Breaking Bitlocker - Bypassing the Windows Disk Encryption
Why Information Security Stack Exchange recommends it
Security Stack Exchange answerers link it when explaining that BitLocker with a TPM and no PIN is vulnerable to physical attackers who can tap the TPM communication lines.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2024 to 2026.
What it is
stacksmashing demonstrates a hardware attack that bypasses TPM-based BitLocker by sniffing the unencrypted bus between the discrete TPM chip and the rest of the machine to capture the disk encryption key at boot. The video uses a Raspberry Pi Pico based sniffer and explains why a pre-boot PIN defeats it. The description links the hardware design, source code and related write-ups.
What people said
Cites George Kas · 2024-02 · Information Security Stack Exchange · on “Bitlocker without PIN”
No, BitLocker without a PIN is not safe. In the following video it is presented how the key is stolen due to the unencrypted bus traffic between TPM and components. This is the recent "Raspberry Pi" BitLocker hack that was making the news. The technique also relies on having a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) separate from the CPU. In many cases, the two will be combined, in which case the technique shown cannot be used. ... The crux of it is sniffing out the key to the device as it is passed from TPM to CPU. The key is helpfully not encrypted. [LINK] [this video]
Cites gaazkam · 2024-05 · Information Security Stack Exchange · on “How does iOS / Android device encryption work?”
As far as I'm aware, a locked iOS is considered very safe. No one, who does not know the PIN cannot unlock the phone. While the PIN seems weak on the first glance (4 digits?) it is actually strong, because enough failed attempts = data is wiped. Even law enforcement was known to have troubles when the data they needed was stored on a locked iPhone. But how does this work and is this an example of security by obscurity? In my mental model (correct me if I'm wrong) there are the following approaches to securing a system: Encrypt the system with a strong key, keep the key separate from the system. In this case data cannot be extracted from the system if it remains locked; however, once the syst
Cites FISOCPP · 2026-03 · Information Security Stack Exchange · on “If someone has physical access to my laptop with bitlocker with TPM, can they access the data?”
The only way in my opinion to achieve that (no access with TPM) is if you CPU is physically paired with the motherboard and uses encrypted communication between the TPM module. There was a video for that on the topic (I believe it was for HP) where you had to go to the bios and pair it where there you can't change it with a new CPU though - the PC won't boot - it's permanent (and that was the video complaining about). Otherwise (there was a video too) you can attach wires and sniff the communication at boot and so get the keys. [this video] (hacking) But I can't find the perma lock one - and it might be Dell not HP.