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Accessing a TPM remotely

Breakerzote · 7 Sep 2026 at 13:18 · permalink

So I messed up and when leaving my home, I brought with myself my desktop SSD to use with my laptop. When doing so, however, I completely forgot I had encrypted the disk with luks, as I was used to it auto unlocking with the TPM. Now I'm struggling to find the password I used to encrypt it back when I installed the OS.

Is there any way I can perhaps use the TPM on the desktop remotely to unlock the SSD that is currently in the laptop and then add a new keyslot? The TPM software I'm using is clevis if that helps.

I'm not going to be able to get the SSD the desktop for a while, but I can reach it using whatever RDP software or SSH.

Also not sure if this is the right place to ask, if it's not I'd appreciate tips.

smertnik1234 · 7 Sep 2026 at 13:33 · permalink

can't you wipe/re-initialize it if it's not a SED drive?

glc8456 · 7 Sep 2026 at 13:37 · permalink

If it's bound to the desktop’s TPM, remote unlock won’t work — the TPM is tied to that specific motherboard, and the SSD is

Breakerzote · 7 Sep 2026 at 14:02 · permalink

Yes, but my data is on there, that's the issue 😕

Breakerzote · 7 Sep 2026 at 14:03 · permalink

Yeah, I know, I was wondering if there was some way I could play with the header perhaps as technically I have access to the tpm, just not physical one

smertnik1234 · 7 Sep 2026 at 14:17 · permalink

ah I see...looks like you're SOL then

6texture2pack · 7 Sep 2026 at 15:06 · permalink

Restore from backup

fgdxhdgxcvx · 7 Sep 2026 at 16:33 · permalink

Its not posible.

smailasltu · 7 Sep 2026 at 16:50 · permalink

It's possible to run a command to unseal the keys if the TPM PCR values did not change.

But it may have changed after you removed the drive. Worth a try though.

Breakerzote · 7 Sep 2026 at 16:59 · permalink

Hmm, the desktop had 2 NVMe drives, what I did was taking the main one out and placing the secondary one in the main slot, so I'm afraid this might have changed it. If you know how to I'd still try though.

smailasltu · 7 Sep 2026 at 17:29 · permalink

It's not something Ive done before so I can't give precise instructions. It involves tpm2_unseal and some other tpm2 commands.

If you took out the boot drive and booted some other OS on the desktop there's no point in trying, that guarantees the PCR values changed.

Whether this can work or not depends on which PCR values were used in the first place by your distro. Some PCR values check for hardware changes, some for different bootloaders and kernels.