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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 5:44 
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pepe wrote:
once you know how to do it, it should be simple like 1,2,3, write a little tool to extract and write back, this takes time but after that it is a few clicks... making such tool is a lot simpler than do this soldering every time... Moving the MCU is even more simple :roll:


Trust me am aware of this, but again not as easy as it looks. process requires preparation and manually extract it.
In addition I prefer the commercial ver. to make some $$$ out of this, the tool as you mentioned is not a good idea for commercial purpose but personal usage i Agree :wink:

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 8:27 
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einstein9 wrote:
"MCU locked means if you write native ROM to donor usb pcb data would be encrypted such as new charger/SpyG2 for example" ---->>@fzabkar

The point of what i did is simply using Native MCU in donor PCB without moving it

Yes, I understand that. I just don't understand why you need to wire your patient to your donor.

You say you will be offering a commercial product. What will that entail?

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 10:35 
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1. Sometimes PCB does not work, and moving MCU seems like an easier task than soldering tens of wires. This is maybe 5% of all recoveries.
2. Out of those cases when PCB is broken and after MCU is moved about 10% don't work, because the MCU itself has problems (the drive either clicks or does not come ready or similar). In these cases maybe this solution would work
3. What nobody mentioned here is that IF the keys can be extracted from the MCU, there is no need to write them to another MCU, data can be decrypted with software. So extracting keys seems like a move to the right direction.

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 10:50 
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knowing the key is just the start, one needs to know other params of the encryption, like salt value, how these are used, which might be tricky in the case of a hw based encryption.
DEK is usually wrapped using some method using the KEK, which is usually some hash of user pwd. Pwd padding, hash count, hash algo, all these methods need perfect discovery. Of course ideally this is the way, but until all these are reversed, writing the MCU key to another mcu might be just as fine.
I was also into it in some extent, but yeah, lack of time...

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 11:27 
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pepe wrote:
knowing the key is just the start, one needs to know other params of the encryption, like salt value, how these are used, which might be tricky in the case of a hw based encryption.
DEK is usually wrapped using some method using the KEK, which is usually some hash of user pwd. Pwd padding, hash count, hash algo, all these methods need perfect discovery. Of course ideally this is the way, but until all these are reversed, writing the MCU key to another mcu might be just as fine.
I was also into it in some extent, but yeah, lack of time...

I can do all that for Chargers, just need to know the MCU keys :)

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 11:32 
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nice then :)

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 27th, 2026, 12:15 
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What does this mean, and why does the commercial product need a "bridge"? Or is your interpretation of "bridge" something other than the USB-SATA bridge? Once you release the product, everyone will see how it is constructed, so I can't see the point of obfuscation.

einstein9 wrote:
3- My Research which is based on the Chinese PCBs which converts USB to SATA. we have to remove few caps and jump wire few pins from patient to donor pcb
process takes few min. and you are set & ready to go. (probably will be released next year as a commercial bridge pcb by our Team)"

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 29th, 2026, 2:28 
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Doomer wrote:
1. Sometimes PCB does not work, and moving MCU seems like an easier task than soldering tens of wires. This is maybe 5% of all recoveries.
2. Out of those cases when PCB is broken and after MCU is moved about 10% don't work, because the MCU itself has problems (the drive either clicks or does not come ready or similar). In these cases maybe this solution would work
3. What nobody mentioned here is that IF the keys can be extracted from the MCU, there is no need to write them to another MCU, data can be decrypted with software. So extracting keys seems like a move to the right direction.



I have to disagree with you here Doomer:

1- Removing the MCU Key will result in encrypted data
2- Moving Key to another MCU PCB works (tested)

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 29th, 2026, 2:31 
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fzabkar wrote:
What does this mean, and why does the commercial product need a "bridge"? Or is your interpretation of "bridge" something other than the USB-SATA bridge? Once you release the product, everyone will see how it is constructed, so I can't see the point of obfuscation.

einstein9 wrote:
3- My Research which is based on the Chinese PCBs which converts USB to SATA. we have to remove few caps and jump wire few pins from patient to donor pcb
process takes few min. and you are set & ready to go. (probably will be released next year as a commercial bridge pcb by our Team)"



I mean the new commercial product will be based on that, instead of wiring we use the jumper pins (similar to this image)


Attachments:
wd-.png
wd-.png [ 99.11 KiB | Viewed 1373 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 29th, 2026, 9:18 
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I understand you are using pogo pins, but I don't understand your reference to a bridge. The donor and patient PCBs have their own USB-SATA bridges, so are you saying that the donor PCB needs to use the patient's bridge? Otherwise you are mangling the terminology.

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 30th, 2026, 3:14 
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@ fzabkar

As i said before, the point of the bridge is as a Ref. idea probably you didn`t get my point yet.

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: August 30th, 2026, 5:11 
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What is a "Ref. idea"? And no, I don't get why you are still referring to a bridge if there is none. Most of all, I don't understand your contribution to the project, other than pogo pins.

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: Yesterday, 11:17 
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Nobody noticed, what if the MCU is physically damaged or the entire native PCB is missing.

Is there a solution ?


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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: Yesterday, 11:47 
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unknown wrote:
Nobody noticed, what if the MCU is physically damaged or the entire native PCB is missing.

Is there a solution ?



https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php ... 33#p317233
michael chiklis wrote:
Very good news. :cool:
I just got a Charger WD drive that has bad patient pcb, with sata donor i was able to access to SA but user area resulted encrypted.
But fortunately this time i was able to repair patient usb pcb, so all data was recovered. :D
Is good to know that now there is someone here that is able to extract the key from MCU from this encrypted pcb, may be useful in future.

What can you say about cases where the MCU is damaged/lost?
It will be possible to hack encryption algorithm to generate the decryption key for each case if mcu is lost??


i asked this question but i didn't get any answer about it!
At this point i believe that this is just a pogo connection between PCBs, useful when patient pcb is unrepairable but MCU is still working (in this case is much simple to just swap mcu).
With lost/damaged patient mcu this "solution" is not applicable, i believe

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: Yesterday, 12:39 
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michael chiklis wrote:
i asked this question but i didn't get any answer about it!

Sorry friend didn't see your reply.

michael chiklis wrote:
With lost/damaged patient mcu this "solution" is not applicable, i believe

Exactly.


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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: Today, 2:21 
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@michael chiklis sorry i did not pay attention to that particular note,

I did not face any completely dead MCU and i believe its difficult to have one. (can try if i get one)
in case of pcb damaged and beyond repair i believe its possible to extract the key and write it back to donor pcb.

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 Post subject: Re: WD MCU - No more...
PostPosted: 22 minutes ago 
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Quick for you guys:

Suppose someone replaced the "native usb3 pcb" with another and he wrote native rom to it

Anyone knows how to tell if this pcb is for that drive? (in case if both pcbs have the same native ROM)

:!:

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