YellowKey reportedly works in Windows 11, Windows Server 2022 and 2025, but not in Windows 10.

  • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world
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    32 minutes ago

    The process is dead simple: grab any USB stick, get write access to the “System Volume Information,” and copy into it the “FsTx” folder and its contents. Shift+click Restart to get Windows to the recovery environment, but then switch to holding down the Control key and don’t let go. The machine will reboot, and without asking any questions or showing any menus, will drop you in an elevated command line with full access to the formerly Bitlocked drive, without asking for any keys.

    Its dead simple to get write access to System Volume Information

    Not even local admins have access to it. A local admin would have to take ownership of that folder (not recommended), but if a local admin is doing that for this exploit, they can just turn off Bitlocker rather than go through this nonsense.

    I misunderstood the exploit. See replies.

    • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      By exploit standards, that’s not especially hard. I don’t think there’s really anything blocking accessing it at all if an NTFS volume is mounted on a typical desktop Linux distro, as it’s just NTFS permissions blocking it, and they’re not typically obeyed by Linux in the first place.

      In the face of your edit, I see that you’ve misunderstood the exploit. You need write access to the System Volume Information directory of your own USB stick, not anything on the target machine. It’s much easier to get access to things on a computer than it is to get access on one particular computer, and this exploit lets you jump from one to the other.

      • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Its bitlocker encrypted. You need to unlock the disk to see System Volume Information in Linux.

        • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          I’ll copy the bit here that I just edited into my reply after you edited the first post:

          In the face of your edit, I see that you’ve misunderstood the exploit. You need write access to the System Volume Information directory of your own USB stick, not anything on the target machine. It’s much easier to get access to things on a computer than it is to get access on one particular computer, and this exploit lets you jump from one to the other.