How to Retrieve BitLocker Recovery Key in Windows 10
※ Download: Get bitlocker recovery key
For planned scenarios, such as a known hardware or firmware upgrades, you can avoid initiating recovery by temporarily suspending BitLocker protection. MBAM can be used as part of a Microsoft System Center deployment or as a stand-alone solution. Conversely, if a portable computer is not connected to its docking station when BitLocker is turned on, then it might need to be disconnected from the docking station when it is unlocked. Or BitLocker recovery key might have been printed to Microsoft Print to PDF, go to search for PDF file on your PC.
Step 1: Go to OneDrive website, sign-in with your Microsoft account. I don't see any bitlocker keys, tabs, or attributes.
EOAS Help Desk - End-users should contact their technical support for assistance.
Organizations can use BitLocker recovery information saved in Active Directory Domain Services AD DS to access BitLocker-protected data. Creating a recovery model for BitLocker while you are planning your BitLocker deployment is recommended. This article assumes that you understand how to set up AD DS to back up BitLocker recovery information automatically, and what types of recovery information are saved to AD DS. This article does not detail how to configure AD DS to store the BitLocker recovery information. What is BitLocker recovery? BitLocker recovery is the process by which you can restore access to a BitLocker-protected drive in the event that you cannot unlock the drive normally. If your organization allows users to print or store recovery passwords, the user can type in the 48-digit recovery password that they printed or stored on a USB drive or with your Microsoft Account online. Saving a recovery password with your Microsoft Account online is only allowed when BitLocker is used on a PC that is not a member of a domain. If the drive is an operating system drive, the drive must be mounted as a data drive on another computer for the data recovery agent to unlock it. Storing recovery passwords in AD DS is recommended to provide a way for IT professionals to be able to obtain recovery passwords for drives in their organization if needed. For more information, see. What causes BitLocker recovery? However, devices with TPM 2. In some instances depending on the computer manufacturer and the BIOS , the docking condition of the portable computer is part of the system measurement and must be consistent to validate the system status and unlock BitLocker. This means that if a portable computer is connected to its docking station when BitLocker is turned on, then it might also need to be connected to the docking station when it is unlocked. Conversely, if a portable computer is not connected to its docking station when BitLocker is turned on, then it might need to be disconnected from the docking station when it is unlocked. Anti-hammering logic is software or hardware methods that increase the difficulty and cost of a brute force attack on a PIN by not accepting PIN entries until after a certain amount of time has passed. Some BIOS or UEFI settings can be used to prevent the enumeration of the TPM to the operating system. When implemented, this option can make the TPM hidden from the operating system. When the TPM is hidden, BIOS and UEFI secure startup are disabled, and the TPM does not respond to commands from any software. This can prevent the entry of enhanced PINs. Changing this setting in the BIOS would cause BitLocker to enter recovery mode because the PCR measurement will be different. For example, a non-compliant implementation may record volatile data such as time in the TPM measurements, causing different measurements on each startup and causing BitLocker to start in recovery mode. Note: The BitLocker TPM initialization process sets the usage authorization value to zero, so another user or process must explicitly have changed this value. Note: Before you begin recovery, we recommend that you determine what caused recovery. This might help prevent the problem from occurring again in the future. For instance, if you determine that an attacker has modified your computer by obtaining physical access, you can create new security policies for tracking who has physical presence. After the recovery password has been used to recover access to the PC, BitLocker will reseal the encryption key to the current values of the measured components. For planned scenarios, such as a known hardware or firmware upgrades, you can avoid initiating recovery by temporarily suspending BitLocker protection. Because suspending BitLocker leaves the drive fully encrypted, the administrator can quickly resume BitLocker protection after the planned task has been completed. Using suspend and resume also reseals the encryption key without requiring the entry of the recovery key. Note: If suspended BitLocker will automatically resume protection when the PC is rebooted, unless a reboot count is specified using the manage-bde command line tool. If software maintenance requires the computer be restarted and you are using two-factor authentication, you can enable BitLocker Network Unlock to provide the secondary authentication factor when the computers do not have an on-premises user to provide the additional authentication method. Recovery has been described within the context of unplanned or undesired