need access to /etc/passwd to brute force an account. Infact, it would just as hard even if you did. Unless you really think you can write a script or app to crack 3DES. As it is, 90% of cryptanalysts can't crack /bin/crypt, which is nothing more than a digitized enigma machine. (Do a search through the archives for my username and key words like cryptography for more details, or just ask Happy Scrappy)
In this case Ryker, your only choice is a brute force attempt at cracking her password. I would write a quick perl script (you can try java if you like) that runs through a collective hacker dictionary.
This will take a long time and would probably not be worth the time or effort.
Yahoo does in fact, log failed attempts for their e-mail accounts. But they do not lock accounts when they see it, they simply log the attempt. Why bother doing anything else? They realize that the bulk of their users have opened an account with them simply as a decoy inbox to divert spam to. Although of course this is in violation of their EULA.
This in fact, would not even be considered illegal since she is trying to get into her legitimate account.
There are of course several other ways, but I doubt you will find someone willing to root yahoo.com. I would suggest your friend simply get a new account. But she can petition yahoo to get into her inbox, I have heard it is difficult though.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
