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How To Head Off ATA HDD Password Abuse
An anonymous reader submits "German c't magazine has a story about abusing the security features of ATA hard disks. The bottom line is that almost all ATA hard disks in desktop PCs can be password-protected. However, on most desktop PCs, the BIOS does not support locking this option -- so viruses or malware could set a random password, making any data unreadable unless recovered by professionals."
Here is a website that shows how to unlock it, and you don't even have to be a professional!
http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html
Well, for software modding an Xbox for starters.
Xboxen will only boot from a locked hard drive, and to modify the files on an Xbox to, you know, allow you to run your own home written unsigned code, you need to be able to lock the drive once you've modified it to get the Xbox to recognize it.
I have encountered bioses that won't allow you to lock or unlock drives. Very annoying...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
but when was the last highly destructive virus you saw ?
virus writers/skripterz have long since learnt, if you kill the host it is of no use to you, you achieve nothing
99% of viruses today are trojans because you can use your fancy stealth infection/propogation routines AND make a profit if you keep the host alive, locking a HD would be pointless and contrary to opinion most Virus writers are not stupid, misguided perhaps but not stupid
The problem is that if BIOS doesn't disable the function, a "well"-(i.e. viciously)-positioned malware (early in the boot process) could lock the hard drive on first reboot even before any protective software can kick in.
What if someone encrypts all your data one night? You show up for work one morning only to find the latest worm has encrypted all your data and it forces you to recite the lyrics to ELOs Another Heart Breaks ("one, two, three," etc..) before you can get at your data again. Look, if it has enough access to reset the password on your ATA drive, you probably have bigger issues to worry about, like the gaping hole in your OS that allows user code direct access to your hardware.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
to the effect that we will program a demonstration of the damaging action and make it available to Apple
This seems to imply that it has not yet been done. Any hardware changes that I have done (Open Firmware changes, DVD region set) have needed an admin password.
However, in the article it basically says that the machine has to compromised PRIOR to startup (when the security extension loads). If someone already has access to your machine with an admin password, I really don't see the point in locking the drive. There are easier ways to pull a prank or cause damage.
Why on earth would you want to password "protect" a hard drive? How would that be any better than properly encrypting your files?
Speed.
Only very sophisticated organizations have the means to lift data off a password-protected hard drive. Encryption, while more durable in that regard, sacrifices speed with every access to the files in question.
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"A DOS from a diskette boots suspiciously slowly"
When does a diskette ever boot not "suspiciously slowly"?
Digital Sailor
In general, these features don't seem coded to well. Here's a post I made to Bugtraq back in December of 2003.
The Dell BIOS allows users to set several different passwords to protect
their machines from unauthorised access. There is 1) a Setup Password,
which is required to enter the BIOS setup, as well as 2) a Hard Drive
Password, as per the ATA Security Feature Set Specification.
Unfortunately, once a Hard Drive Password is set which contains one or
more of the following characters,
, . ; : ' [ ] { }
it can not be later entered to access the machine. It appears as though
a bug in the BIOS code prevents those characters from being taken as
input when the user is asked for the password - however, the BIOS
incorrectly allows users to set passwords containing those characters.
This is not an incredibly serious problem as such, since a user can go
back into the BIOS setup and change the password there, provided the
BIOS Setup is not protected with an unknown password. Or, as a last
resort, Dell can be phoned to provide a master backdoor password, as
long as the user can prove herself the legal owner of the computer. Of
course, the prerequisite of physical access to the machine highly
mitigates this vulnerability.
It is however an interesting bug from the point of view of Dell's
practices. I have contacted them over two weeks ago, but their
'technical support' is unable to understand or resolve the problem. Two
of their representatives told me to reinstall Windows XP Chipset
drivers, even when I asked to be forwarded to people higher in the
technical support chain. Perhaps this post will encourage Dell to pay
more attention in the future.
Affected Systems: Dell Inspiron 2650 System BIOS, A11
(A11 is the current BIOS as of writing, and was released in late
September of this year)
Other BIOS/Dell models are perhaps vulnerable but have not been tested.
Viruses and spyware can simply erase your disk, in addition to changing the password. The solution? The same solution as for hardware failures, cats walking across the keyboard, or babies drooling on the disk: restore from a recent backup. If you don't have a recent backup, a virus that sets the ATA HDD password is the least of your problems.
but when was the last highly destructive virus you saw ?
What about the witty worm?
It spread in less than an hour and the proceded to destroy data on the hosts hard disks.
There is no "administrator password". The "master password" is like a janitor's master key. It's a failsafe to let you unlock the drive if the user password was set.
The incredibly stupid thing is there doesn't seem to be a way to say "disable the password mechanism completely". IMHO, this should be the default state, and it should require physical access to the drive (say, with a jumper) as well as (of course, any passwords) to switch it from one state to another. A laptop could connect that jumper to an external "security" button that you hold down while the BIOS does its thing.
u m3an that u actually ha5 3 l3tt3r5? n0 way dud3, l1k3 ur t0ta77y g01ng t0 ru1n 1337 sp33k 4 a11 0f u5 1337 h4x50r5 damn thats annoying
...For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.