[sf-lug] (forw) Re: Laptop computer(s) and its/their so-called 'root' password(s)

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> -----

Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2019 17:10:09 -0700
From: Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com>
To: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: [sf-lug] Laptop computer(s) and its/their so-called 'root'
	password(s)
Reply-To: bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com
Organization: 0



On 9/28/19 4:33 PM, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):
> 
>> Of course I tried all those measures and was surprised it did not work.
>> But that is what you get for cheap.
>> 
>> I certainly got that 6420 cheaply and learned some things using it.
> Gosh, I don't think you tried very hard.  Two minutes of Web-searching
> on 'dell e6420 bios password' brought up the fact that this model of
> laptop has a skeleton-key password that is derived as a hash from the
> unit's serial number, and some kind soul has set up a site to generate
> the hash for you if you enter the unit S/N.   https://bios-pw.org/
> 
> I'm also surprised that you didn't check that you can get into the BIOS
> Setup before buying it.  I mean, you've been around computers for a long
> time, yet you walked right into that one -- and then didn't spend two
> minutes at a search engine finding a way out.

    Well I did not get to that web page in time to save the E6420
and the pages I found
were not that one.   As for the time of purchase I was not so well
informed about
the problems encountered with the BiOS password on the Dell
E6420s.   The other
machines I had either had no BIOS password set or they had no BIOS password
as was common in the old days when I was playing with my C=64, 64/128,
or Amigas.

    Bobbie Sellers





----- End forwarded message -----