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p style=”text-align: justify;”>Password theft has recently dominated headlines, with billions of credentials compromised. Amid this crisis, Microsoft has been pushing to replace traditional passwords with more secure authentication methods. However, a new vulnerability in the Windows BitLocker full-disk encryption tool has raised concerns about the security of even the most advanced encryption systems.
A medium-severity flaw in BitLocker, identified as CVE-2025-21210, has exposed the encryption system to a novel randomization attack targeting the AES-XTS encryption mode. This vulnerability highlights the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks against full-disk encryption systems. When exploited, it allows attackers to alter ciphertext blocks, causing sensitive data to be written to disk in plaintext.
Jason Soroko, Senior Fellow at Sectigo, explained the implications of this vulnerability. “BitLocker uses AES-XTS encryption to ensure that even if someone physically accesses the hard drive, they cannot easily read the data without the encryption key,” he noted. However, this new attack bypasses traditional decryption methods by manipulating how encrypted data is handled.
How the Randomization Attack Works
To illustrate the attack, Soroko used an analogy involving a library of books. “Rather than stealing or directly reading the books, the hacker subtly modifies certain pages (the ciphertext blo
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