Is it possible to crack BitLocker?
The answer is No. BitLocker drive encryption is a full-disk encryption method. Even if you formatted the drive and the encryption is removed, the erased data is still encrypted and needs a password to be decrypted; otherwise, the data you restored is just unintelligible text.
Is it possible to break a Windows BitLocker password? Absolutely not. If you're talking about having a computer with a BitLocker encrypted disk which is switched off, then the encryption is as secure as the password itself. Brute force is the only way in.
In the US, the 5th Amendment to the Constitution protects individuals from self-incrimination. A password to a computer containing incriminating information is treated as testimony so generally, no, they cannot force you to hand over a password.
6 characters, lower-case | 8 alphanumeric, both cases | |
---|---|---|
RAR5, CPU | 56 days | Eternity |
RAR5, GPU | 2 hours | 273 years |
BitLocker, CPU | 5 years | Eternity |
BitLocker, GPU | 4 days | Eternity |
- Click the Start button, search for BitLocker, and select Manage BitLocker. ...
- Next, click Unlock drive for a USB flash drive or any removable data drive to unlock the BitLocker-encrypted drive. ...
- Enter your BitLocker password and click Unlock to unlock the drive.
Your hard drive(s) are removed from your computer
If, for any reason, your hard drives (or SSD drives) are removed from your computer, your data is securely protected with a 128-bit encryption key (users requiring higher-level security can specify 256-bit encryption when setting up BitLocker).
Note that brute-forcing the PIN may not be an option since all TPM vendors provide built-in protection against such attacks. Unless you are able to circumvent this protection, recovering the PIN may not be possible.
Security researchers identified a new vulnerability in Bitlocker as they attempted to use the tool in its basic and least intrusive configuration.
Bitlocker is optimized for newer OS'. It features better key management and stronger encryption overall. The only time you would use Veracrypt is on older machines that don't run a Windows OS that features Bitlocker (such as Windows 7).
According to Microsoft sources, BitLocker does not contain an intentionally built-in backdoor, i.e., there is no way for law enforcement to have a guaranteed passage to the data on the user's drives that is provided by Microsoft.
Can police force you to decrypt?
Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, as amended by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, empowers the central and state governments to compel assistance from any "subscriber or intermediary or any person in charge of the computer resource" in decrypting information.
The F.B.I.'s computer-analysis response team is currently working to pry data off of the broken drive. Yes, physically destroying a hard drive renders your device and the data on it unusable. But with enough motivation and the right equipment—and the F.B.I. has both—some of your data can be recovered.
At a speed of 7 guesses per second, it takes about 40 hours to go through all 1,000,000 possible combinations of ######. The script could be modified to guess more of the Recovery Key, but each additional digit would increase the attack / break time by 10x: 7 digits would require 400 hours.
If you forget your password, look for the recovery key ID in the BitLocker Encryption Options Control Panel application. Select Unlock Drive and then click I cannot remember my password. The BitLocker Encryption Options application will then display a recovery key ID that you provide to Help Desk.
If you forget your password, look for the recovery key ID in the BitLocker Encryption Options Control Panel application. Select Unlock Drive and then click I cannot remember my password. The BitLocker Encryption Options application will then display a recovery key ID that you provide to Help Desk.
- Open the Command Prompt as administrator.
- Type the following command to unlock your BitLocker drive with 48-digit recovery key: manage-bde -unlock D: -RecoveryPassword YOUR-BITLOCKER-RECOVERY-KEY-HERE. ...
- Next turn off BitLocker Encryption: manage-bde -off D:
- Now you have unlocked and disabled BitLocker.