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Lock-Picking Robot

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Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#21

Post by Edman274 »

cush wrote: post #20
Edman274 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about a sledgehammer is that if you're asleep in your house, you, your dog, your SO, or your neighbors might be startled awake by the sound of metal splitting and cracking open. Your security system might be designed to alert on something like a window being smashed. The person attempting to enter the house may be trying to enter undetected, because they know that a broken lock and/or a replaced lock will a…

> Imagine something like industrial espionage.. This isn’t the movies. 99% of the time people need their own lock picked because they lost they key

People don't buy locks so that they can lose their keys and require the lock to be picked. They buy locks to secure access to items or places. The parent I was replying to is saying that locks aren't security because a sledgehammer breaks them. I argue that a sledgehammer is only important for certain threat models. I am quite aware that most lock picking is for lost keys. However, I am describing threat models for which locks are important security. Do you understand?

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#22

Post by raincole »

MarkusQ wrote: post #4

Cool idea but I'm not buying the justification. There are many cases where the correct response to "but law enforcement needs a way in" is "we have a system for that, it's called a warrant." Further, while standing somewhere for five minutes may be obvious in some situations, there are many cases in which it wouldn't be obvious at all, or the response time would be great enough that this could still be quite useful t…

> security through counting on slow hardware

Security through locks doesn't work in the first place. At least not locks that can be picked by this robot. Pick gun is a thing.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#23

Post by cush »

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#24

Post by raincole »

Edman274 wrote: post #21
cush wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine something like industrial espionage.. This isn’t the movies. 99% of the time people need their own lock picked because they lost they key

People don't buy locks so that they can lose their keys and require the lock to be picked. They buy locks to secure access to items or places. The parent I was replying to is saying that locks aren't security because a sledgehammer breaks them. I argue that a sledgehammer is only important for certain threat models. I am quite aware that most lock picking is for lost keys. However, I am describing threat models for w…

The parent you were replying to mentioned at least three things:

- lock picking hobbist

- snap gun

- sledgehammer

And you simplified their comment to "locks aren't security because a sledgehammer breaks them" then proceeded to describe threat models where a sledgehammer doesn't work in detail. It's not a very constructive discussion.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#25

Post by chuckadams »

dylan604 wrote: post #13
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen cops use lockpicking guns while serving warrants. I would much rather them do that then break the door down. Hopefully projects like this can make this better. Even though it’s cool enough on its own to exist just because Even if the person is stone guilty I don’t think the police should be willy nilly destroying property in the process of serving a warrant. I know much of the focus is rightly on increasi…

> I would much rather them do that then break the door down The fact that law enforcement isn't responsible for damages during a search is problematic. When it's done somewhere when they've screwed up the address is even worse. "oops, sorry" should not be enough.

> The fact that law enforcement isn't responsible ... is problematic

FTFY

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#26

Post by raincole »

cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

> the number of comments

Two of them in total, if I counted right.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#27

Post by nemomarx »

Edman274 wrote: post #21
cush wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine something like industrial espionage.. This isn’t the movies. 99% of the time people need their own lock picked because they lost they key

People don't buy locks so that they can lose their keys and require the lock to be picked. They buy locks to secure access to items or places. The parent I was replying to is saying that locks aren't security because a sledgehammer breaks them. I argue that a sledgehammer is only important for certain threat models. I am quite aware that most lock picking is for lost keys. However, I am describing threat models for w…

Even without the sledge hammer your locks probably aren't good enough to stop a thief with a set of picks. A robot that brute forces it is more expensive and slower than any of the existing tools, so it shouldn't change your threat model.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#28

Post by keybored »

cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

The title of this website is literally in another sense than white/grey/black hacker.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#29

Post by dpark »

IshKebab wrote: post #11

> brute force all possible combinations Somewhat less impressive than I was expecting. The wire idea is neat though.

I felt the opposite. Sometimes figuring out a clever way to make the “dumb” thing possible is very impressive.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#30

Post by f1shy »

keybored wrote: post #28
cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

The title of this website is literally in another sense than white/grey/black hacker.

Lockpicking can also be in that colors, AFAIK.
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