BCU 3.2.3.1 Once Only Password Change

[Niall_Millar]

We are trying to set our BIOS password, and settings, using the BIOS Configuration utility.

On older models we are using version 2.50.3.1 with plaintext passwords with no problems.

On newer models we are using version 3.2.3.1 and we are finding that setting the password works first time only.  On machines previously configured with the new version of BCU it fails with a return value of "10 - Failed to change Setup Password. This may not be a supported platform or the new password is not valid for this platform."

If we have previously set the password manually, BCU works fine.

If we have previously set the password with BCU, and we reapply the same password, it works (it returns 0)

If we have previously set the password with BCU, and we reapply the new password, it fails (it returns 10)

Manually change the BIOS password on the machine allows BCU to then work its magic, or we can go back to using the older tool, but would rather not go round hundreds of machines to rectify this issue (that's why we're using BCU).

Specifying the path file names relatively or absolutely makes no difference.

Is this a known issue?  Is there a workaround?  Or does it sound like I'm being daft?

[pterodactyl]

Probably a silly question, but are you providing encrypted files for both old and new passwords, and are you sure they are the right ones?

Example: "biosconfigutility /cspwdfile:current.bin /nspwdfile:new.bin"

What platform is this failing on?

I did try it on one system and it worked OK.

------------------------------------------------------------

I am an HP employee, but do not speak for the company.

[pterodactyl]

Here is a capture of my test session, plus comments:

Set password, no current password:

D:\>biosconfigutility /nspwdfileassword.bin
<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="E800" Date="2015/03/18" Time="12:32:27" UTC="-7" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

Set password using current password:

D:\>biosconfigutility /cspwdfileassword.bin /nspwdfileassword.bin
<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="E800" Date="2015/03/18" Time="12:33:15" UTC="-7" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

Set password using new password:

D:\>biosconfigutility /cspwdfileassword.bin /nspwdfile:12345678.bin
<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="E800" Date="2015/03/18" Time="12:33:33" UTC="-7" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

Clear password:

D:\>biosconfigutility /cspwdfile:12345678.bin /nspwdfile:""
<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="E800" Date="2015/03/18" Time="12:34:27" UTC="-7" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

------------------------------------------------------------

I am an HP employee, but do not speak for the company.

[Niall_Millar]

Thanks for replying, unfortunately I've not had a chance to sit down and do further testing until now.  The cleanest replication of the problem is given in the following steps.

In my testing we have two passwords, matching two password files - old.bin and new.bin

Running on Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit, on an 8200 Elite SFF called "HW-SRG12-PC017"

Starting with a BIOS password manually set to old.bin, all run from an elevated command prompt.

1 Change from Old to New Works OK

c:\BCU3>BiosConfigUtility.exe /nspwdfile:new.bin /cspwdfileld.bin

<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="HW-SRG12-PC017" Date="2015/05/27" Ti
me="08:47:20" UTC="1" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

2 Change back from New to Old Works OK

c:\BCU3>BiosConfigUtility.exe /nspwdfileld.bin /cspwdfile:new.bin

<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="HW-SRG12-PC017" Date="2015/05/27" Ti
me="08:47:29" UTC="1" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>
 

3 Changing again from Old to New Fails

c:\BCU3>BiosConfigUtility.exe /nspwdfile:new.bin /cspwdfileld.bin

<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="HW-SRG12-PC017" Date="2015/05/27" Ti
me="08:47:55" UTC="1" >
<ERROR msg="Failed to change Setup Password. This may not be a supported platfor
m or the new password is not valid for this platform." />
<ERROR msg="BCU return value" real="10" translated="10" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

4 Changing with current password works

c:\LocalStore\1h\BCU3>BiosConfigUtility.exe /nspwdfileld.bin /cspwdfileld.bin
<BIOSCONFIG Version="3.2.3.1" Computername="HW-SRG12-PC017" Date="2015/05/27" Ti
me="08:48:03" UTC="1" >
<SUCCESS msg="Successfully modified Setup Password." />
<Information msg="BCU return value" real="0" translated="0" />
</BIOSCONFIG>

I've also done some testing with restarts and it looks like restarting between steps 2 and 3 seems to work which suggests there may be some caching of the passwords per session?

Because we have a range of potential BIOS passwords (or no password) we have a script that tries the possible variations and this is failing.  It tries first with no password, so I'm wondering if that might put the BCU into some sort of 'lock' state?