77
votes
Accepted
Force user to remove USB token
You are trying to use a technical tool to solve a social problem. The answer is that cannot fit.
Techniques can provide great security when correctly used, but only user education can allow proper ...
- 26.5k
54
votes
Accepted
Is a BitLocker recovery key an unavoidable brute-force attack vulnerability?
Can a Bitlocker-locked drive be brute-forced within hours by guessing the recovery key by an actor with a supercomputer? With a couple of GPUs? (assuming Microsoft put as much effort as possible into ...
- 46.3k
44
votes
Is looking for plain text strings on an encrypted disk a good test?
No, this is not a good test, not at all.
If you do the same with a zip file, or a docx, or a PNG, you won't see text strings, but the file is not encrypted. Not being able to see plaintext does not ...
- 53.5k
38
votes
Accepted
Is Bitlocker secure enough for portable storage devices?
A cold boot attack is impossible on an offline device. The only way an attacker could use a cold boot attack on your portable storage device is if they also had physical access to your computer as it ...
- 723
21
votes
Is a BitLocker recovery key an unavoidable brute-force attack vulnerability?
Can a Bitlocker-locked drive be brute-forced within hours by guessing the recovery key by an actor with a supercomputer? With a couple of GPUs? (assuming Microsoft put as much effort as possible into ...
- 9,277
19
votes
Is Bitlocker secure enough for portable storage devices?
There are several possible attacks on Bitlocker, and apparently a software is available to the police that supports recovery of the password (but requires sniffing the RAM while the device is mounted ...
- 10.3k
16
votes
Force user to remove USB token
It seems to me that a startup script could check for mounted USBs and block the wifi/network if there is a USB mounted while showing a message.
A simple polling function could check for new USBs ...
- 128k
13
votes
Force user to remove USB token
This might not be the nicest way to do it, and I cannot say that I endorse it, but I have seen it used in practice:
You could have security guards patrol by night, taking any USB key-or-token plugged ...
- 10.5k
13
votes
Can I use VeraCrypt with an SSD?
VeraCrypt (or any other full volume encryption) can be (and has been for many years) used with SSDs. An attacker with the tools to access the drive metadata will be able to determine some things about ...
- 46.3k
11
votes
How can I tell if BitLocker is successfully enabled on remote hosts?
For a remote host:
manage-bde -status -computername **computername**
- 111
11
votes
Accepted
Is looking for plain text strings on an encrypted disk a good test?
The test may be good or not, depending on what you need.
If you need to make a distinction between a known good encryption (bitlocker is pretty much acceptable for a lot of purposes) and a plaintext ...
- 3,488
10
votes
Can I use VeraCrypt with an SSD?
Disk encryption of an SSD is safe. If you do enable TRIM, the system will reveal which sectors have been erased, as described in this blog post (although this references dm-crypt, it applies equally ...
- 66.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Offline Bruteforce attack against a Bitlockered Windows PC
The attack you outline is a fundamental problem for all types of encryption: If you want to use a password as the (source of) the encryption key, the password must have as much entropy as the desired ...
- 1,643
8
votes
Can ransomware encrypt files in a drive locked by BitLocker?
If the ransomware has full access of your operating system, nothing can stop it from encrypting your data, including BitLocker-encrypted volumes. The ransomware can simply encrypt the already-...
- 181
6
votes
Accepted
Can Windows BitLocker encryption be broken by Live Boot?
First off, you should go type "how bitlocker works" into google and read a few articles. You will probably learn the answer to your question (and a bunch more interesting things besides!).
If you ...
- 58.8k
6
votes
Is Bitlocker trustworthy?
Any time you install software from a vendor or project you are placing trust in that vendor or project not to have placed malicious code in there and also to have done a reasonable job of securing it.
...
- 62.1k
6
votes
Where is the Bitlocker key stored without the Trusted-Platform Module (TPM)?
You have an option to store the key either on a disk (protected with a password) or on USB device. If plain storage devices are used, both are susceptible to a brute force attack. See this.
- 1,062
5
votes
Is LUKS effective?
If you don't select overwrite empty disk space option with LUKS, it is quick and not quite as secure. You are comparing LUKS's quick, less secure usage with Bitlocker's secure usage.
If you selected ...
- 469
5
votes
Offline Bruteforce attack against a Bitlockered Windows PC
BitLocker encrypts the drive using a "volume master key", which is never placed directly in persistent storage anywhere. One or more "key protectors" are present in the volume metadata, each one of ...
- 46.3k
5
votes
Accepted
HDD password vs Bitlocker
There's no practical way to inspect the Samsung disk's implementation of AES-256. The same is true of the Bitlocker algorithm, but the software implementation has a few advantages:
Microsoft can ...
- 7,525
5
votes
Can ransomware encrypt files in a drive locked by BitLocker?
Accurate answer varies depending on the specific ransomware and its mutations in effect.
In general though, we must assume that when it can, it will. i.e., if the ransomware code is active at the time ...
- 2,648
5
votes
Accepted
Do pre-boot software keyloggers exist?
Yes they exist (like this Russian one uefilog on github
Also Hardware key loggers would capture this information.
And in theory one could implement an hardware keylogger in the BIOS itself.
How ...
- 8,733
5
votes
What is the relationship between Windows BitLocker and Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere?
Looks like other have had your same question and discussed it on Reddit
The summary was that it's likely a hack to get BitLocker working in Windows 10 Home, which doesn't normally allow for BitLocker,...
- 435
5
votes
Accepted
Does full disk encryption offer mitigation in the case of the firmware of an SSD being compromised?
Partially. Full disk encryption, when done through software (e.g. LUKS), means that a compromised storage device will only ever see encrypted data, never decrypted data. It will never have access to ...
- 66.5k
5
votes
Way to protect from cold boot attack
Windows 10 Latest patch can protect cold boot attack?
No.
DDR3 or DDR4 RAM still have vulnerability?
DDR3 and DDR4 retain memory for a shorter period of time than DDR2, but cold boots are still ...
- 66.5k
4
votes
How can I tell if BitLocker is successfully enabled on remote hosts?
manage-bde -status -computername "COMPUTERNAME" c:
The computer must be on and on the network however, does not work for machines out of network or that are off.
- 41
4
votes
Is Bitlocker trustworthy?
If you don't trust Microsoft, don't use Windows. Using Bitlocker doesn't make you more vulnerable to backdoors that Microsoft may have introduced. Cryptographic software is actually not the best place ...
4
votes
Will setting a BIOS Password Protect the TPM?
Okay, so, after some more searching I solved my problem:
Bitlocker does allow you to use an actual password (but they call it a PIN) - can't be more than 20 characters, but that's still pretty good.
...
- 83
4
votes
Does Hibernate feature pose any security threat?
This is what Microsoft has to say about it:
Disable sleep
BitLocker unlock methods for operating system drives—such as TPM
integrity checks or requests for a PIN or startup key before allowing
access ...
- 2,299
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible