There was a great blog post a few years ago that reverse engineered the on-disk data structures and demonstrated extracting the key. Of course, I can't find it now.
Microsoft themselves [1] say:
> If a device uses only local accounts, then it remains unprotected even though the data is encrypted.
There is a further condition: if you explicitly enable bitlocker then the key is no longer stored on the disk and it is secure.
When I run "manage-bde -status" on my laptop it says "Key Protectors: None found". If the TPM was being used that would be listed.
Have you tried plugging the disk or ssd from your old laptop into another computer?
No, and by default the keys are stored on the disk so it's not actually secure.
If you open the BitLocker control panel applet your drive(s) will be labelled as "Bitlocker waiting for activation".
Oh? Do tell how to retrieve those insecure keys. I have an old laptop I would love to get access to again.
There was a great blog post a few years ago that reverse engineered the on-disk data structures and demonstrated extracting the key. Of course, I can't find it now.
Microsoft themselves [1] say:
> If a device uses only local accounts, then it remains unprotected even though the data is encrypted.
There is a further condition: if you explicitly enable bitlocker then the key is no longer stored on the disk and it is secure.
When I run "manage-bde -status" on my laptop it says "Key Protectors: None found". If the TPM was being used that would be listed.
Have you tried plugging the disk or ssd from your old laptop into another computer?
[1]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/operating...