Author Topic: DMS locking mechanism  (Read 16499 times)

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Offline para

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DMS locking mechanism
« on: March 18, 2005, 06:33:36 pm »
Well, the 2.5" harddrive found in the DMS is someway signed preventing the users to upgrade/replace it.
This is what we know about that "issue"


Some data seems to be stored on the HDD which contains encrypted information identifying the actual hardware. This is possibly done by using:

- HDD Firmware Serial Number
- HDD Model Number
- HDD Controller Revision Number
- Any other information an individual HDD might reveal

The size of that data chunk is supposed to be around 130k.

Changing the partition layout (partition table) doesn't affect the protection, hence is not used for calculation/encryption.

At the moment the following information could be verified for a 10GB DMS only!
It should be noted that the partition table can be modified, but the start of the first partition should not be moved.  The key is stored in absolute sectors 1792-2047. So, if you DO repartition... do NOT change your first partition to start anywhere before absolute sector 2048.  Keep in mind that most partitioning software won't give you this kind of control and will most likely change where the first partition starts, overwriting the key.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2005, 12:08:05 pm by para »