BitUnlocker: Leveraging Windows Recovery to Extract BitLocker Secrets

This talk reveals our in-depth vulnerability research on the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and its implications for BitLocker, Windows’ cornerstone for data protection. We will walk through the research methodology, uncover new 0-day vulnerabilities, and showcase full-chain exploitations that enabled us to bypass BitLocker and extract all the protected data in several different ways. This talk goes beyond theory - as each vulnerability will be accompanied by a demo video showcasing the complete exploitation chain. To conclude the talk, we will share Microsoft’s key takeaways from this research and outline our approach to hardening WinRE and BitLocker.