The invention discloses a screen unlocking method and a terminal, so as to improve the screen unlocking efficiency and the safety. The method comprises steps: the terminal receives a short message sent by a short message center in a screen locking state, wherein the short message is generated by a customer service server and forwarded by the short message center; if the terminal determines the short message carries indication information for unlocking the screen, a preset public key is adopted to decrypt the encrypted data carried in the short message; and if the terminal determines the data obtained after decryption are the same as the specified data, the screen is unlocked.