Posts Tagged ‘pick’

“self impressioning” attack on the Abloy Protec?

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Times are interesting. It is busy, but mostly with things I really enjoy doing. So fear not if you did not see a posting for a little while here :)

Still working on my LockCon posting but in the meantime an interesting link came in I could not just let pass by. An interesting video on what seems a ‘self impressioning’ attack on the Abloy Protec lock!

I will examine it more closely over the weekend but for now just wanted to share it with you … seems very interesting and very promising! Enjoy the video!

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Posted in English, news, picktools | 13 Comments »

Opening a magnetic lock using … a teddybear ?!?

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

This week a story about less dangerous magnets :)

I was in Spain last week and when I visited a lockshop the owner gave me a small present. It is a lock I knew for a while (named Disec), yet it’s a lock I never managed to get my hands on.

The DiSec shield is a lock that is mounted over your euro profile cylinder, protecting it against vandalism and unathorized opening attempts (like bumping, breaking and drilling). It is the kind of extra protection I like in a lock.

I was in Spain because we had a booth with CryptoPhone at the 3GSM tradeshow. During the slow hours I always like to quickscan the show to see what is new in telecomland, and collect some gadgets and gifts for the kids. One of the gifts I collected was a small teddybear (or is it a cat?) that has a small magnet in it’s head.

It did not take me long to rub the magnetic part of the bear’s head against the lock, and opened the lock in just a couple of minutes. The technique I used can be considered ‘raking’, and requires some skill and luck. The skill in this case being able to control the amount of tension on the shield while jiggling, as well as varying in speed and rotation with the magnet. But without a little luck the lock remains closed …

I did shoot some video for you, showing how I opened the lock. After opening, I did disassemble the lock and key a little.

And there are people who do not use raking but actually pick the lock (youtube) in a more clever (but less fun?) way ….

On my way to CeBit now. Lets see what kind of gifts I collect there that can be used to open locks ;)

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Posted in English, news, picktools | 7 Comments »

More problems for Abloy Protec? Decoding the pickproof lock?!?

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Having a weblog like this attracts a lot of interesting people. And some people who think they are interesting and just try to feed you with little tidbits of information to ‘tease’ you. Well … I think I have grown pretty immune for that.

One of these people mailed me little over a year ago is interesting though. He claimed to had developed a method of decoding an Abloy protec ‘in around ten minutes, fifteen max’. His real problem was cutting the keys after decoding the lock. During some long talks he explained that decoding a 2, 3 or 4 cut disk was the most easy, without telling me how he did it.

Abloy Protec Decoder

And all of a sudden today there is a video on Youtube, showing the decoding of an Abloy Protec. What you see is some sort of probe tool (made from a keyblank), a scale and a laser pointer to tell you how far the probe can be turned. It seems as if this way you can identify the position of the disc, and the laser pointer will tell you the number of the cut. It is a pity he is holding the lock in his hand and that he is using a cut-away lock that is set to the factory cutaway combination ….

But this sure is a big dent in Abloy’s reputation. First the video of a destructive opening technique and now a video of decoding the ‘pickproof lock’.

I am convinced the person who made this video is very skilled and bright, and I think the video and tool are for real. I would just love to see some more close ups of the tip of the tool and some more info. And that also goes for another strange video that was released on Youtube: Pick Mottura doppia mappa.

If all goes well I will meet the person behind these tools and techniques in a month orso, and hopefully can give you some more details. In the meantime we can all speculate about the tool in the comments ;)

* Update 06-02-2009 (19:15) : the video was removed before it even got 500 hits. It is a good thing I captured it before it went offline …

** Update 08-02-2009: the video became online again on youtube and could been found here.

*** Update 14-02-2009 video was removed from youtube again…

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Posted in English, news, picktools | 40 Comments »

Eating Abloy Protecs for breakfast

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

This is one of these topics that I wanted to write about before, but never managed because of my little break last year.

As you might know Abloy’s Protec cylinder has quite a reputation as being an outstanding lock. For the moment it is very difficult to pick/manipulate (although there are rumors someone developed an opening tool). One other feature is keycontrol: it is quite difficult to have copies made if you do not have the certificate. And in case you need it for a high security installation the housing of the lock can be delivered in an extra strong steel body that is difficult to break and drill. All in all it is a very nice and secure cylinder that many people in the locksport community use on their front door ;)

shortcut to youtube video to bypass Alboy protec

But … as always: if a product becomes ‘too popular’, some clever person will come up with a tool to defeat it. Unfortunately (for us lockpick tool lovers) the clever person came up with a destructive opening technique (instead of a non-destructive method).

But the method of opening the lock is extremely simple and effective (as you can see in this youtube video). In less then a minute the lock is open. Ok, it might not be completely silent, but it sure is fast! … And to make things worse: the tool even seems to work on the hardened version of the lock.

If clever tools show up on youtube, they most of the time can be ordered at Wendt ….

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Posted in English, Uncategorized, news | 24 Comments »

Tool without locks … the Chinese tool

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

A little while ago I received some fancy looking opening tools. And normally when someone presents me an opening tool, I just grab one locks from my personal collection to try it out. But in this case I am sure I don’t have the right locks for the tool. And to make things worse, Han Fey also does not have an idea what kind of locks these are used for…

complete chinese lock pick kit

I must admit the tools look nice, and it is a real pity I do not have the locks that come with it to try them out. Too bad the manual does not mean much to me as my Chinese is still a little rusty …. So I can only guess how they work.

tools for chinese locks

Personally I think it is some sort of ‘decoder pick’. Turning the knob at the end of the tool moves a finger/lifter at the tip of the tool, and with it you can set (or feel) individual pins. The neat thing about this tool is that it’s also a ‘set up key’. Inserting small ‘break away key parts’ on the side of the blade will lift the pin to a specific position and keep it there. And by changing the inserts you can change the depth of this (set up) key. Most likely the idea is to use the included magnetic contact microphone to hear if a pin is under pressure or can move freely. After some fiddling around you will end up with a working key.

set up key filled on two positions

All in all an intriguing tool, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those locks. If I ever do, I promise to shoot some video and share that here …

* Update 7-11: I send the tool to one of my loyal readers who has a couple of these locks. After playing around with the tool he will send it back including a lock. So I guess a video will show up here some day …

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Posted in English, news, picktools | 24 Comments »