behavior, but you can also cause recovery as an intended production scenario, in order to manage access control. For example, when you redeploy desktop or laptop computers to other departments or employees in your enterprise, you can force BitLocker into recovery before the computer is given to a new user. Testing recovery Before you create a thorough BitLocker recovery process, we recommend that you test how the recovery process works for both end users people who call your helpdesk for the recovery password and administrators people who help the end user get the recovery password. The —forcerecovery command of manage-bde is an easy way for you to step through the recovery process before your users encounter a recovery situation. When using Modern Standby devices such as Surface devices , the -forcerecovery option is not recommended because BitLocker will have to be unlocked and disabled manually from the WinRE environment before the OS can boot up again. For more information, see. Planning your recovery process When planning the BitLocker recovery process, first consult your organization's current best practices for recovering sensitive information. For example: How does your enterprise handle lost Windows passwords? How does your organization perform smart card PIN resets? You can use these best practices and related resources people and tools to help formulate a BitLocker recovery model. Organizations that rely on BitLocker Drive Encryption and BitLocker To Go to protect data on a large number of computers and removable drives running the Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7 operating systems and Windows to Go should consider using the Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring MBAM Tool version 2. MBAM makes BitLocker implementations easier to deploy and manage and allows administrators to provision and monitor encryption for operating system and fixed drives. MBAM prompts the user before encrypting fixed drives. MBAM also manages recovery keys for fixed and removable drives, making recovery easier to manage. MBAM can be used as part of a Microsoft System Center deployment or as a stand-alone solution. For more info, see. After a BitLocker recovery has been initiated, users can use a recovery password to unlock access to encrypted data. You must consider both self-recovery and recovery password retrieval methods for your organization. We recommend that your organization create a policy for self-recovery. If self-recovery includes using a password or recovery key stored on a USB flash drive, the users should be warned not to store the USB flash drive in the same place as the PC, especially during travel, for example if both the PC and the recovery items are in the same bag it would be very easy for access to be gained to the PC by an unauthorized user. Another policy to consider is having users contact the Helpdesk before or after performing self-recovery so that the root cause can be identified. Recovery password retrieval If the user does not have a recovery password in a printout or on a USB flash drive, the user will need to be able to retrieve the recovery password from an online source. If the PC is a member of a domain the recovery password can be backed up to AD DS. However, this does not happen by default, you must have configured the appropriate Group Policy settings before BitLocker was enabled on the PC. The following policy settings define the recovery methods that can be used to restore access to a BitLocker-protected drive if an authentication method fails or is unable to be used. Select the Do not enable BitLocker until recovery information is stored in AD DS check box if you want to prevent users from enabling BitLocker unless the computer is connected to the domain and the backup of BitLocker recovery information for the drive to AD DS succeeds. Note: If the PCs are part of a workgroup, users should be advised to save their BitLocker recovery password with their Microsoft Account online. Having an online copy of your BitLocker recovery password is recommended to help ensure that you do not lose access to your data in the event that recovery is required. The BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer for Active Directory Users and Computers tool allows domain administrators to view BitLocker recovery passwords for specific computer objects in Active Directory. You can use the following list as a template for creating your own recovery process for recovery password retrieval. This sample process uses the BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer for Active Directory Users and Computers tool. If the user does not know the name of the computer, ask the user to read the first word of the Drive Label in the BitLocker Drive Encryption Password Entry user interface. This is the computer name when BitLocker was enabled and is probably the current name of the computer. Verify the user's identity You should verify that the person that is asking for the recovery password is truly the authorized user of that computer. You may also wish to verify that the computer with the name the user provided belongs to the user. Locate the recovery password in AD DS Locate the Computer object with the matching name in AD DS. Because Computer object names are listed in the AD DS global catalog, you should be able to locate the object even if you