COMMAND

    BIOS

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    most systems

PROBLEM

    Christophe  Grenier  found  following.   If  you  can  boot, it is
    possible to get  a password with  the same checksum  and enter the
    Bios.   The checksum  value is  stored in  Cmos.   If you create a
    recovery disk, this value is stored after the word "KEY" in the  1
    first sector (sector 0 is boot sector).  To crack Toshiba password
    (Award,  AMI  and  some  others  models),  you  can  try   CmosPwd
    (Dos/Win9x, WinNT, Linux versions) avaible at

        http://www.esiea.fr/public_html/Christophe.GRENIER/

    The one and  only way to  bypass the Power  On BIOS password  of a
    Toshiba Notebook.  This method works on all models.  This is  what
    you need:

        1. Your notebook
        2. An empty formatted diskette (720 kb or 1,44 mb)
        3. A second computer (e.g. a DOS desktop PC)
        4. A hex-editor (e.g. Norton DiskEdit or HexWorks)

    This is what you have to do:

        1. Start the desktop PC and start the hex-editor
        2. Put the disk in drive A:
        3. Change  the first  five bytes  of sector  1 (boot sector is
           sector 0) to: 4B 45 59 00 00
        4. Save it! Now you have a KEYDISK
        5. Remove the disk from drive A:
        6. Put the disk in the notebook drive
        7. Start the notebook in Boot Mode (push the reset button)
        8. Press Enter when asked for Password:
        9. You will be asked to Set Password again. Press Y and Enter.
       10. You now see the BIOS configuration where you can set a  new
           password.

    Another way is to put in DOS and/or Win (if you can get there):

        c:\> debug
         -o 70 17
         -o 71 ff
         -q

     Award BIOS password removed.  Also, for killing BIOS:

        ASM:                  Inline:
        mov al,2eh           B0 2E
        out 70h, al             E6 70
        out 71h, al             E6  71
        retn                     C3

    On the PC Chips &  Technologies boards that my company  sells, you
    can merely hold down  the END key to  clear the BIOS, Award  BIOS,
    MS6380SG motherboard (matsonic).

    www.11a.nu provides  a number  of open  source password  deciphers
    for bioses.

SOLUTION

    Nothing yet.... There'll be always the way....