Firmware Password protection, crashed disks and SuperDuper

I want to setup a firmware password on my Mac, however I have one query.
I use SuperDuper to clone my machine each night onto an external hard disk and I understand that if I want to boot from this hard disk, I would have to turn the password protection off. However, my main reason for the backup is to have a workable system if anything ever happens to my primary (internal) startup disk (as has happened before.) In this situation, I would not be able to boot into Mac OS to turn off the password protection. Does this mean my laptop would be inaccessible?

if I want to boot from this hard disk, I would have to turn the password protection off.
Correct.
However, my main reason for the backup is to have a workable system if anything ever happens to my primary (internal) startup disk (as has happened before.) In this situation, I would not be able to boot into Mac OS to turn off the password protection. Does this mean my laptop would be inaccessible?
No, you should in that circumstance be able to boot from the Mac OS X 10.5 installer disk and use the Firmware Password Utility from the Utilities menu to unlock it.
Note, though, that if you clone your system to an external hard drive, to my mind you rather defeat the purpose of setting the firmware password since a malicious user could just connect your external drive to another system to get access to your data. True, they couldn't boot your computer, but that level of data protection could be achieved just by turning off automatic login in Mac OS X and making sure you have a strong password on your user account. So I'm not sure of the benefit of setting a firmware password if you're going to have your backup hard drive just sitting there where anyone could grab it.

Similar Messages

  • Intel iMac, Open Firmware Password Protection and booting from CD

    I have an Intel iMac I'm setting up for use in a public library. I want to prevent single user login with the Open Firmware Password Protection utility, but if I do, how do I boot from the OS disc, zap PRAM, etc? The OFPP page has instructions on removing the OF password, but it does not work on Intel Mac's. Also, is there an alternative way to prevent single user login?

    No, you were right, I just misunderstood. Technically it's called single-user mode. But, you were right.
    Anyway,
    Since it seems that there might not be an answer directly related to your topic you could maybe give this a try.
    In Simple Finder the user can not restart or shutdown. They can only sleep and log out.
    The other problem, however, is if they log out then there are those Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down buttons on the login screen. Luckily, though they can be turned off.
    So as of now, if some is logged in in a Simple Finder account they can not restart or shut down the computer in order to get into single-user mode. They can also not get into the Administer account since it is password protected.
    The only problem I can see with this is that a person could do a hard shut down, hold the power button down until it turns off, and then boot up and enter single-user mode.
    If you want to go ahead and do this, in order to get the computer up and running in the mean time, just post back and I'll be glad to help you set up a Simple Finder account.

  • Forgotten Firmware password protection  And no OS on hard drive

    I really need to know how to get it off. My hardware has been wipped and there is absolutly nothing on it. And i need to take Firmware password protection off in order to install anything onto it.

    See this link for resetting an open firmware password:
    http://www.macforensicslab.com/ProductsAndServices/index.php?mainpage=document_general_info&productsid=69&zenid=74f4076fb96074db45dc274f7de86bc6

  • Disable Firmware Password Protection

    I have a G4 Digital Audio. Since i installed a 1,7GHz procesor upgrade (Sonnet Encore) and had to apply a patch to the firmware it seems that open firmware password protection is enabled. Now i'm in trouble as i can't start up from a selected disk (i didn't consider it's on a > 128 GByte partition) and as i don't know the password (i haven't enabled it) i can't use the option key, so i can't startup the computer from any disk. Reading this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482 i realized about the password protection and that there may be a way to bypass it having fisical access to the computer. Any hint what i can try to start up my computer again?

    Hi, Olaf -
    There is a way to do that, but to help others avoid having their Mac's security breached (particularly those with laptop machines) it is not publicized. You should contact Apple Support by phone, or take your machine to an AASP.

  • Forgot firmware password/wrong  boot  disk selected

    Hi all, i've really screwed up, and need your help urgently. If I could just get the machine Booting fro the internal HD I'd be SO gratefull! Here goes ...
    Some weeks ago, i set the firmware password on m y MacBook Pro. I set it to something complicated but memorable ... But now, of course, I can't remember it!
    I've been googleing the subject, but there seems to be nothing about resetting the MB Pros Extensible Firmware.
    The problem is even bigger, because I wanted to repair permissions yesterday and thus booted from the indtall dvd. I had forgotten about the EF passeord, so I set the startup disk to be the DVD drive, and now I cant get the machine to boot from its harddrive, so I have no access to my data.
    I have tried to remove the 1gig ram block, that should reset the password in the old Open Firmware macs but no dice!
    Im desperate because later today Im being interviewed about my mac and tech in general, and i really need my notes and stuff on the mac, plus it would be so embarrassing that iv'e set a password i cant remember - might as well cancel the interview
    Is there anyway to make the MBPro boot from the harddrive again, or is there a reset button on the motherboard?
    PLEASE tell me there is something I can do? I'm desperate

