Also, it's a twofer with the GreenPlasma zero-day local privilege escalation.

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

  • Cornballer@lemmy.zipEnglish
    38·
    8 hours ago

    Somebody on twitter “reverse engineered” the exploit. Apparently ms shipped debug code in production. At least it’s not called Backdoor_FBI outright.

    How it works:

    1. Recovery tools look for a config file called RecoverySimulation.ini on the OS drive
    2. If Active=Yes, it enables “test mode” for the recovery tools
    3. Test mode unlocks your BitLocker drive but a flag called FailRelock tells it to skip relocking
    4. cmd.exe spawns with full access to your “encrypted” drive
    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      7 hours ago

      Does test mode unlock without the key?!? So it’s just “encrypted” with a generic key, and the unlock key is for authentication? That sounds insane, even for microsoft.

      • mavu@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        6·
        5 hours ago

        this works because the bitlocker key is stored in the TPM of the mainboard on the computer.
        That is neccessary for the computer to be able to boot without entering your bitlocker password. you can configure it differently, but that is not default or super obvious to do.

    • jabberwock@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      10·
      7 hours ago

      “Ah yes, but think about how much faster they shipped that code with Copilot doing all the heavy lifting.”

      • Some Microsoft exec, probably