Archive for the ‘Conference’ Category

The LockCon LockQuiz

Friday, November 1st, 2024

For this years’ LockCon, I decided to not do a lecture about a lock-related subject, but to organise a lock-themed pubquiz, the “LockQuiz”. I like the old-skool quizzen where you work together in teams and write down your answers on paper. Modern app-based quizzen have their own charm, but that was not what I was going for. When I play a quiz, I like questions where teamwork leads to the correct answer.

So I went about to see if I could come up with enough locksport-related questions and categories. I ended up with 68 questions in 6 rounds. In round 1, I showed lock cylinders and padlocks, with the brand name removed and the teams had to tell the brand. In round 2, lock-related books were shown, with one word (partially) blurred, the question was what the word was. Round 3 was another picture round with pictures of tools, where the question was which toolmaker the tool was from. After a small break, we continued with round 4, in which I asked for names of movies in which something lock(picking) related was shown. Round 5 showed keyways, asking for the brand and model, and round 6 was a music round, showing clips that had something to do with locks as well. Requested was the name of the artist.

I got very good feedback and everybody seemed to really enjoy the quiz. I have made generic pubquizzes before and know that the biggest pitfall is to make them too hard, which is no fun for the people doing the quiz. That is why I included answer sheets for the (rather difficult) movie and music rounds, that showed the number of letters in the answer and also had some letters filled out in advance.

The quiz had a clear winner, which was good, as I had not thought of a tie-breaker question. In the end, 77% of the questions were answered correctly, which is wonderful, as that was what I sort of aimed for, but it was hard for me to know how difficult it would be in advance. The lock brands round turned out to be the easiest, the music round the hardest, but even that round had 74% correct answers, thanks to the answer sheets.

If anybody wants me to do the quiz elsewhere, contact me. Obviously, the people at LockCon already know the answers. Or, if you have suggestions for other topics for rounds, or questions, I’d be interested in those as well. And finally, if you’ve made pictures of me presenting, I’d love to have a copy as well.

And again, congratulations to Team Baguette, who won!

Walter.

LockCon 2024 Schedule

Saturday, September 21st, 2024

Tickets to LockCon are still available as of 20th of September. We will close the registration on the 25th of September. Please see ‘LockCon 2024 registration is open!’ for more information. https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4627

Hi Everyone, we are hoping you are doing well! With this blog, we like to show you this program we have created for LockCon 2024. It’s a great mix of the competition you expect, and loads of new and exciting content.

Thursday is the first day of the event, we will use this day for catching up as well as building up the conference room. The cadence of the rest of the event is talks in the morning, a competition in the afternoon, and an evening program which includes a variety of activities.

For the competitions, we have Friday evening reserved for the Dutch Open in impressioning, on Saturday the Dutch Open in Lockpicking will be held, and on Friday we will start and Sunday we will conclude all the ongoing smaller competitions: Lever lockpicking, Disc detainer picking, Felix’s Breakout and Pic Tac Toe by FoxPick, and safe manipulation. The rules for each competition are published here: https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4652

The schedule will be available in the conference room on large sheets of paper. The Schedule is not set in stone, where you are allowed to fill the gaps, or take the stage with your own last minute talk. Last year, a panel on RFID was assembled on Sunday to fill one of these gaps. Please discuss large changes with the organisation.

Thursday
17:00Arrival (Hotel check-in is possible from 15:00)
19:00 – 20:30Dinner (with prior reservation)
20:30 – 22:00Conference room build up
22:00 – 01:00Socializing in the hotel bar

