How secure is the ATA encrypted disk?

[Dan Kaminsky]

>From what I've heard, datapath to the disk.  I've read enough of the
specs to see they're well aware a worm could brick a couple hundred
thousand hard drives.

--Dan


James A. Donald wrote:
>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? 
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