[17206] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
How secure is the ATA encrypted disk?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James A. Donald)
Fri May 20 14:44:14 2005
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:13:29 -0700
--
Every ATA disk contains encryption firmware, though not
all bioses allow you to use it.
There is a master and a user password, 32 bytes each. If
you set them both to the same value, and that value is a
strong 32 byte password, then the disk can only be
booted or accessed by entering that password.
This disk firmware is what password protected laptops
use. It exists on most PCs, though most of them have no
bios firmware to use it.
How strong is this standard - could someone bypass it by
taking a soldering iron to the disk? Is the disk
encrypted, or just the datapath to the disk?
--digsig
James A. Donald
6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
MWz38lml3/o9dkGLtWtJQZ1tp0gyiyL5eFG9bY/j
4tFQd7DIdLt5X6V438CPm2mQIV4/O2PZST9PN9sAM
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