    In comparing the 2 kinds of computers...PowerPC v. Intel, there is a difference between what the firmware lock blocks:
    When turned on using one of the models listed above [Non Intel], Open Firmware Password Protection:
    Blocks the ability to use the "C" key to start up from an optical disc.
    Blocks the ability to use the "N" key to start up from a NetBoot server.
    Blocks the ability to use the "T" key to start up in Target Disk Mode (on computers that offer this feature).
    Blocks the ability to start up in Verbose mode by pressing the Command-V key combination during startup.
    Block the ability to start up a system in Single-user mode by pressing the Command-S key combination during startup.
    Blocks a reset of Parameter RAM (PRAM) by pressing the Command-Option-P-R key combination during startup.
    Requires the password to use the Startup Manager, accessed by pressing the Option key during startup (see below).
    Requires the password to enter commands after starting up in Open Firmware, which is done by pressing the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
    When turned on using an Intel-based Macintosh, Open Firmware Password Protection:
    Blocks the ability to use the "C" key to start up from an optical disc.
    Blocks the ability to use the "N" key to start up from a NetBoot server.
    Blocks the ability to use the "T" key to start up in Target Disk Mode (on computers that offer this feature).
    Blocks the ability to use the "D" key to start up from the Diagnostic volume of the Install DVD.
    Blocks a reset of Parameter RAM (PRAM) by pressing the Command-Option-P-R key combination during startup.
    Requires the password to use the Startup Manager, accessed by pressing the Option key during startup (see below).
    Interestingly, command - s key combination (single user) is not stated as blocked...Maybe someone who knows how to do things at that level can help.

  • Open An Encrypted, Password Protected Saprsebundle Disk Image With iPhone?

    Is it possible to open an encrypted, password protected sparsebundle disk image using an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch that is stored on a NAS drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station?
    If so, how do I do it?
    If not, would you be able to explain why not?
    Thanks, Alex

    Hi Robert,
    > Once you through a sudo in there, you lose the option
    to have a regular user
       That's not really true. Sudo is one of the most flexible commands around and not only can a regular user use it but they can use it without a password. Mind you I'm not suggesting that you make all users admins; you can specify both of these privileges for this command only. All you have to do is to put a line like the following in your /etc/sudoers file. (with sudo visudo of course)
    ALL ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/hdiutil create -encryption -certificate*-stdinpass -type SPARSE -fs "HFS+" -volname-size
    I've included wildcards so that the cert file, volume name, size and image are arbitrary but the others must be in the user's command to qualify. I realize that you'll want different options to use FileVault certs but I don't know how to do that so I used your original example as my example.
       Of course it wouldn't be that easy for your lusers to get all of those options correct so the next thing you do is to wrap the command, with it's sudo preface, in a shell script that parses the cert file, volume name, size and image from the options the user passes to the script and puts those into the command with the right syntax. If you want to get really fancy, the script could prompt the user for any arguments that were omitted. Your lusers will think that you created this really cool command and never know that sudo was involved.
    Gary
    ~~~~
       If you give a man enough rope, he'll claim he's tied up
       at the office.

  • Password-protected Sparse Disk Image Bundle remembered after eject

    I use password-protected Sparse Disk Image Bundles to protect some files. Every now and then, when I open the image, it doesn't ask me for the password and opens immediately.
    At first, I thought I may have inadvertantly agreed to save the password in Keychains. But that is not the case. After running some tests, I noticed it may take up to 3 ejects before it asks me for the password again. It seems to happen more when I modify files in the disk image, but not when I simply read files. I suspect it is not completely unmounting the image.
    This is potentially a security issue. Any suggestion on what I can do short of re-ejecting images until it asks for a password again?

    You may have successfully increased the sparsebundle's potential capacity while failing to resize the contained partition. That seems to be what happened when I tried this myself. A resized sparsebundle containing the same files would not occupy much more space on disk than it did before.
    *Provided you have a backup*, you could try the following:
    Remount the image, then run Disk Utility and select the .sparsebundle (non-indented icon) in the left pane. Click on the Partition tab, and then see if you can pull down the lower right corner of the disk image partition to increase its size. If you can, then drag it to the bottom and click Apply.
    Again don't try this without a backup. It may not be worth doing in any event - it's easy enough just to make a new, bigger sparsebundle and copy your stuff over.

