8. Keychip Modding

Rather than use a genuine keychip, is it often preferable to mod a system with a keychip emuleator.

The following are the required steps to perform this:

• Connect the RingEdge’s SSD to another computer. Instructions for this can be found on the Security page.
• Mount the System partition. This is a TrueCrypt 4 volume located at C:\Execute\System. The password and key can also be found on the security page.
• Replace mxkeychip.exe with the emulator binary you were provided. This binary must be renamed to mxkeychip.exe.
• Create any additional configuration files as required by the specific emulator. These will be emulator-specific.
• Dismount everything, and reinsert the SSD into the RingEdge.

Some emulators are provided as a pre-prepared System file. In these cases, steps 2, 3, and 4 can be skipped. Instead, simply replace the file located at C:\Execute\System with the provided file.

8.1 Where to get a keychip emulator

There are a few emulators floating around, however getting your hands on them is often easier said than done. micekeychip is an open-source, but currently incomplete, emulator, however there aren’t easily downloadable builds for it.

mxbadkey is a good emulator, used with success in many places. The only way I currently know to download it is to contact its author.

mckeychip_mod is a tempermental emulator that I wouldn’t recommend but have included for completeness. If your system came pre-loaded with an emulator it was probably this one. I do not know who authored it.