A screwdriver was all a group of computer scientists needed to access an old BIOS-locked laptop

the BIOS It is one of the basic elements of any computer, and is known and reviewed by almost all computer scientists when analyzing computers. It is crucial to the operation of the computer, such as it is The first thing it turns on when you turn it on It can cause problems if it is blocked.

This was precisely the situation that a group of experts from the cybersecurity company CyberCX faced, when they discovered that the Lenovo L440 laptops, which were previously used by the company, had their BIOS blocked.”suitable” After canceling the registration. As a lesson in learning how to open them, they decided to use a fairly common item: screw driver

Researchers initially tried several solutions. One of them was Try removing the CMOS battery from the computer, but they quickly scrapped this idea as manufacturers stopped keeping BIOS passwords on non-volatile storage. In other words, restarting the computer will not give them the required access.

They focused on a specific chip on motherboards, EEPROM, a ROM memory chip that can be programmed, erased, and reprogrammed electrically. If they can get past this slide, They can avoid being asked for a password.

“Easy” process.

During this process they encountered a problem: They had to select the correct chipBecause early computers had two additional chips much like an EEPROM, all with eight communication pins.

To avoid blockage, the researchers found the indicated chip and found the SCL and SDA pins. Shorten both in timebefore the system prompts for the password.

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After doing it correctly and accessing the computer without needing the password, They proceeded to deactivate the order From the key from BIOS.

This operation had an unexpected hero: Use a screwdriverwhich not only opened the device, but also placed it on the correct pins and skipped the verification process.

The only negative is that this method Only works on old computers. Since manufacturers combined the BIOS and EEPROM chips into a single installation device, implementing this “trick” has become more complicated.

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