- Software Description
- Ongoing Research Project
- Additional Resources
Like any reasonably developed system, HDD and BIOS systems on laptops/notebooks need enormous protection. Systems that are using password generators in order to protect their security are using different algorithms. Algorithms can vary based on their difficulty level. Current generation laptops require good password generators in order to make their systems as safe as possible.
Majority of all laptops are using master passwords (which are unique in each laptop) in order to protect their systems. In order to penetrate the BIOS system one should find a way to disable BIOS passwords. Sometimes it can be very important for the laptop users to know the master passwords of their laptops. However the algorithms to figure out the password are not available to every user.
When a laptop is locked with password, a checksum of that password is stored in FlashROM - this is a chip on the mainboard of the device which also contains the BIOS code and other settings, e.g. memory timings. For most brands, this checksum is displayed after entering an invalid password for the third time. The dramatic 'System Disabled' message is just scare tactics: when you remove all power from the laptop and reboot it, it will work just as before. From such a checksum (also called "hash"), valid passwords can be found by means of brute-forcing. The bypass mechanisms of other vendors work by showing a number to the user from which a master password can be derived. This password is usually a sequence of numbers generated randomly.
This software generates and calculates the Master Passwords of HDD and BIOS systems of ACER, Dell and Sony VAIO laptops according to their license numbers. The program takes the license numbers of those laptops(which are unique for every laptop) as an input and gives themaster codes of HDD and BIOS as an output. The algorithm was figured out by multiple testing and collecting data from different Internet sources.
This software has been written by Rafayel Mkrtchyan. To try the beta version of the application you can download Password Recovert Tool 1.0.exe file from this repo. To read about the algorithms that different companies used for protecting their Master Passwords download Description.pdf file. I started researching the mechanics of BIOS and HDD password in current generation laptops in 2012. My goal was to create a set of master password generators to disable Basic Input /Output System (BIOS) passwords. After understanging the general algorithm for generating Master Passwords I tried to test them from collected data from different Internet sources.
Generating Master Passwords of different laptops is a constantly developing research field. I originally started my research after reading Dogbert's blog about Master Passwords of HDD and BIOS systems(look at the "Technical Doc" section). Some groups even suggest for paid services for cracking those passwords(you can find one website if you click on "Tech Support" section). However my goal was to make this field of research more popular and through open-source development make widely advanced functional tools. For further suggestions and comments you can contact me at: rafamian at berkeley.edu. Special thanks to Junyu Wang, Parth Mehrotra, Alex Kumamoto for their feedbacks and suggestions.
| [Technical Doc] web6 | [Tech Support] web7 | [Project Readme] web8 | [Contributing] web9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| [![i1] web2] web6 | [![i2] web3] web7 | [![i3] web4] web8 | [![i4] web5] web9 |
You are welcome to contribute to this research project. Look at existing code to get a good feel for the patterns we use. Please do create a new issue on GitHub if you think you've found a bug though! If you have a more deeply-rooted problem with how the program is built or some of the stylistic decisions made in the code, it's best to create an issue before putting the effort into a pull request. The same goes for new features - it might be best to check the project's direction, existing pull requests, and currently open and closed issues first. Here's some examples of things you might want to make a pull request for:
- New fixes,
- New tests,
- Bugfixes,
- Inefficient blocks of code.
- BIOS password and locked hard disk recovery - http://www.pwcrack.com/bios.shtml
- Dogbert's blog - http://dogber1.blogspot.com/
- How to remove, clear, reveal, unlock or reset BIOS security password - https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-reset-remove-clear-or-reveal-cmos-bios-security-password/