Friday
07:30 – 10:00Breakfast
10:00 – 10:15LockCon Opening
10:15 – 10:30Dennis van Zuijlekom – Shoot all the hackers
10:30 – 11:30Zeefeene – Why Your Unpickable Lock Sucks
12:00 – 12:30Michael Hübler – 3D printing working keys for TSA008 and (all versions of) TSA006
13:00 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 19:00Dutch Open Impressioning competition
19:00 – 20:30Dinner
20:30 – 21:00Introduction to the evening program & ongoing competitions
21:00Start of disc detainer & safe manipulation competition by Toool
21:00Start of lever lockpicking competition by Nigel Tolley
21:00Start of Pic Tac Toe and Felix’s Escape by FoxPick
Saturday
07:30 – 10:00Breakfast
10:00 – 11:00Eric Scaillet – Aubin’s trophy
Group photo
11:30 – 12:00Nigel Tolley – Hobbes Anti-Violence
12:00 – 12:30Thijs Bosschert – Lockpicking in Capture the Flag
short break
12:30 – 13:00Han Fey – Lips Keso
13:00 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 19:00Dutch Open Lockpicking competition
19:00 – 20:30Dinner
20:30 – 21:00Eric Scaillet – Lishi
21:00 – 23:00Walter Belgers – Pub quiz

Sunday
07:30 – 10:00Breakfast (Check out of your hotel room)
10:00 – 10:30Denes Szabo – Car lockpicking book
10:30 – 11:00Prize ceremony
11:00 – 12:00Disk detainer finals
12:00 – 13:00Nigel Tolley – Lever picking finals
13:00 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 15:00Foxpick’s games finals
15:00 – 16:00Safe manipulation finals
16:00 – 16:30Closing Ceremony + prize ceremony
18:00Dinner (with prior reservation)

LockCon 2024: Dutch Open competition rules

Saturday, September 21st, 2024

We are excited to announce the competitions hosted at this year’s LockCon. There will be the usual lockpicking and impressioning competitions, as well as a return of the disc detainer picking competition. You can also test your safe manipulation skills, join the lever lockpicking competition by Nigel Tolley, and play multiple games by our friends from Foxpicks.

The smaller competitions will be open from Friday evening till Sunday. Each of these competitions reach their conclusion during the finals on Sunday. This can be either a 1:1 with the best pickers, or a first to open wins where the best are competing all at the same time.

Dutch Open Impressioning & Lockpicking

The two main competitions are impressioning and lockpicking, where each takes a whole afternoon. The main rules are found in the pdf below, but for this year’s event we like to share our competition planning as well.

The Impressioning competition will be a standard competition with a qualification round, and two finals of six people each. We want to reduce the luck factor in the competition. E.g. consistent opens are a better demonstration of skill than a single quick open. For this, we have split the qualifier into two. You will now have to open both Abus C83 locks within two 30 minute attempts. The finals are, as per usual, on Abus C83 as well. The locks and blanks are sponsored by Abus!

The lockpicking competition is a standard competition with a qualifier and a bracket of two and three people. The qualifier has six tables of at most ten people per table. This qualifier is five minutes per lock, and in total you will pick ten locks. The best three from each table continue to the bracket. The bracket is played in nine groups of 2, three group of 3, and a final with the last best three lockpickers. Each round of the bracket is 15 minutes per lock.

Further details are below.

Dutch Open Disc detainer picking

Also this year, we have a disc detainer competition. We have learned from the competition last year, and have updated the rules accordingly. We have chosen some great locks for you to pick. This year we have included the Discombobulator from Opsasec in both in front and rear tensioning models, but you can also use the Sparrows 2-in-1 disc detainer lockpick.

Lever lockpicking

Nigel Tolley hosts this year’s lever lockpicking competition. Try your hand at lever lock picking! Various lever locks from the UK will be attending LockCon, for your bafflement and amusement. Try picking a selection varying from 2 levers, uncurtained without anti-picks, up to 5 lever curtained with anti-picks, with various tools supplied. Nothing too hard, and everyone should get at least one open.

The winner of each round goes through to the final, there will likely be 5 rounds of 5 locks for 5 minutes. The final setting will be communicated so everyone is on the same page.

Timing will be like the cylinder picking, call out “open” when you’ve opened your lock. The locks will be modified to not open fully, so expect the bolt to remain sticking out a little when unlocked – but don’t worry, it’ll be obvious! Have fun. Please remember, ‘it’s about manipulation, not brute force.’

There aren’t many rules, but if you break a tool, you’re out!

Foxpick’s games

Foxpick will host two lockpicking games during LockCon. In Pic Tac Toe, you will play a head-to-head competition in a game of tic-tac-toe, but to move you’ll have to pick the locks. For the second game, Felix’s Breakout, it’s your goal to free Felix the Fox from jail! Both games are very exciting, and we hope you will enjoy them as well.

