Getting Started with Lockpicking
blog.yaelwrites.com
Getting Started with Lockpicking
1–10 of 45 posts
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#2It's entertaining watching the Lock Picking Lawyer's videos. He's very good. And far too many locks are embarrassingly bad.
Lockpicking ought to be exponentially hard. You should have to try all the pin position combinations. Something like 5^6 for a 6-pin cylinder. But is in practice, it's not much worse than linear. You can tell when you're making forward progress. That's considered a total fail in a cryptographic system, but is accepted in the keyed lock industry.
The guy with the Stuff Made Here videos did make a lock that is not supposed to let you know if you're making progress. That makes picking exponentially hard again. The info the key provides is recorded mechanically, and then, as you turn the key, that info is later tested with the cylinder in a position that blocks access to the mechanism. That isolation between "read key" and "test key data" is what makes it work. He has an elegant, reasonably compact design, although it turned out to have other vulnerabilities. If you were willing to have a big box of a lock inside or behind the door, like many 19th century and earlier locks, this would be much easier to build.
As locks wear, they become easier and easier to pick. Heavily worn pin-tumbler locks can be opened by almost anything that randomly moves the pins up and down while you apply some tension. Rakes, vibrators, etc.
Many electronic locks are vulnerable due to putting the electronics that makes the decision to open on the outside, where it can be tampered with. You'd think the outside would just have a keypad or sensor, with all the good stuff behind the door, but all too often, no. Also, most electronic locks come with a mechanical backup lock, usually one that's not very good.
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#3Great post and resources.
I'd personally found that picking never stuck: Something between understanding the fundamentals and individual pin picking that my brain refuses to handle.
With that said, I discovered impressioning, which I find infinitely more tactile, interesting and exciting.
As you say, there's almost infinite space for evolution.
For next steps, I'd highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Black-Book-Lockpicking-Profess...
It's written by a friend who teaches picking to hobbyists, locksmiths and LEA.
If you're in Europe, we also just launched https://lock401.com - highly curated collections of lockpicking tools.
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#4It's entertaining watching the Lock Picking Lawyer's videos. He's very good. And far too many locks are embarrassingly bad. Lockpicking ought to be exponentially hard. You should have to try all the pin position combinations. Something like 5^6 for a 6-pin cylinder. But is in practice, it's not much worse than linear. You can tell when you're making forward progress. That's considered a total fail in a cryptographic…
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Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#5As I see it, the real purpose of locks is not to prevent theft or entry but to keep people honest by introducing some friction.
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#6I learned lock picking at Defcon in the lock pick arena. They had tools, clear locks, and locks with 1 pin, 2 pins, etc. all the way to 6 pins. And of course you could buy a set of picks right there, and just hope the TSA didn't find them on the way home.
These are the kinds of things I miss now that conferences have gone virtual for now. I hope they return to in person when safe, or at least a hybrid model going forward.
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#7As I see it, the real purpose of locks is not to prevent theft or entry but to keep people honest by introducing some friction.
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Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#8for those people in the UK, snapping the lock is suposedly the most common way of burglars getting through doors.
This involves (as the name implies) just twisting the lock if it sticks out or using a blow tourch to melt the handle or just snapping the handle off, to a get purchase on the lock see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqHryHXSj8
btw LockpickingLawer did a review of imho of one of the better locks to protect against this and is reasonably pick proof (he had no negative comments!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOakyPgrpyw. Which is the lock I have (I'm not affiliated in any way)
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#9It's entertaining watching the Lock Picking Lawyer's videos. He's very good. And far too many locks are embarrassingly bad. Lockpicking ought to be exponentially hard. You should have to try all the pin position combinations. Something like 5^6 for a 6-pin cylinder. But is in practice, it's not much worse than linear. You can tell when you're making forward progress. That's considered a total fail in a cryptographic…
For the majority of applications, locks are for "keeping honest people honest". With the right tools most locks take seconds to circumvent, think breaking a window, cutting the steel, drilling out the lock. For situations where it actually matters, professionals know to secure elsewhere before the actual lock is considered.
Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking
#10I learned lock picking at Defcon in the lock pick arena. They had tools, clear locks, and locks with 1 pin, 2 pins, etc. all the way to 6 pins. And of course you could buy a set of picks right there, and just hope the TSA didn't find them on the way home. These are the kinds of things I miss now that conferences have gone virtual for now. I hope they return to in person when safe, or at least a hybrid model going for…
I had that exact experience in 2021 at DEF CON, I was attending the physical part of their hybrid format and it was quite awesome and felt relatively safe.