  • Can't Bypass firmware password protection. Don't remember it

    Hello, so i've recently installed windows 7 for bootcamp. But when i press option, it takes me to a lock symbol with a password protection. I dont remember my firmware password, and i've looked everywhere for a solution. Resetting ram doesnt work, downloading the open firmware password utility doesnt work, and pressing cmd + r doesnt work either. Im running Lion v 10.7.4. Help! I certainly do not want to reboot everytime to switch partitions!

    MacBook Air: Recovering a lost EFI firmware password - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2391 - the only way to reset OF password on MBA is service appointment with Apple.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3892243

  • Firmware Password protection = slow firewire speeds

    i've been trouble-shooting a seagate freeagent fw800 external drive which is suffering from abnormally slow read speeds when connected to my macbook pro. i tested it with Drive Genius's Benchtest - around 8mb/s. the drive works fine on my imac, so the drive isn't at fault.
    after much head-scratching, i remembered that i have firmware password protection switched on, so i just turned it off with the 10.6 dvd and retested the drive, and it performs normally (around 40mb/s).
    i've not found any mention of this issue apart from one post from 2 years ago:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8448187
    so now i have to choose between a safer mac, or decent read/write speeds for my audio multitracking work. great. its not exactly convenient having to turn FPW on and off via the dvd...
    anyway just thought i'd mention this for future baffled searchers.
    reported it as a possible bug to apple too.

    This should allow you to reset the root password
    1. Restart your MBP while holding down Apple/S
    You will see a bunch of scrolling text, when that stops
    2. At the Localhost% prompt type:
    */sbin/mount -uw /*
    /sbin/SystemStarter

    You will then see the services starting up. 

    3. When the Localhost% prompt reappears, type:
    *passwd root
*
    It will then ask you to type the new root password twice
    4. After entering the new password, type:
    reboot
    5. Login as root with your new password and proceed from there.

  • REQUEST: Support for password-protected PDF files and SD-card installation

    I would like to request for the features in the topic.
    The current version can't open password-protected files hence I still need to download them on a PC before viewing them.
    SD-card install is necessary for some devices running on Froyo as they don't have a lot of internal memory.
    Thanks in advance.

    Hi AndrewSV,
    I am sorry to hear that you are having problems opening password-protected PDF files, and that the users are being prompted for a password, which shouldn't be required for Viewing and Printing the file.
    I have opened up a [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=900822 bug for this issue], and our engineers and volunteers will be able to investigate this issue.
    Yes, please attach the write-protected PDF as an example, so that they can see what's happening.
    Thank you for your help! =)
    - Ralph

  • Why does my iphone phone by it self ?even though its password protected, switched off, and has a hard cover over the screen.

    why does my iphone phone by it self ?even though its password protected, switched off, and has a hard cover over the screen.

    the phone started to phone by itself  only numbers in my addressbook, now its phoning random people, has any one any ideas?  also i find it pure cheek from apple that i paid for a phone that cost 100,s € and i have to pay for tech support.

  • Open Firmware Password Protection?

    Anyone had any luck setting this up? I don't see it on the DVD... I am hesitant to use the one from my Tiger CDs... anyone know how to setup Open Firmware Password Protection on Leopard?

    Thanks for detailing your solution Mac Campbell.
    Unfortunately I can't locate the Firmware Password Protection application in the directory you listed nor any other folder for that matter. I'm not confident its been installed on my system (clean install of Leopard btw). Could you please confirm its exact location for this Terminal newbie.
    Many thanks in advance.
    Steve

  • Firmware Password Protection - Prompt command to check

    Is there a prompt command to check if the Firmware Password Protection is enable or not?

    I've never seen any, but everything should be detailed in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352

  • Format a password protected hard disk in Disk Utility in OSX

    Well, this isn't exactly old, but I have a Toshiba MK6034GAX Hard Disk drive from a Laptop (It's a 60GB PC Hard Drive), It got replaced one day, as it has the "HDD Password:" prompt at startup on a Laptop computer, and I was wondering how I could format it in Disk Utility (The version in OS X 10.4.11). Is there any utility for unlocking HDDs with the "HDD Password:" prompt for OS X?
    Dr. Power User

    Use any old utility under OS 9 to erase it, then Disk Utility will not see it as password-protected. You could try Lido or any of the others on this page:
    http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/hd.html

  • How much does it cost to unlock a Firmware password protected computer?

    I'm just curious, so how much does it cost to repair and unlock a firmware password locked Mac?
    Because they say: Only Apple retail stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers can unlock these computers protected by a firmware password.
    How much does it cost?

    I'd expect the price varies, and might even be free with good ID and clear ownership.
    As for the price, call Apple or the local Apple Authorized Service Provider, and ask them.
    Or bring your photo ID and your Mac into the shop, and ask directly.

Maybe you are looking for