3 ms·

Hillhacks – Hacking and Making in the Himalayas

35 points by skbohra123 12y ago

skbohra123 12y ago
Link to the website is here[0]. This certainly looks like an awesome event to attend. [0] http://hillhacks.in/ http://hillhacks.in/
srean 12y ago
The next step was to figure out how to crack off the security password so that the machines could be usable. This basically meant figuring out the supervisor password to get into the BIOS and removing the protections. I should mention here that since I owned these machines, this is all perfectly legal. There are some standard tricks to getting into the BIOS such as removing power to the CMOS (battery backed SRAM) to clear the settings or certain maintenance key combos that act as a universal reset. Unfortunately these didn't work. Lenovo actually has a dedicated EEPROM which retains its settings even after power is removed and stores the supervisor password and other info in encrypted form. After trying out various techniques, I found one that worked. For this particular laptop, you had to open it up and expose the motherboard. After that, it required removing a modem board to get to the security EEPROM. Once the EEPROM was exposed, there was a technique where you had to turn on the PC, hit the ThinkVantage button to go into BIOS, and then immediately short the I2C pins (SDA and SCL) on the EEPROM with tweezers. This would cause the security software to crash and allow access into the BIOS. That was an interesting account, faced with a similar proposition I wouldnt know where to begin or what is safe. In fact I have a compaq laptop whose hard disk's firmware promptly auto-generated a random passwd and locked it up ! Apparently its a known bug. If you havent set up a hard disk password before the bug kicks in, you are pretty hosed, unless manage to pull off tricks such as these.
- general_failure 12y ago
  http://hillhacks.in/blog/2014/07-29-hillhacks.workshop.tools/index http://hillhacks.in/blog/2014/07-29-hillhacks.workshop.tools... for anyone interested in a complete read

35 points by skbohra123 12y ago

Link to the website is here[0]. This certainly looks like an awesome event to attend. [0] http://hillhacks.in/ http://hillhacks.in/

srean 12y ago

The next step was to figure out how to crack off the security password so that the machines could be usable. This basically meant figuring out the supervisor password to get into the BIOS and removing the protections. I should mention here that since I owned these machines, this is all perfectly legal. There are some standard tricks to getting into the BIOS such as removing power to the CMOS (battery backed SRAM) to clear the settings or certain maintenance key combos that act as a universal reset. Unfortunately these didn't work. Lenovo actually has a dedicated EEPROM which retains its settings even after power is removed and stores the supervisor password and other info in encrypted form. After trying out various techniques, I found one that worked. For this particular laptop, you had to open it up and expose the motherboard. After that, it required removing a modem board to get to the security EEPROM. Once the EEPROM was exposed, there was a technique where you had to turn on the PC, hit the ThinkVantage button to go into BIOS, and then immediately short the I2C pins (SDA and SCL) on the EEPROM with tweezers. This would cause the security software to crash and allow access into the BIOS. That was an interesting account, faced with a similar proposition I wouldnt know where to begin or what is safe. In fact I have a compaq laptop whose hard disk's firmware promptly auto-generated a random passwd and locked it up ! Apparently its a known bug. If you havent set up a hard disk password before the bug kicks in, you are pretty hosed, unless manage to pull off tricks such as these.

general_failure 12y ago
http://hillhacks.in/blog/2014/07-29-hillhacks.workshop.tools/index http://hillhacks.in/blog/2014/07-29-hillhacks.workshop.tools... for anyone interested in a complete read