Re: Toshiba notebooks BIOS password backdoor

[aleph1 () NATIONWIDE NET (Aleph One)]

On Fri, 15 May 1998, Rop Gonggrijp wrote:

> The dutch newspaper 'De Volkskrant' has reported about an individual named
> Stefan Arts that has a password that will unlock all Toshiba notebook
> computers that are locked with the BIOS password function. The password
> itself was not published. Mention was made that Toshiba Netherlands has been
> threatening to sue Arts if he exposed the password, saying that 'publication
> would serve no purpose'. This single password exists for service staff to
> help people that have forgotten their password and is known at Toshiba
> service centers and dealerships all over the world. The dutch police told
> Toshiba that they should ask him to 'name a price' when they were in contact
> with him, so that he could be arrested for blackmail/extortion...

Backdoor BIOS password are nothing new. They been discussed here back in
1996. In particular it was reported that Award BIOSes had the following
backdoor password: "Condo,", "AWARD_SW", "j332", and "589589". Someone
also postes a program that will reveal the backdoor passwords in AMI
BIOSes. You can find it at
http://www.netspace.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9611D&L=bugtraq&D=&H=&T=&O=&F=&P=300

The original message that started that thread is
http://www.netspace.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9611C&L=bugtraq&D=&H=&T=&O=&F=&P=2589

> Grtz,
>
> --
> Rop Gonggrijp <rop () itsx com>

Aleph One / aleph1 () dfw net
http://underground.org/
KeyID 1024/948FD6B5
Fingerprint EE C9 E8 AA CB AF 09 61  8C 39 EA 47 A8 6A B8 01