Zero-day exploit completely defeats default Windows 11 BitLocker protections

A zero-day exploit called YellowKey, published by researcher Nightmare-Eclipse, bypasses default BitLocker encryption on Windows 11 systems with physical access. By placing a custom FsTx folder on a USB drive and booting into Windows Recovery, an attacker gains full CMD access to the encrypted drive without needing a BitLocker recovery key. The exploit appears to abuse Transactional NTFS internals. Multiple security researchers have confirmed it works. Microsoft says it is investigating.