YellowKey reportedly works in Windows 11, Windows Server 2022 and 2025, but not in Windows 10.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Why do they call it “drive encryption” when it does not need a user-provided password or other key?

    • mlg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 hours ago

      TPM microslop magic.

      What’s even funnier is that we already have TCG, ISE, and SE drives that hardware encrypt AES256 by design, so you still get at least an instant delete option if you never bother to set a key.

      Windows wants to double screw you over by never telling you it added a key, and then leaving you dead in the water if your TPM breaks, and then also failing to maintain their own TPM requirements making it completely useless lol.

  • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    11 hours ago

    Anything that isn’t open source can’t be secure. That doesn’t mean that everything open source is secure though.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    22 hours ago

    Finally, some good news. Now I can stop having to interact with my companies shitty outsourced service desk when I need a Bitlocker key.

  • SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    BitLocker is basically malware, so who fucking cares. Far more people have it accidentally on and get locked out than people that have purposefully activated it.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      22 hours ago

      You have just reminded me I could use this on the laptop my mother set up like five years ago and immediately forgot the password for.

      • freely1333@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        18 hours ago

        Companies care that you have access to it. The “companies that care” literally wrote the backdoor.

      • SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        22 hours ago

        When I worked at an MSP, BitLocker cost companies thousands of dollars when it did something strange. User error has very catastrophic consequences with BitLocker and nobody that actually cares about security uses BitLocker. From my professional experience it is malware. The places where I have seen it used on purpose was because of policy bullshit and everyone agreed that it was a hindrance rather than an advantage.

        • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          18 hours ago

          And from my experience in banking, healthcare and others; every company uses bitlocker on workstations, I saw EncFS once in dozens of companies audited.

          • SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            15 hours ago

            Using encryption on files systems is fine, but the Microslop Bitlocker implementation is awful. In any ecosystem that is not fully regulated BitLocker is a liability. I have had colleagues that could beat it.

  • Cornballer@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    1 day ago

    Somebody on twitter “reverse engineered” the exploit. Apparently ms shipped debug code in production. At least it’s not called Backdoor_FBI outright.

    How it works:

    1. Recovery tools look for a config file called RecoverySimulation.ini on the OS drive
    2. If Active=Yes, it enables “test mode” for the recovery tools
    3. Test mode unlocks your BitLocker drive but a flag called FailRelock tells it to skip relocking
    4. cmd.exe spawns with full access to your “encrypted” drive
    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 day ago

      Does test mode unlock without the key?!? So it’s just “encrypted” with a generic key, and the unlock key is for authentication? That sounds insane, even for microsoft.

      • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        22 hours ago

        this works because the bitlocker key is stored in the TPM of the mainboard on the computer.
        That is neccessary for the computer to be able to boot without entering your bitlocker password. you can configure it differently, but that is not default or super obvious to do.

        • RamRabbit@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          13 hours ago

          It always struck me as…poor…to not require a password for decryption. If you require zero knowlege from me, that means a stolen has everything inside needed to decrypt all the data.

          And well, lookie there at the article!

    • jabberwock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      24 hours ago

      “Ah yes, but think about how much faster they shipped that code with Copilot doing all the heavy lifting.”

      • Some Microsoft exec, probably
    • computler@lemdro.idB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      22 hours ago

      Temu is, as Chinese netizens will tell you, full of items on a lower 4th rung of quality well below what they are used to (at least the urbanites, but I doubt farmers want to buy junk for shit they need to do). That doesn’t mean that a single-board computer you buy off it would be incapable of anything you need to do, just surrounded by stuff advertised in a misleading way to get you to buy more shit.

      Their business itself has customer data well-encrypted, never sends out your email to spammers (I isolate email accounts I would notice). They have never had a single data breach.

        • computler@lemdro.idB
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          14 hours ago

          I manually post on these as well, they currently have only used post scheduling, haven’t set up feeds. It’s nice to hide my own accounts from each other, and if I don’t, then I’m going to forget and people will get mad that the bots are unmarked. Not your problem.

          So, any comment on me pointing out the obvious racism?

          • 7101334@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            14 hours ago

            The post you replied to never said “Chinese”, it said “Temu”. So you saying “Oh yeah Chinese people agree, Temu is garbage” actually proves… that it was a reasonable statement?

            It still could’ve been said from a racist place or with undertones of racism, but it’s not necessarily guaranteed. Temu is garbage. Americans think so. Chinese people apparently think so.

