This can be achieved by using a regular USB/pen/thumb drive (whatever you call it). The hack would be more than enough to keep even your curious geeky computer friends from booting into the system. That said, it is by no means foolproof (which security measure is? ) so you might not want to bet your life on it.
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148 Responses
1.2.2009
In his defense, he didn’t specify how long ‘later’ was…My favorite crack a 128 bit key illustration:Imagine a computer that is the size of a grain of sand that can test keys against some encrypted data. Also imagine that it can test a key in the amount of time it takes light to cross it. Then consider a cluster of these computers, so many that if you covered the earth with them, they would cover the whole planet to the height of 1 meter. The cluster of computers would crack a 128-bit key on average in 1,000 years.Source: interesting-people.org/archives/interes …
1.2.2009
I’ve actually rigged my computer to demagnetize, then melt my hard drive when the case is opened. Overkill, maybe, but nobody is getting to my pr0n without my authorization.
1.2.2009
Thermite is the answer. After three failed login attempts, a fuse is lit (maybe a model rocket igniter?) and BAM! computer and your leg is gone.
1.2.2009
Didn’t mean to imply that it’d be easy or practical. Just possible in a theoretical sense.
1.2.2009
total failure. you just have to read the comments to realize what type of utter fail this is. Bury away
1.2.2009
Don’t do this.If anyone is after your data and they can’t figure out how to reach the content on your HDD without booting off that partition, then they wouldn’t know how to get around a regular windows login either.
1.2.2009
Sounds like the days of having to use a dongle to use a piece of software
1.2.2009
Either it works, and you risk losing/damaging your USB key(s), or it doesn’t, and there are far better security measures. Either way, a terrible idea.
1.2.2009
rohos.com/welcome-screen/usbflash.htmthis works much better. and its not a crappy hack.
1.2.2009
Buy me a copy for christmas please.
1.2.2009
wonderful I miss computers that use a key.
1.2.2009
Or you could use TrueCrypt, etc. and keep the authentication key on the usb stick….and avoid all the shortcomings of this article’s approach.
1.2.2009
And if I lose my usb stick? No thanks…
1.2.2009
if you lose your usb stick then you are not a very responsible adultpretend like its the key to your house…
1.2.2009
Make a copy and hide it:)
1.2.2009
… under a rock on the front yard
1.2.2009
What if you lost your home key? Or your car key? Same principles really, you just have to look after your stuff.
1.2.2009
If you don’t encrypt your drive (or at least the important parts) you are practically giving away your data every time you give someone unsupervised physical access to your PC.
1.2.2009
In addition to all the already mentioned reasons that this idea is retarded, don’t they list one huge one in the article? All you need to do to get around this, even if it is done correctly, is use the recovery console. If you can’t get around this a password longer than about 4 letters should keep you out too for a lot less hassle.
1.2.2009
meh xp was so last year… digg me down you tandy users!
1.2.2009
digg me down Trash-80 users
1.2.2009
XP > Vista, still.
1.2.2009
I was kind of hoping that this would somehow prevent booting from any other USB device besides the one you hacked into the key. As such, I was disappointed with the article.Of course, such a hack would also have some horrible flaws, now that I’m thinking about it…
1.2.2009
Where’s the Robocop style security systems, where the perpetrator dies a rather gruesome death.
1.2.2009
Also @black27696 and consoneoOne of the first things taught in a basic Hardware or IT classes is if you come cross a computer with a locked BIOS, simply unplug the machine and remove the Motherboard’s battery, wait an hour and then put it back together and proceed. Since it’s not firmware, and its volatile information, it gets erased when power is removed. As stated above, just generate a strong login password for the OS consisting of random letters and numbers, that’s your best option.
1.2.2009
hour? try 1 minute usually, maybe 5, but hour is way too long.
1.2.2009
or the jumper if it has one
1.2.2009
Wait an hour? More like 10 seconds, or at most, a minute.