Foxpick will provide all the tools you need. This helps to keep it an even playing field for everyone. Further details of the game are explained before each player starts.

Safe manipulation

To celebrate the skill of safe manipulation, we have included it in this year’s competition list. We are working with S&G 6730, for which we ask you to find the combination. The locks spin true, and read very well, so don’t let this opportunity pass!

LockCon 2024 registration is open!

Tuesday, June 18th, 2024

Dear friends,

With this mail, we like to announce registration for LockCon 2024 to be open. The event will be from 17th to 20th of October 2024 at De Werelt in Garderen, The Netherlands. This is the same venue as last year, which was previously known as Westcord Hotel Garderen.

The program

We will welcome the attendees from Thursday afternoon 15:00 with a get-together at the bar. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we will have a program with talks, workshops, and competitions. In the program there will be plenty of room to socialize, and pick locks. LockCon closes on Sunday afternoon, 17:00-ish.

If you are unfamiliar with what we usually do at LockCon, please read https://toool.nl/LockCon and the LockCon 2023 recap https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=4357. The schedule for this year’s event will be quite similar, where the competitions are usually in the afternoon, and the remaining program are talks, workshops, and socializing.

How to participate

LockCon is an event organized by Toool in the Netherlands for the extended Locksport community. This means, we try to be welcome to everyone with a healthy interest in the lockpicking hobby and the community. The attendees of LockCon are mostly friends, and friends of friends. You are also welcome if we have never met before. While it is easier for you to have a friend vouch for you, but this is not required.

The venue

This event is hosted at a hotel at which we have rented a large conference hall, and enough rooms to host a hundred guests. We are able to use the other hotel facilities, like the bar and restaurant. The hotel has additional facilities like a sauna, but these will have an additional charge and are booked at the reception.

The ticket price for LockCon 2024 is €430 per person, this includes three nights in the hotel with breakfasts, lunch, and dinner in the restaurant. Some options, like a single person room, have an additional charge.

Please register as soon as possible:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNg6lzLXX669DL2Oru2Qgb6w6nqChjP95Mg45NlQAT_-kxtQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

We are looking very much forward to the event. Hopefully we will see you in October,
LockCon Team

De Werelt in Garderen | Oud Millingenseweg 62 | 3886MJ Garderen | The Netherlands.
https://dewereltgarderen.nl/
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/3591498

Hackerhotel 2024: Opening electronic safe locks with Ketchup and Lasers

Wednesday, February 21st, 2024

Hi all, I would like to share a presentation I’ve worked on for quite a while. The talks were on electronic safe locks, and a starting point for lockpickers to get into picking electronic locks. For Hackerhotel 2024 I’ve decided to create a summarized version to inspire others to pursuit electronic security research, and apply the knowledge on electronic locks.

The talk, linked below, has two main topics; Opening electronic locks with Ketchup, so-called liquid spiking, and attempts in reading the memory of the 8051 chip in the early Kaba-mas X0 locks. X07 to X09, specifically. When I find time, I’ll work both into a series of blog posts as well, but no promises.

If after this presentation you like an idea of other talks at Hackerhotel, there are some great ones. Walter presented about Lucid dreaming, and Chantal and Nancy discussed what man can do to promote diversity in the workspace. Women in tech, specifically.

CCBY4.0 Jan-Willem Markus Toool Blackbag

Hackerhotel 2024: Safe cracking workshop

Friday, February 16th, 2024

Hugo and I taught Safe cracking to a group of eleven at Hackerhotel 2024. It was great sharing the knowledge and inspiring others. Much respect goes to the attendees, which after a busy conference still had energy to take on this mighty challenge.

Every training needs to start with a good basis. We started with an introduction on what safe locks are about and how they operate, specifically group two safe combination locks. From there, we built knowledge from practical examples and exercises. From simply operating the safe lock by dialing 4L-3R-2L-1R with a known combination, to exploring contact points and graphing.

For this two-hour session, we worked with locks of known combination, and usually only get to complete one and a half graphs in this time. Around six graphs were completed in total, and some even finished all three graphs within the session.

While any training is mostly satisfying a curiosity, we expect this training gave the attendees enough knowledge to give it a try on their own later. Maybe even getting obsessed about it in the process 🙂

CCBY4.0 Jan-Willem Markus Toool Blackbag

Recap of 2023

Friday, December 29th, 2023

Hi all, I want to take the opportunity to look back at the year 2023, and discuss our achievements of the last year. The first post on Blackbag of the year was on a modified electric heater. While the post was off brand (as in: not a lock), it helped several pickers to save hundreds of euros on the heating bill. I’ve used mine ever since.

Our first event of the year was in February, a luxurious hacking experience at Hackerhotel. It was a good conference where we talked with our friends from other Dutch Hackerspaces. The talks were everything from community discussions to creativity and security topics. Toool hosted three impressioning workshops a day, and Jan-Willem gave a talk on experimental lockpicking techniques. Which includes, analysis of the Bowley Rotasera, and lessons learned on the Kromer protector.

Wendt hosted a well received lockpicking competition end of March. Walter and Henri competed, and several others joined for the exposition and side events. In case you have missed it, Wendt invites you to join their open house 2nd and 3rd of March 2024.

In May Toool was at the last HITBSecConf2023 in Amsterdam. Toool has hosted the lockpicking village for HITB Amsterdam from the beginning of the conference, and we made great friends along the way. It is truly an end of a decade. The lockpicking village has always been one of the more consistent and popular side events at the conference, and we hosted it again with great pleasure.

During the summer, several Toool members from the Netherlands went to Defcon and visited the lockpicking village hosted by Toool US and to promote Locksport. I, myself, went to the Chaos Communication Camp in Germany. This is the largest German hacker camp hosted by the Choas Computer Club. Jascha from Sportsfreunden der Sperrtechnik, SSDeV set up the lockpicking event, which was a great success. I’ve run a few sessions in English, it was good fun.

LockCon was in October hosted at the Westcord Hotel in Garderen. We hosted close to a hundred guests from all over the world. Where in the three days we ran four competitions, a dozen talks, and many locks picked. It was great to meet our friends again. The recap of the event is worth a read.

ACF organized their annual festival in December. Walter traveled to Paris for the event and competition and won the third price. Walter shares his thoughts in this post.

Next to all these big events, we went twice at Tkkrlab, Hack42, and several other small events. On average we have run a side event a month. Furthermore, we hosted a lockpicking meetup almost every week, as well as published several blogs on locks, tools, and more, here on Blackbag. In case you have missed them, here are the highlights.

Walter looks for interesting locks and published a series of small unusual locks. For example, Walter found a 28mm double euro cylinder from Keso which is unique as it is operated with a standard length key. This short 6-pin euro cylinder from Dom is also quite clever. The Evva Elus is also a curiosity. Given the lock has electromechanical master keying.

I’ve written quite a bit for blackbag, for example on the cutaway collection from Qikom. Furthermore, in a collaborative work, I’ve 3D printed keys for the Abloy Protec2, as well as analyzed the yet unpicked Dulimex PRO-LINE padlock.

Henri wrote about a clever implementation of multi tenant lever locks. These and other lever locks are quite rare here, sadly. It’s a wonderful, but forgotten technology, which still has a place in high security systems in the UK and Italy. Hopefully, Henri will write more about those in a future Blackbag post.

To end this list, we like to suggest reading a post with in depth technical knowledge. The report in the LockCon 2022 impressioning competition. The document can be quite useful for pickers interested in impressioning.

If you see something you like, please leave a reaction below the post. It’ll help grow the brand as well as motivate the writers to continue putting in the effort. If you want to share your project on Blackbag, do reach out as well.

Best holiday wishes from me and the rest of Toool,
May many locks open for you in 2024 🙂

Jan-Willem Markus
Secretary of The Open Organisation of Lockpickers

French Open competition

Sunday, December 10th, 2023

Yesterday, the yearly “Festival ACF” was held in Paris, France. This is a combination of lectures, workshops and competitions held by the ACF (Association des Crocheteurs de France), the French Locksport group.