            • computler@lemdro.idB
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              14 hours ago

              How specious. Yes, Temu is trash mixed with treasure, but it’s the exact same garbage you pay a premium for at online or brick-and-mortar retailers, so I find it quite funny when USonians act above it. You don’t have an option for better quality that isn’t as Chinese as possible without getting ripped off, unless you need cameras or the latest graphics cards. Temu encryption is good. American corporate encryption leans very bad. Just watch some cybersecurity conferences. More than racism I’m irritated by people using terminology wrong.

              • 7101334@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                14 hours ago

                Chinese people think Temu is trash and would never use it

                I find it quite funny when USonians act above it

                I’m going to stop talking to you now because wtf are you even on about. No one said anything about not wanting to buy Chinese goods. I specifically buy Chinese goods because at least their billionaires are kept to heel and are doing less to actively fuck over my life than Jeff Bezos.

                Also no one said anything about Temu encryption but you, so again, wtf are you even on about?

                • computler@lemdro.idB
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  14 hours ago

                  Well, I’m happy to stop talking if you’re the type more interested in catfighting than even interpreting the conversation correctly. GreenBottles did in fact start off saying Microsoft is using Temu encryption. If Microsoft was using Temu encryption then their customers would be safe & they would have a record of zero data breaches. I don’t think farmers would buy anything important on Temu, I never said no Chinese person would use it. This is anecdotal from speaking to urbanites who were more interested in high-quality manufacturing for throwing some money around in the markets. Nevermind!

                  I’m glad you buy your Chinese stuff directly instead of through Bezos, but I hope you can see that the kids using Temu synonymously with “dogshit” are being somewhat racist. Since this isn’t based off a comparison with durable good from Amazon or the supermarket. Amazon support just isn’t worth the markup. It’s informed by propaganda spreading through unconventional means such as gore websites plastered with Russian and Chinese industrial accidents or hit-and-runs from the 2000s. Things change, and when that change is accompanied by a meme where a Chinese company is used as an adjective meaning dogshit, I think, well, the advertising firms that these Fortune 500 companies employ would feel quite chickenshit if they got beaten to the punch by natural slang developments. They’d be saying gee, I wish we got them talking like this five years before.

      • northface@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        18 hours ago

        They have never reported a data breach.

        Fixed that for you. Same goes for most companies though - the abscense of a publicly known data breach does not mean it hasn’t happened, with or without said company’s knowledge.

      • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        14 hours ago

        Suddenly dev resigned and posted bizzare post that read like he was at a gunpoint, recommending bitlocker instead of truecrypt

      • massacre@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        22 hours ago

        It was very likely compromised by NSA requiring a backdoor or weakened encryption that could be cracked by the US. There’s a long story that’s pretty interesting if you want to hit the rabbit hole

  • Taleya@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    of *course *there’s a back door. You motherfuckers think they’ll TPM secure boot lock file manage SECURTYYYY and not let five eyes waltz in whenever they fucking well please?

  • gnufuu@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    168
    ·
    2 days ago

    From their blog:

    Now regarding YellowKey, lots of you are wondering how does one even find such backdoor ?

    I’ll tell you how, it took me more time trying to get it to work than the amount of sleep I had in two years combined. No AI involved, no help in any shape or form. I could have made some insane cash selling this but no amount of money will stand between me and my determination against Microsoft.

    […]

    I can’t wait when I will be allowed to disclose the full story, I think people will find my crashout very reasonable and it definitely won’t be a good look for Microsoft.

    Looking forward to the full story.

    • Jako302@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      88
      ·
      2 days ago

      I could have made some insane cash selling this but no amount of money will stand between me and my determination against Microsoft.

      There is no better motivator than pure anger and spite.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Ngl I feel like it’s just going to be “I thought it was backed up but it wasn’t and M$ wouldn’t write me a back door”

      Which is fine as a back story, but also a dime a dozen really.

      • fosho@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        Down voted because you rushed this comment and it’s not really clear what you’re trying to say.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    187
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    YellowKey can be triggered simply by merely copying some files to a USB stick and rebooting to the Windows Recovery Environment. We tested this ourselves, and sure enough, not only does it work, it bears all the hallmarks of a backdoor, down to the exploit’s files disappearing from the USB stick after it’s used once.

    • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      41
      ·
      2 days ago

      100% certainty of backdoor. Is bitlocker developed outside of MSFT? Would seem to need MSFT cooperation to implement.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        2 days ago

        Bitlocker was developed entirely inside MSFT. Upon further review, there is a chance that this is all somewhat normal behaviour. Part of MSFT safeOS to make it convenient to recover bitlocker access, and update windows.

        • Leon@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          ·
          1 day ago

          And be able to easily comply with law enforcement requests for decryption.

          Ergo, the encryption is actually worthless.

        • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          18 hours ago

          Normal behaviour?

          -“Well it turns out we just said your data was protected, for your, ehrm, satisfaction?”