Timeline for BitLocker Recovery Key and Microsoft Account Password
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 28, 2019 at 9:42 | comment | added | TripeHound | [cont] My assumption / guess / hope is that would only be possible if you knew the appropriate password (to the PC-account and/or the Microsoft account), and that Microsoft do not know the password. Therefore, they wouldn't be able to access the hard-drive, and that @Daniel's fears are unwarranted (but I don't know enough about Microsoft accounts to be certain...) | |
| Oct 28, 2019 at 9:40 | comment | added | TripeHound | @MGoBlue93 I think OP's confusion is around the fact that logging-in to their PC's account (which is linked to a Microsoft account) will give the OP access to the hard-drive. The OP's fear / assumption seems to be that because of that link, Microsoft – if in possession of the hard-drive – would be able to login using the Microsoft account and also gain access (irrespective of where the recovery key was stored). [cont] | |
| Feb 6, 2019 at 0:55 | comment | added | MGoBlue93 | (from continued) Besides, this is an infosec forum -- put your thinking cap on for a moment; do you really think it's a secure solution if Microsoft designed something where if your cloud account got hacked then your hard drive encryption became compromised as well? Of course not. People would be losing their minds over that poor of a design. Rightfully so. | |
| Feb 6, 2019 at 0:52 | comment | added | MGoBlue93 | I'm really super confused by the last comment... my apologies. My participation in this thread has been to clarify that a bitlocker key and a onedrive account are not related. When you say "I am surprised, but perhaps I shouldn't be"... I would ask, "Why? Why would you be surprised?" Would you consider an apple to be equal to an orange simply because they are fruit? Of course not. Don't do that with bitlocker and onedrive then. bitlocker and onedrive both have an authentication mechanism but that's where any comparisons should end (continued) | |
| Feb 3, 2019 at 4:26 | comment | added | Daniel | Ok, thank you for this clarification. I am surprised, but perhaps I shouldn’t be. I understand you to mean that if party x possessed a drive with encrypted data on it and party x also possessed the user account password used by a Windows 10 account on that drive to encrypt the data on the drive, party x could not somehow use the user account password to derive the encryption key and decrypt the data on the drive. Is this correct? | |
| Feb 1, 2019 at 22:47 | comment | added | MGoBlue93 | I'm confused. Is your OneDrive password related to your BitLocker key? They are not. | |
| Jan 31, 2019 at 20:39 | comment | added | Daniel | I understand the rationale for storing the key locally. However, my assumption is that the BitLocker encryption key and the user-account password are related to each other. So, if Microsoft has my user-account password (because it’s a connected Microsoft account), I’m imagining that they could use this information to somehow unlock the BitLocker encryption key and decrypt my files, given access to the physical drive. Obviously, this wouldn’t be a concern with a local non-Microsoft-connected user account. | |
| Jan 31, 2019 at 16:30 | comment | added | MGoBlue93 | I'm confused... let's step back for a second. When one configures bitlocker, they have the option to (more or less, without being pedantic) store the key remotely or locally. If you select the Microsoft Account option, it's going to put it in your OneDrive account. The bitlocker key and the password to OneDrive are not the same (re: "Couldn't Microsoft just use the actual password"). If you select the save to file option, you can put the key on a USB drive and then protect that drive accordingly. | |
| Jan 31, 2019 at 6:16 | comment | added | Daniel | Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, this does not answer my question completely. I see the value in the option apart from a connected Microsoft user account. | |
| Jan 31, 2019 at 5:58 | history | answered | MGoBlue93 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |