Learn to Pick Locks for Fun and an Increased Understanding of Security

http://lifehacker.com/5672326/learn-to-pick-locks-for-fun-and-an-increased-understanding-of-security

by wqfeng • 14 years ago

144 38 14 years ago

illumen• 14 years ago

This is a YC interview question. They lock you in a room with a pick, and if you can pick the lock you move onto the next stage.

Otherwise the floor opens, and they feed you to the sharks (with lasers on their noses naturally).

markrickert2• 14 years ago

It'll be a bit hard to pick the lock using just a pick and no tensioner.

lince• 14 years ago

Lockpicking is one of my hobbies from one year. Is incredible fun and challenging.

If you want to start, I recommend you reading the MIT Lockpicking guide. It have the basics: http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/MITLockGuide.pdf

You can found a cheap lockpicking set here: https://www.dealextreme.com/p/advanced-9-piece-set-lock-pick...

Also start opening cheap padlocks so you can get your first success fast and get motivated.

tapvt• 14 years ago

I also learned (years ago now) by using the MIT Guide, so +1 for that.

If you don't want to spend any money on picks and a tension wrench, street sweeper bristles make great stock for creating your own tools.

A grinding wheel will save you hours with a file, if you opt for this approach. Those bristles are tough!

nulluk• 14 years ago

After being involved within the family business (lock smiths and security engineers) for 3 years whilst in college, you end up realising how insecure and inadequate 80% of the locks around you are.

Any person with a small degree of knowledge can do some serious amount of damage if they wanted to turn rouge. (Bump keys and Snappers) Saying that it is a very fascinating skill to learn, the social response to stating that you are a trained locksmith in conversations is quite interesting.

maxerickson• 14 years ago

You could sort of argue that the relatively low level of break ins indicates that most locks are adequate.

I think the bigger problem is the way people think about locks. In a house with lots of windows, they pretty much only serve to make an illicit entry more obvious, yet people build up an idea of one setting on the lock being safe and the other not.

Benjor• 14 years ago

Our local hackerspace in Chicago hosts TOOOL meetings, which got me hooked a couple of months ago. I heartily recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Lock-Picking-Penetration-ebo...

I read the first half in a day, and was picking locks successfully the next day. Just remember the golden rules: (1) only pick locks you own, (2) don't pick locks you depend on (they're easy to break.)

If you look at TOOOL's site, they sell a nice beginner toolkit for $30. Love it.

thejteam2• 14 years ago

Before you order a toolkit, also take a quick look at your state's laws. In some states, Maryland for example, it is against the law for anybody other than a professional locksmith to possess lockpicking tools. (Maryland also doesn't define what a professional locksmith is... but that's a side issue)

molsongolden• 14 years ago

Thanks for this. I just opened up the website to look at toolkits but I am in Maryland.

Looks like I might be throwing together a bootstrap locksmithing business template.

scdc• 14 years ago

Do you any more detail on this? I found this via lockwiki.com for Maryland -- it says, "A person may not possess a burglar's tool with the intent to use or allow the use of the burglar's tool in the commission of a violation of this subtitle. "

IANAL, but it seems like simple possession is allowed. But maybe my reference is not up to date.

http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/criminal-law/title...

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

Lock picking is a fun thing to learn to do as a hobby. I learnt to do it many years ago from the MIT guide and have a small set of picks that I bought from http://www.southord.com/

I've only ever once actually used this skill on anything other than my own locks. My upstairs neighbor was moving out of his apartment and managed to slam the front door shut with his keys inside and the movers and himself outside. I opened the lock for him after fiddling around for about five minutes helping to get his move moving.

StavrosK• 14 years ago

I'll second southord, I got a lockpick kit way back and it's been really great all these years. I only use it to practice on my locks, but it's fantastic.

zeke• 14 years ago

With a round and a flat file you can turn a rake tine into a pick in 15 minutes. If you can find street-sweeper tines, you can bend them to make good turning wrenches. It is not an efficient use of time compared to buying, but still fun.

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

Actually, I used to follow the street sweeper around in the city I lived in and pick up the tines that broke off and did make my own lock picks. They are very strong and flexible in a good way.

oasisbob• 14 years ago

If you're one of the people who keeps hearing about mythical street sweeper bristles and has never found one in the wild, consider the spring steel from windshield wiper blades.

Someone you know has wipers that should have been been replaced years ago; do something nice for them, and get enough pick-stock to last for years.

Bike spokes are also useful, but a bit more work to flatten/grind and shape. (Great for tension wrenches, though.)

pasbesoin• 14 years ago

I had a colleague who got into trouble for picking a lock for a coworker, even though the coworker had the right/permission to access what was locked up -- they'd misplaced the key and the colleague was simply trying to help them keep from losing time to the problem. The colleague had formerly worked as a locksmith.

So... if you have the skills, be careful as to when and where you exercise them. Even if you think there is no issue, if bureaucracy is in the neighborhood, best to keep it in your pocket.

P.S. Unless your name is Feynman -- real or in spirit! ;-)

xedarius• 14 years ago

A few years ago I was working on a spy-action game. One of the sub-games was a lock picking section. One of the programmers ordered a lock picking kit, along with several padlocks. This of course spread through the office like wild fire. Pretty soon there were several programmers crowding round each others desk picking locks of all kinds.

What became readily apparent was where the money went between £3 and a £25 lock.

I think I can confidently say that our lock picking sub-game was thoroughly researched.

monkeyfacebag• 14 years ago

I'm curious how you ended up implementing lock-picking? The big problem I notice with most implementations (leaving aside flaws such as incorrect number of tools) is communicating the tactility of lock-picking. I've played a game (Fallout 3? I don't exactly remember) that attempted to introduce a tactile aspect through controller rumble, but the effect didn't adequately reflect the lock-picking experience.

Terretta• 14 years ago

Skyrim being the latest notorious example where it's featured heavily (and spiritual successor to Fallout 3, I suppose).

dfc3• 14 years ago

The lock picking was awful in Skyrim. I'm not sure why they diod not stick with the model from Oblivion. The lock picking in oblivion was the best I have ever seen in a game.

talmand• 14 years ago

A coworker of mine was into this as a hobby for a period of time. He always carried his picks with two or three practice locks of increasing difficulty. With a few minutes explanation from him on how it works I was able to pick the easier locks within ten minutes without having done it before. I was almost tempted to get my own set and one or two of the more difficult locks just for the mental challenge. Seems it might have made for a good distraction to have during difficult times in a project and needing a break.

gravitronic• 14 years ago

One piece of advice, if you only have one practice lock and your friend decides he wants to try to pick your front door's deadbolt.. don't let him. Now I need a new deadbolt.

junto• 14 years ago

You can pick standard Yale style pin tumbler locks with a penknife nail file and a paperclip.

Insert the nail file into the lock and apply turning pressure as if you are turning the key, then fiddle with the pins with the folded out paperclip. One by one the pins pop into place and the lock will open.

You can do this with practice in under 30 seconds. If you only have a Yale lock on your front door, fit a good quality lock instead, or at least a good secondary. If you are at home and only have a Yale style lock on your front door, then always lock the door and leave the key quarter turned in the lock.

This prevents anyone from trying to enter from the other direction. It also makes it easy to escape from the locked house in case of a fire if the keys are in the door already.

roblund• 14 years ago

One of the most interesting things I learned from lockpicking was how the physical size of the lock actually has little to do with how easily it can be bypassed.

Another cool side effect is learning about lock mechanisms. There are so many different designs out there (many of them are hundreds of years old), and it is neat learning about how they work.

samstave• 14 years ago

/r/lockpicking is a fun place as well, there is a lot of good info posted there.

Also be sure to look at Schuyler Townes lock picking how to videos.

runjake4• 14 years ago

I originally learned in a class. I carry a pair of titanium bodegas in my wallet.

The first interesting thing you'll probably learn is that the more "secure" something is marketed as being to consumers, the easier it is to pick.

Any sort of safe you buy from the likes of Walmart, Office Depot/Max, Costco and so on, can be picked in a few seconds. I have a not-cheap, mid-line Sentry fireproof safe and I can "pick" that by just sliding the rake into the lock.

Gun locks and home safe locks are usually cheap crap and probably the easiest to pick. I've picked close to a 100 different types.

If you want to learn, I suggest starting with paperclips as they're good at training you on the kind of tension you want to use. Most beginners use way too much tension. Paperclips will bend when you cross that threshold. They're also much harder to pick with than a legit set of picks.

My knowledge really improved when I re-keyed my home locks from some kits I ordered online. It really put things into perspective.

ericb• 14 years ago

>. I carry a pair of titanium bodegas in my wallet.

A small metal wine cellar? I was intrigued about "titanium bodegas", so I googled, and found nothing meaningful. Can you provide a link to what you mean?

286c8cb04bda• 14 years ago

That's probably a typo, and should be "bogota"[1]. His titanium ones were probably bought from SerePick.[2]

[1] http://www.theamazingking.com/bogota.php

[2] http://www.serepick.com/products.html

dfc3• 14 years ago

"The first interesting thing you'll probably learn is that the more "secure" something is marketed as being to consumers, the easier it is to pick."

BS! I have a medecco lock on my door that was marketed as secure. I'd love to see how much easier it is to pick for you than some run of the mill Yale lock from Home Despot.

How many gun safes have you "picked"? Most of the firearm owners I know have spent some serious coin on their safes. What gun safes specifically have you picked? And when you say home safes surely you mean home fire safes right? How many UL tool-rated safes have you picked?

Paper clips? I have never seen anyone recommend beginners start with paper clips. What do you suggest they use for the torque wrench? I think beginners should just buy one of the many introductory/beginners kits available on the net.

jdietrich• 14 years ago

Medeco locks can be bumped open in a few seconds by a child with a $30 tool[1]. With the popularisation of bump key and plastic key attacks, no pin-tumbler lock should be considered more than a trivial deterrent. A "high security" pin-tumbler lock opens just as easily as cheap locks - often more easily, thanks to finer tolerances.

The only mass-market lock mechanisms with any real security are disc-detainer designs, specifically Assa Abloy's Protec. Unlike any other door lock in common use, the Protec mechanism has no known non-destructive attacks.

[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1LH7lrftKA

runjake4• 14 years ago

How many gun safes have you "picked"?

Not gun safes, gun locks. The kind that come with handguns and slip through the slide. Read above, again.

I've played with a Sentry gun safe, as well as a couple standup models whose models I can't recall.

And when you say home safes surely you mean home fire safes right?

Actually, I said home fire safes :)

Not to argue, but most of the beginning tutorials I've read encourage people to start with paperclips, as it helps learn tensioning.

Here's a search that points to several tutorials recommending paperclips:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=beginning%20lockpicking%20paper%20...

I hope that helps. I don't proclaim to be an expert, though I can handle myself well. It seems like you misread most of what I said, FWIW.

jonathansizz• 14 years ago

I have a couple of questions, maybe someone can answer.

First, do these techniques work on (modern) car doors? It'd be useful to be able to save the $30 fee if I lock my keys in the car..

Second, on Terminator II, Sarah Conner was able to unlock her straightjacket with a paperclip. I thought this was plausible enough, but I couldn't believe it would be possible to open her cell door since it appeared to be secured with a heavy bolt mechanism. Am I correct that this would be physically impossible to pick with a couple of paperclips?

runjake4• 14 years ago

I've picked my Honda door. It was trivial. By the looks of my Toyota key, it would be similarly easy. They have 2-sided teeth on the keys, but the lock is only pinned on one side.

I'm not familiar with prison locks at all, so I can't answer that.

However, the class I took taught us how to pick handcuffs with paperclips and that was trivial. BTW, the class was titled something like Urban Survival from OnPoint, run by a guy named Kelly. The class was briefly mentioned in Neil Strauss's book Emergency!.

markrickert2• 14 years ago

I gave a talk about lock picking at work a while ago. Here's a 30 minute video: http://skookum.com/blog/lockpicking-101/

stfu• 14 years ago

Does anyone has some good suggestions for different difficulty levels of locks to train with?

I am quite fast with basic locks but as soon as they get a bit more sophisticated (i.e. mushroom heads) I can play around for hours and don't get them open.

Learn to Pick Locks for Fun and an Increased Understanding of Security

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