BIOS Passwords

Sun Jul 4 21:23:45 2004 BIOS Passwords

Posted by Tony Lawrence
Search Keys: bios password, case locks
Referencing: http://www.elfqrin.com/docs/biospw.html

This could definitely be useful sometime. It covers various methods of resetting the BIOS or using backdoor passwords to get by a locked up box. The assumption, of course, is that you have a legitimate reason for doing so; for example that the little sticky note that had the password dried up and fell of the monitor, where it was subsequently swept up by the cleaning crew and has already been taken to the incinerator. Adrianne, who wrote the sticky note when she originally assigned the password, was fortunate enough to have hit the Megabucks lottery last night, and called in this morning to announce her retirement, effective immediately, and while she did have a few choice words she wished passed to the boss, it is doubtful that any of those were the BIOS password.

If it weren't that the Most Important Spreadsheet in the whole company was under Adrianne's care, you could just toss the whole darn thing because most of the hard drive is just full of Adrianne's browsing history and cookies from eBay, Amazon, and every other site you have ever heard of. But without that spreadsheet, the boss will be unpleasantly unhappy and it's even possible that paychecks won't get out on time. Marianne is certain that the password is probably the same as the name of one of Adrianne's cat's, but, well, she did have a lot of cats, didn't she?

The very first thing to do, even before you read the article, is to carefully remove all the other stickies so you will be able to both read the entire screen and reach all the keyboard keys. Apparently Adrianne only needed the number keys and arrows, because most of the rest of the keyboard is also covered with stickies. DO NOT THROW AWAY THE STICKIES! Purchase a cheap photo album, and place each on its own page, along with another piece of paper annotating where it was removed from ("upper left corner monitor, just under hanging Troll doll"). Although these mysterious sequences may be meaningless now, it is always possible that Adrianne will repent her harsh parting words and be able to tell you what each secret word will unlock, because Adrianne surely did more than just add a BIOS password: that Most Important Spreadsheet is certain to be password protected also. If Adrianne continues to giggle and hang up when you call, at least you can try each sticky note in sequence by flipping through the photo album as you curse her under your breath.

One final hint: hold the Troll Doll for ransom against Adrianne providing all the passwords. She may be rich now, but that doll was her closest friend for many a year.

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