1.2.2009
I did that on accident one time when I chose the grub loader directory on a flash drive… not as much fun when you don’t mean it
1.2.2009
Step 1) Ignore this articleStep 2) truecrypt.org/docs/?s=system-encryption
1.2.2009
TrueCrypt doesn’t allow encrypted OS booting from USB, I hope it does in the future though.
1.2.2009
Finally, now my parents can NEVER find my porn MUAHAHAHAI wish I had something worthy of encrypting =(
1.2.2009
My computer cannot boot from USB. I guess I could use a compact disc to load a boot loader to boot from USB…….or I could just ignore this retarded article. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
1.2.2009
"compact disc"there’s some nostalgia
1.2.2009
I’m old. Old enough to know what a WORM drive is, though I can understand why that name never caught on.But I manage to stumble my way onto the Internet, on occasion. Now, are my pants on backwards, again?
1.2.2009
why would anyone do that? whats wrong with a power button?
1.2.2009
this is ***** when your usb drive eventually corrupts
1.2.2009
I’ve been booting from a USB drive for months. Though, I wasn’t trying to be ‘cool’ or secure my things… it was due to sheer stupidity that I screwed up the boot process on my laptop.Dell shipped me a replacement hard drive that was partitioned and had the OS/drivers/etc. installed… but the installation wouldn’t take. So, I installed Windows on D: after a few hours of getting nowhere with Dell’s pre-configured hard drive. I wanted to install Ubuntu on C:, so I formatted it, not knowing that it was still a vital part of the boot process…
1.2.2009
388 diggs at the time of this comment, for an article that’s more dangerous than helpful!The trouble is, because of the diggs, there’ll be people that screw their system up thinking they’re doing themselves a favour.. And if they don’t, the false sense of security they get will probably make them worse off.. It would take anyone who was seriously after the data in the machine 2 minutes tops to realise what was going on and have their hands on everything.There is no substitution for good encryption…
1.2.2009
Encrypt harddrive, only thing that’s going to mildly save your ass when someone takes it
1.2.2009
I was expecting to see something about creating a CA and self signing it, then configuring something with grub and an encrypted disk to use a p12 file as a ‘login’ before choosing an OS…. But alas, just an obscure way of using windows 2k/XP repair tools to prevent normal booting of a PC. Not any kind of security in a literal sense of the word but the tittle is misleading one to believe there is.
1.2.2009
This is stupid. All it is doing is giving people a false sense of security. It’d be just as good/better to just tell people to leave their computer unplugged, or unplug their hard disks for that matter. This is stupid
1.2.2009
Idiots, set a god damned BIOS password if you’re going to have people go into it anyway.This is one of the worst tech hints I’ve ever been given. People will ruin their systems with a worthless hack if they mess something up. Tell me how to rename my .jpgs to .exes guys!!!!?!?
1.2.2009
you can do that?! Link to article please?/s
1.2.2009
Best Crypt Volume Encryption. Encrypts the entire VOLUME. Live CD is useless without the password. Password must be entered right after BIOS. Dive does NOT work in another machine unless you have the password. My password is 32 characters long including spaces, numbers, letters (both cases) and special characters. I do this in case someone steals my PC. The hardware is insured I really don’t care. The data is not (of course). There is also the worry of identity theft.
1.2.2009
Without even looking at it I bet it’d easily be subverted with a little safe-mode akshun.nm, actually you’d need a CD. Blah.
1.2.2009
"The solution is not foolproof. Even if someone is not able to boot your system he/she can easily get your data by using a live CD. So you might still want to keep your data encrypted."Err… Yeah. If I had to break into someone’s PC and grab files, I’d just boot from Winternals ERD Commander and copy whatever I wanted. A lot easier than what this guide will protect from.
1.2.2009
TrueCrypt does the same thing *plus* encrypts your data with the algorithm of your choice. Only way it can be cracked is by physically taking the RAM out of a sleeping computer or improper shutdown. This is a vulnerability with every drive encryption software, though./thread