have a multi-domain forest. Multiple recovery passwords If multiple recovery passwords are stored under a computer object in AD DS, the name of the BitLocker recovery information object includes the date that the password was created. If at any time you are unsure what password to provide, or if you think you might be providing the incorrect password, ask the user to read the eight character password ID that is displayed in the recovery console. Since the password ID is a unique value that is associated with each recovery password stored in AD DS, running a query using this ID will find the correct password to unlock the encrypted volume. Gather information to determine why recovery occurred Before you give the user the recovery password, you should gather any information that will help determine why the recovery was needed, in order to analyze the root cause during the post-recovery analysis. For more info about post-recovery analysis, see. Give the user the recovery password Because the recovery password is 48 digits long the user may need to record the password by writing it down or typing it on a different computer. If you are using MBAM, the recovery password will be regenerated after it is recovered from the MBAM database to avoid the security risks associated with an uncontrolled password. Note: Because the 48-digit recovery password is long and contains a combination of digits, the user might mishear or mistype the password. The boot-time recovery console uses built-in checksum numbers to detect input errors in each 6-digit block of the 48-digit recovery password, and offers the user the opportunity to correct such errors. Post-recovery analysis When a volume is unlocked using a recovery password, an event is written to the event log and the platform validation measurements are reset in the TPM to match the current configuration. Unlocking the volume means that the encryption key has been released and is ready for on-the-fly encryption when data is written to the volume, and on-the-fly decryption when data is read from the volume. After the volume is unlocked, BitLocker behaves the same way, regardless of how the access was granted. If you notice that a computer is having repeated recovery password unlocks, you might want to have an administrator can perform post-recovery analysis to determine the root cause of the recovery and refresh BitLocker platform validation so that the user no longer needs to enter a recovery password each time that the computer starts up. Properly analyzing the state of the computer and detecting tampering may reveal threats that have broader implications for enterprise security. While an administrator can remotely investigate the cause of recovery in some cases, the end user might need to bring the computer that contains the recovered drive on site to analyze the root cause further. Which PCR profile is in use on the PC? If a token was lost, where might the token be? To help you answer these questions, use the BitLocker command-line tool to view the current configuration and protection mode for example, manage-bde -status. Scan the event log to find events that help indicate why recovery was initiated for example, if boot file change occurred. Both of these capabilities can be performed remotely. Resolve the root cause After you have identified what caused recovery, you can reset BitLocker protection and avoid recovery on every startup. The details of this reset can vary according to the root cause of the recovery. If you cannot determine the root cause, or if malicious software or a rootkit might have infected the computer, Helpdesk should apply best-practice virus policies to react appropriately. Note: You can perform a BitLocker validation profile reset by suspending and resuming BitLocker. If you are not logged in with an administrator account you must provide administrative credentials at this time. Lost startup key If you have lost the USB flash drive that contains the startup key, then you must unlock the drive by using the recovery key and then create a new startup key. Changes to boot files This error might occur if you updated the firmware. As a best practice you should suspend BitLocker before making changes the firmware and then resume protection after the update has completed. This prevents the computer from going into recovery mode. However if changes were made when BitLocker protection was on you can simply log on to the computer using the recovery password and the platform validation profile will be updated so that recovery will not occur the next time. Windows RE and BitLocker Device Encryption Windows Recovery Environment RE can be used to recover access to a drive protected by BitLocker Device Encryption. If a PC is unable to boot after two failures, Startup Repair will automatically start. When Startup Repair is launched automatically due to boot failures, it will only execute operating system and driver file repairs, provided that the boot logs or any available crash dump point to a specific corrupted file. If the Windows RE environment has been modified, for example the TPM has been disabled, the drives will stay locked until the BitLocker recovery key is provided. If Startup Repair is not able to be run automatically from the PC and instead Windows RE is manually started from a repair disk, the BitLocker recovery key must be provided to unlock the