Questions Concerning BIOS T460s Passwords

[poisonite]

Hi there, Firstly thanks for reading, I've been searching through various threads and videos across the internet for the last little while and I was hoping that the wonderful folks here could help me answer some lingering questions I've got.

So I have several laptops with BIOS passwords that I'm unable to remove conventionally (no good boot drive and backdoor password doesn't exist) like my Lenovo T460s for example. I've been looking into possibly flashing a clean version of the BIOS firmware from a machine that doesn't have a password (most likely one found here on the forums or elsewhere on the web) with the process shown in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OttN8wQ1HhE

So far I've heard differing things on whether a process like this where I write a new bios directly to the chip would solve the password issue, or if there's some other location I would need to flash.

I'm hoping to have an answer for this T460s specifically as it's of the greatest importance to me but I'd also like to have the general knowledge as to what commonly works and what doesn't to remove these passwords so that I can apply it to other devices in the future.

I was also wondering how to tell between a 24x and 25x bios chip and if there are other forms that I need to be aware of.

Finally, while I'm not overly concerned with it, is there any chance of permanently bricking the bios chip as long as I copy the original firmware.bin to my system from the chip before any flash so that I may copy the original back later.

Thanks for reading, I'm still a little new here so please let me know if I need to move this to another thread section or if I must break up my questions into separate posts.

Any info is greatly appreciated, I feel very lost right now

[stj]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

modern laptops dont keep the password in the bios - you wont get to it.

the T460s though is doable.
if you search the forum there is a special bios you can flash that will erase the password, then you re-flash the original backup back to the machine.

[poisonite]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

modern laptops dont keep the password in the bios - you wont get to it.

the T460s though is doable.
if you search the forum there is a special bios you can flash that will erase the password, then you re-flash the original backup back to the machine.

Ok I appreciate the info, do you know of a process I can use on newer machines?

[poisonite]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

Oh and another question I just thought of, I found this page which seems to have the patch for my laptop. However, the file is a .rom and not a .bin. How would I use that file with the external flash with the 8pin clips as show in the video on my first post?

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...highlight=t460

[stj]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

just rename it, it's called .rom so winphlash and other software will see it

remember 2 things.
1: backup first,
2: read the instructions.
for example, there is often a security switch that detects if the covers are off - it must be held down.

[poisonite]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

Ok thanks, I’ll be sure to do all that when my programmer arrives.

Would you mind sharing what is usually changed in a patched bios to allow it to erase the password, or perhaps point me in the right direction if there’s a guide somewhere on how that works?

Also how will I know whether to use the 24x or 25x side of the programmer? Is this something I can find from the data sheet on the bios chip?

[stj]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

you use the 25x side, because the part number starts with 25
you can find a long thread on how the bios works,
but the short version is that it contains an extra program in the EFI area that erases the password from the keyboard controller and then fixes the checksums in the TPM memory.

[poisonite]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

Ok I’ll have to give that a read, do you by chance have the link to that article?

[stj]

Re: Questions Concerning BIOS Passwords

no, but it's from the same guy who posted the files in your link