Lock-picking in the news/blogs

[TheCotMan]

I don't know if this presentation was in the LP Village and/or one of the speaker track rooms, but here is a story on it:

URL1=Defcon Lockpickers Open Card-And-Code Government Locks In Seconds: Andy Greenberg, Aug. 5 2011 - 12:28 pm

...
At the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas, Tobias and his partner Toby Bluzmanis plan to demonstrate a series of simple hardware hacks that expose critical security problems in Kaba’s E-plex 5800 and its older 5000.
...
In demonstrations for me and in videos they plan to show the Defcon audience, the lockpicking duo use one method called “rapping” to open the lock by simply hitting its top surface or lever handle with a mallet, compressing an internal spring that then decompresses and pushes open a latch that releases the lock. In another bypass, they insert a wire into a silicon cover for an LED light that blinks red when the user enters an invalid code. That wire can ground a contact on the circuit board behind the light that triggers a function intended to allow the door to be opened with a remote button, bypassing all its security measures.

A third attack...
...
[Second page has links to youtube videos and the story continues]
[
Videos on page 2 of article:
* http://www.youtube.com/v/6txFFS1TwSE&rel=0
* http://www.youtube.com/v/lY_h7FxEVIc&rel=0
* http://www.youtube.com/v/HXZ5pW31fB8&rel=0
]

In other techniques that Tobias plans to share privately with Kaba engineers in Zurich next week and demonstrated for me, additional vulnerabilities allowed him to open the lock silently and without a trace in seconds. Tobias asked me not to describe those methods, and argued that they’re too sensitive to show to the Defcon audience before giving Kaba a chance to fix the problems.
...

More articles on this:
* Wire pops lock certified for US defense facilities (AFP) – Aug 6, 2011

[Club81]

Re: Lock-picking in the news/blogs

Very good stuff, Cot.

Marc Tobias also writes for Forbes and can be read here: http://blogs.forbes.com/marcwebertobias/

Marc was on campus earlier this summer and gave me a copy of his book "Open in 30 seconds" http://www.amazon.com/OPEN-THIRTY-SE.../dp/0975947923 I have NO background in locks and this book is very good even for n00bs like me. He's coming back to campus tomorrow actually and I'm going to pick his brain some more. If you get the chance to corner Marc sometime, I suggest you do! It's a conversation you won't soon forget! Heh heh.

[TheCotMan]

Re: Lock-picking in the news/blogs

URL1=Picking Locks and Hacking Servers at Defcon Somini Sengupta, August 6, 2011, 6:27 pm

There was a “lockpicking village” where interested parties do exactly that: pick locks. “Most of us see locks as puzzles,” Babak Javadi, 26, one of the organizers, explained. “A mechanical piece with lots of cool bits inside.” He has been taking apart locks since he was a kid, he said, and now runs a security business, specializing in high-security locks.