How secure is the ATA encrypted disk?

[James A. Donald]

    --
Every ATA disk contains encryption firmware, though not 
all bioses allow you to use it.

There is a master and a user password, 32 bytes each. If 
you set them both to the same value, and that value is a 
strong 32 byte password, then the disk can only be 
booted or accessed by entering that password.

This disk firmware is what password protected laptops 
use.  It exists on most PCs, though most of them have no 
bios firmware to use it.

How strong is this standard - could someone bypass it by 
taking a soldering iron to the disk?  Is the disk
encrypted, or just the datapath to the disk? 

    --digsig
         James A. Donald
     6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
     MWz38lml3/o9dkGLtWtJQZ1tp0gyiyL5eFG9bY/j
     4tFQd7DIdLt5X6V438CPm2mQIV4/O2PZST9PN9sAM



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