mullet_man Posted November 24, 2015 Posted November 24, 2015 So I have been in a new job over a year and the school has around 600 Dell 5520/5530s. All of these were set with a BIOS admin password as you would expect. So like other manufacturers I assumed once a admin password has been set an user (or pupil in this case) can't get in and set a HDD password. But no Dell are clearly stupid. Why is it even a thing that a user can set the HDD password without needing to enter the admin password set in the BIOS. It turns out there is an extra setting about allowing non admins to make changes. Thanks Dell. Am going to have to visit 600 laptops now to ensure this extra setting is set. Although I am very surprised in the 3 years since the school has had these laptops this has only just happened the once.
NokiX Posted November 24, 2015 Posted November 24, 2015 I believe it's a similar story with toshiba as well however in our case there is no way to stop users setting the password which is a pain in the neck. To be honest however all it takes is that one pupil who thinks it's a good idea to mess around with the laptops and it cause a whole load of problems but at least your able to reconfigure the laptops to prevent it in future!
mullet_man Posted November 24, 2015 Author Posted November 24, 2015 We have some Toshiba and I used them at previous site and as far as I remember it wasn't possible once the password to enter the bios was set. Anyway yeah am very surprised it hasn't happened before. Just going to be a big job getting them all sorted. It's especially annoying as I had them all in over the summer to reimage them. Would have been a perfect time to do it then. Oh well. Keeps me busy.
computer_expert Posted November 25, 2015 Posted November 25, 2015 Have a look at dell's command & configure tool - this should allow you to create a config that enables this setting (depending on model) and push out the generated exe via startup script/sccm/MDT etc
PotNoodleTech Posted November 25, 2015 Posted November 25, 2015 Er. Wow. Just checked one of my laptops and got the same problem here. You've got to untick the "Allow Non Admin Password Changes" in the "password change" option menu.
Steve21 Posted November 25, 2015 Posted November 25, 2015 As above use the Dell tool Mass deploy changes (also useful for changing/disabling things like boot from USB/DVD to stop the admin exploit) Steve
mullet_man Posted November 25, 2015 Author Posted November 25, 2015 Cheers I'll have a look at the command tool.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now