BitLocker—protected drives. Using additional recovery information Besides the 48-digit BitLocker recovery password, other types of recovery information are stored in Active Directory. This section describes how this additional information can be used. BitLocker key package If the recovery methods discussed earlier in this document do not unlock the volume, you can use the BitLocker Repair tool to decrypt the volume at the block level. The tool uses the BitLocker key package to help recover encrypted data from severely damaged drives. You can then use this recovered data to salvage encrypted data, even after the correct recovery password has failed to unlock the damaged volume. We recommend that you still save the recovery password. A key package cannot be used without the corresponding recovery password. Note: You must use the BitLocker Repair tool repair-bde to use the BitLocker key package. The BitLocker key package is not saved by default. To save the package along with the recovery password in AD DS you must select the Backup recovery password and key package option in the Group Policy settings that control the recovery method. You can also export the key package from a working volume. For more details on how to export key packages, see. Resetting recovery passwords You should invalidate a recovery password after it has been provided and used. It should also be done when you intentionally want to invalidate an existing recovery password for any reason. The procedure identifies the command and the syntax for this method. The sample script in the procedure illustrates this functionality. The sample script creates a new recovery password and invalidates all other passwords. From the screen copy the ID of the recovery password. You must customize the script to match the volume where you want to test password reset. Note: To manage a remote computer, you can specify the remote computer name rather than the local computer name. You can use the following sample script to create a VBScript file to reset the recovery passwords. Number 0 Then WScript. ExecQuery strQuery If colTargetVolumes. GetKeyProtectors nKeyProtectorTypeIn, aKeyProtectorIDs If nRC 0 Then WScript. Quit -1 End If ' Delete those key protectors other than the one we just added. DeleteKeyProtector sKeyProtectorID If nRC 0 Then WScript. Quit -1 Else ' no output 'WScript. Old passwords have been removed. You must have Read access to BitLocker recovery passwords that are stored in AD DS. You must have local administrator access to the working volume, before any damage has occurred. The following sample script exports all previously-saved key packages from AD DS. You can use the following sample script to create a VBScript file to retrieve the BitLocker key package from AD DS. Arguments Select Case args. Quit 1 End If ' Found object matching name Do Until objRecordSet. MoveNext Loop ' Clean up. FileExists strFilePathCurrent Then WScript. Please use a different path. Quit -1 End If ' Save binary data to the file SaveBinaryDataText strFilePathCurrent, strKeyPackage WScript. CreateTextFile FileName 'Convert binary data To text And write them To the file TextStream. Quit The following sample script exports a new key package from an unlocked, encrypted volume. Arguments Select Case args. Number 0 Then WScript. ExecQuery strQuery If colTargetVolumes. GetKeyProtectors nNumericalKeyProtectorType, aNumericalKeyProtectorIDs If nRC 0 Then WScript. GetKeyProtectors nExternalKeyProtectorType, aExternalKeyProtectorIDs If nRC 0 Then WScript. Check that BitLocker protection is on for this drive. Quit -1 End If End If ' Get some information about the chosen key protector ID ' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ' is the type valid? Quit -1 End If ' what's a string that can be used to describe it? GetKeyPackage strDefaultKeyProtectorID, oKeyPackage If nRC 0 Then WScript. FileExists strFilePath Then WScript. Please use a different path. Quit -1 End If Dim oKeyPackageByte, bKeyPackage For Each oKeyPackageByte in oKeyPackage 'WScript. GetKeyProtectorNumericalPassword strDefaultKeyProtectorID, sNumericalPassword If nRC 0 Then WScript. Quit -1 End If WScript. CreateTextFile FileName 'Convert binary data To text And write them To the file TextStream.
The easiest solution get bitlocker recovery key to use Active Directory Users And Computers console. You must have Read access to BitLocker recovery passwords that are stored in AD DS. Write it down on a piece of paper that you keep somewhere safe, or store in an external USB flash drive. If Startup Repair is not able to be run automatically from the PC and instead Windows RE is manually started from a repair disk, the BitLocker recovery key must be provided to unlock the BitLocker—protected drives. How to Get BitLocker Recovery Key from CMD in Windows 10 Here is How to Get BitLocker Recovery Key from CMD in Windows 10. The BitLocker key package is not saved by default. Is there anyway to unlock it now. Note: You must use the BitLocker Repair tool repair-bde to use the BitLocker key package. Step-3: Upon the prompt ofperform a click on Yes button to proceed ahead. Give the user the recovery password Because the recovery password is 48 digits long the user may need to record the password by writing it down or typing it on a different computer. End-users should contact their technical support for assistance.