MMC Unlock codes

[ajc]

Hi guys,

I have a lot of experience with forensic analysis but not much "under the hood data" recovery stuff unless you can count
dd_rescue. In my day job I see a lot of locked MMC cards from mobile handsets which are as a result impossible to image, I was
wondering .....

Is it possible to unlock an MMC card that has been locked by a mobile phone handset (i.e Nokia)
under the following conditions:

- without the password
- without losing the data
- possibly without the handset

I've read about MMC commands but as far as I could tell the only way to unlock the card without the password would result in
complete data loss.

I'm sure one of you chaps knows the answer.

Cheers

Andrew

[dick]

Reading the following thread will probably explain the state of play.......though I am not sure what you would find when you open the package to desolder the chip.

mmc-password-unlock-t7301.html

They use standard MMC-command to unlock cards with the whole data erasing like Security Erase on HDD
If you need data - unsolder chip, read it on programmator and decode translator schema to get correct data or unsolder, find the password and reset it then solder it back

[BlackST]

It is possible.

[ajc]

Thanks for the replies,

Sounds like as I suspected the only option would be to de-solder these cards.

If I were to start experiment with de-soldering and reading the chips what gear would you guys recommend ?

I've seen some of the salvation data flash gear is it obscenely expensive ?

Thanks for your help so far.

[BlackST]

Notice that :

1) not all MMC card can be opened physically (many are molded and/or use CSP)
2) assuming that the card can be opened, not all the chips/chipsets are supported by programmers
3) commercial tools for flash diagnostic / data access are NOT guaranteed to give you access to data, you still have to know some parameters or find by trial and error AND they cost a lot...
4) ... and many systems now do hard encrypt data before writing and decode it on the fly.