Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: Toshiba NoteBooks BIOS Password Backdoor - Password Cracker
From: nick () VIRUS-L DEMON CO UK (Nick FitzGerald)
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 12:38:33 +1200
If you can boot, it is possible to get a password with the same checksum and enter the Bios. The checksum value is stored in Cmos. If you create a recovery disk, this value is stored after the word "KEY" in the 1 first sector (sector 0 is boot sector).
Maybe you missed Oscar's point? His description explains how to break *power-on* security on a Tosh notebook. If you can boot it from a floppy, all bets are off... It appears Toshiba has been practising "security through obscurity" as in the past we were always told that the only way to recover from a lost/corrupted power-on password was to send the machine to Toshiba (*not* a Toshiba authorized service centre, to a genuine Toshiba service centre). Seems they were not splitting the cases and doing some extra magical internal hardware twiddling after all, but simply sitting on a stock of "magic disks". Of course, if anyone was "depending" on power-on passwords to protect their Tosh (or any other) notebook, they were slightly delusional to start with, as described in the usual dicta regarding attackers having physical access to a machine...
To crack Toshiba password (Award, AMI and some others models), you can try CmosPwd (Dos/Win9x, WinNT, Linux versions) avaible at http://www.esiea.fr/public_html/Christophe.GRENIER/
*If* you have boot access, this is a very handy little util! (If you don't have boot access, a screw-driver and a good memory for mainboard layouts and jumper positions helps...) -- Nick FitzGerald Computer Virus Consulting Ltd. Ph/FAX: +64 3 3529854
Current thread:
- Re: Toshiba NoteBooks BIOS Password Backdoor - Password Cracker - Follow The Instructions. Doctor Muerte (Feb 23)
- Re: Toshiba NoteBooks BIOS Password Backdoor - Password Cracker Christophe GRENIER (Feb 25)
- Re: Toshiba NoteBooks BIOS Password Backdoor - Password Cracker Nick FitzGerald (Feb 25)
- Apache 1.3.12 Ryan Russell (Feb 25)
- Re: Toshiba NoteBooks BIOS Password Backdoor - Password Cracker Christophe GRENIER (Feb 25)