I believe this must be the 4th or 5th time I visited. It was good to meet old friends and make new friends. The first lecture I saw was from a pentester, talking about a red teaming assignment (that did not involve physical security). Next was a historical overview of pump locks from Fichet-Bauche.

After that, the lockpicking championships were held. About 25 people participated. In the first round, people were seated at tables with at most four people, each having to pick three cylinders in less than 5 minutes. I got an Opsial, a Thirard (which felt very cheap) and an unbranded cylinder. The Opsial was my first and I made the mistake not to try and rake it. I spent too much time picking and though I made not even make it past the first round! But in the end, it was me and Wesley both going through, thanks to our quick raking of 2 (me) or 3 (Wesley) cylinders.

The second round I had 2 opponents, and the cylinders were more difficult, a TESA TE5, a Heracles and a Vachette V5. They needed to be picked in under 10 minutes. I opened them all and my opponents opened none, which meant I was in the final!

There were 4 people in the final, having to open 4 locks (BKS 6-pin, DormaKaba, Heracles with a horrible keyway and a GeGe). I needed to relax and try to open something, as I hoped to get a plaque to take home with me. The BKS I could not open, but the DormaKaba I did open in 13’11, so just within the 15 minute time limit. And that was the only one I opened.. Nitiflor opened the DormaKaba as well as the GeGe, Wesley opened just the GeGe (in 9’20) and Hadrian did not open any. Too bad I could not open the GeGe as well, as that would have yielded second place. The final result was: Nitiflor #1, Wesley #2, I came third and Hadrian fourth. But that meant I got a plaque!

The ACF had gotten some really nice sponsoring resulting in nice prizes. Nitiflor got the wonderful Multipick ARES disc detainer pick, Wesly the Kronos electropick, I got a Flipper Zero. And some more goodies including some cylinders (DOM iX TECO, M&C Minos) and a manual pickgun.

I hope to return to Paris next year, and maybe win another plaque. Although my scores are declining, in 2021 I became first (and second in impressioning), in 2022 I became second, this year third. I see a downward trend 😉

Walter.

Dutch Open 2023 Disc detainer picking results

Monday, October 23rd, 2023

The Dutch Open 2023 Disc Detainer competition was held in a self-timed format. Throughout LockCon, the participants worked on getting the best times on the five Disc detainer locks: 001 Fort Knox, 002 Parkside, 003 No-name, 004 Abus Plus, 005 Abus Plus with butterfly disks.

We used the Sparrows Disc detainer pick with a 3D printed spacer. One of the Sparrows tools was modified to allow tensioning lock 004, the Abus 37/55.

Nitiflor won the competition by opening all the locks and won a Sparrows Vorax set. ImSchatten360 opened all locks as well, but spend more time in total and won the second price, a Sparrows Tuxedo royale. Matt Smith opened four out of five and won for the third price, a Sparrows Tuxedo set.

Dutch Open 2023 Pentathlon competition results

Monday, October 23rd, 2023

The Pentathlon competition is a series of five lock challenges sponsored and hosted by Parmakey. The competitors had to pick a pin tumbler, pick a dimple, impression a key, pick a safe lock, and pick a car lock. Twenty competitors joined the challenge.

Torsten won the competition with 52 points and won a Sparrows Vorax lockpickset, a book on historic keys. Decoder, with 50 points, won the second price and received a Sparrows Tuxedo Royale and a book on safe lock history. Robert won the third price with 42 points and received a Sparrows Tuxedo set, as well as a book on locksmithing history. All three also received a bottle of Nabucco wine.

Edit: 20240312
We were made aware of a mistake in the official competition results, and would like to correct this. After a remark from one of the participants on his missing opens in the official scores, ParmaKEY checked the papers and found there were two filled in papers which were missing in the official scoring. The table below is the updated scoring form, which now includes the scores from Jascha and Nitiflor.

With this new raking, Nitiflor has the well deserved second place. We decided not to change the original certificate and prizes, but to create an additional certificate with prizes for Nitiflor.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we will celebrate it with him the next time we meet.