LockCon program

August 17th, 2016

Although the desire to be at LockCon is normally not related with the official program, we do get some questions about what lectures will be given. So, we have made a (preliminary!) program. You can download it from here: lockcon2016.ics.

Apart from competitions in lockpicking, impressioning and lever lock picking, lots of socializing and generally having lots of fun, these lectures/workshops are planned:

  • Contemporary Chinese Locks by MH and Lucas Zhao
  • Bypassing electronic safe locks by Jord Knaap
  • Keyed-alike industrial standards by Deviant Ollam
  • OpenSCAD by Kenny McElroy
  • Surfing the wave! (a pin lock picking tools analysis) by Jimmie & Cocolitos
  • Elements of Cylinder Design by Peter Field
  • CNC Milling EVVA 3KS Keys and decoding the Masterkey System by Jan Morawek and Michael Weiner
  • AccuReader by Eric Scaillet
  • Why safe lock manipulation works by Jaakko Fagerlund

Posted in LockCon | Comments Off on LockCon program

Cutaway locks 2.0

July 10th, 2016

Cutaway locks are a nice way to understand the inner working of a lock. Many lock companies make factory cutaways of their models, but they can be hard to get. There are also companies making (pad)locks out of plastic to show the inner workings. And then there are locks made into cutaways by lock lovers.

Many exist, but the locks created by ‘Lock Cracker’ are in a separate class. Using a CNC milling machine he is able to cut away lots of material so you can see how the pins move, but also how the actual locking mechanism works. The most interesting are high security locks that have special features, such as the Ross Emhart lock that has interconnecting pins. Or his newest creation, the Mul-T-Lock MT5+. This lock uses pins within pins. The outer pins have been individually cut to show the inner pin within. Truly a masterpiece.

More pictures can be found in this gallery.

Contact him at l0ckcr4ck3r@gmail.com. Note that we as Toool have no affiliation with Lock Cracker, we just admire his work and like to share it.

Posted in Locks | 2 Comments »

LockCon progress

July 2nd, 2016

LockCon 2016

Things are moving along rather nicely. The registration has opened and a lot of the usual suspects have already registered. We are however still missing quite a lot of our regular visitors. Please do not forget to register, because we have a limited number of rooms. Just showing up on the day will probably mean you cannot get in anymore!

Lots of people are submitting talks. We love it! Keep them coming! People who have submitted a talk will be contacted later, when we have a preliminary schedule. There is room for lightning talks as well.

There is a logo for LockCon 2016 as you can see. This year, we have decided not to print shirts, to avoid a pile of left overs once LockCon is over. Anybody want to buy a shirt from 2014? This year we do have shirts, but they are printed on demand and you can order them yourselves. We offer these on a non profit basis via the shirt shop of our good friends at Hack42. You can order either a man’s T-shirt, women’s T-shirt, mini person T-shirt or a hoodie.

If you want to use a different (local/cheaper/DIY) printshop, feel free to use the logo above.

Posted in LockCon | Comments Off on LockCon progress

Magnetic Power Box Lock

June 12th, 2016

Marcel got a Goso pickgun and it included some items of which the use was not clear right away:

Goso pick

Goso pick

After some researching on the internet, it turned out that these are meant to pick certain magnetic locks that are manufactured in China. Outside of China, you will likely not come across these locks.

The silver coloured piece can only turn, the brass piece has a push knob at the end. After some googling, Marcel found a YouTube video explaining the lock (not the tool), made by Lockman28, to be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZNUgsplYk4.

Posted in Locks | 2 Comments »

LockCon 2016 – dates

April 19th, 2016

LockCon logo

The weekend of September 30 – October 2, the LockCon conference will once again be held! This time, it will not be in Sneek, but in Garderen, in Hotel Overbosch Garderen. Garderen is less than 2 hours from Schiphol Airport when using public transportation.

LockCon is an invite-only conference. Members of Toool NL and affiliated lockpicking groups can visit, as well as people that have visited LockCon before. Others need to be endorsed or need to convince us they should be there 🙂

Registration is not yet open and the price is not yet known. This post is for you to take note of the date, and also to ask if you are willing and capable of giving a lecture or workshop at LockCon 2016. If so, please let us know at lockcon2016-submit@toool.nl.

Apart for the interesting lectures and workshops, the Dutch Open lockpicking and impressioning championships will also be held during LockCon as usual.

 

Posted in LockCon | Comments Off on LockCon 2016 – dates

Abus EC60 impressioning

March 23rd, 2016

Last Friday, Jos got a little present: an ABUS E60 as an impressioning challenge.
The keyway is way different to what he usually encounters during competitions (which would be the old trusted C83) so it was a good thing a handful of blanks were thrown in as well…

It’s a six pin cilinder, and the keys vary quite a lot in thickness when you go down. At some points it more than doubles between cuts!
So basically, lots of Jos’ fancy tools were rather unusable for this one. But, it took only two blanks and the better part of 45 minutes (which included a phonecall) but in the end it did open!

Abus EC60

Abus EC60

Abus EC60

Abus EC60

Abus EC60

Posted in Impressioning | 2 Comments »

Toool Club Competition Winners

February 24th, 2016

For over 10 years, we have held yearly club competitions at Toool. We collect some 25 locks and allow all Toool members to have a go at them. At a normal competition, you get a lock you have never picked before and only one chance. In this club competition, you can really try to learn how the locks reacts, how different tools and techniques produce different results and you can have a go at really difficult locks. At the end of the competition, there are prizes awarded for three lockpickers who opened the most locks in the least amount of time.

The 2015 competition ended a few months ago and we finally handed out the prizes to the winners. The prizes are a plaque and a Tokoz PRO 300 cilinder, kindly sponsored by Tokoz. The winner is Walter Belgers, second place is for Christian Holler and Jos Weyers came in third.

We are already hard at work with the 2016 competition.

Club Competition Prizes

Posted in Locks, General | Comments Off on Toool Club Competition Winners

Picking cheap locks

December 19th, 2015

I had ordered a cheap transparant padlock out of China. Although it is a six pin lock, I could pick it touching only two of the six pins. I took a look at it and it’s interesting to see how costs were cut (the lock costs about $3 in bulk). Material has been drilled from the plug to save material. Also, the top and bottom pins are the same pins. This influences the security of the lock. If the pin is stack is not neatly at the sheer line, it will still open as the tipped pin will wiggle itself into the correct position. This is why picking one third of the pins suffices in this case.

I then looked at some euro cilinders in the same price range. It turns out that effectively, they have only one pin that needs to be set. You can use a random key to wiggle the lock open. Even more shocking is the fact that some people will actually put such a lock on their front door.

Posted in Locks | Comments Off on Picking cheap locks

Picking Abloy Classic

December 3rd, 2015

I regularly give lectures and workshops about locks and lock related topics at conferences such as CONFidence, Hack.lu, BruCON, 4GH, SEC-T, Hackito Ergo Sum, Hashdays, Fri3dcamp, TEDx and more. My latest talk was also the most interesting. It was at the wonderful t2.fi conference in Helsinki, Finland.

I was there in 2014 as well. This year, I could only speak again if I’d open Finnish locks. And Finnish locks are among the most secure.. Almost everybody in Finland has ASSA Abloy locks on their door. Many Fins believe these are unpickable. So I set myself the task to open these locks.

First, I tried the H&H tool for opening Abloy. I then found out this tool does not work and simply cannot work, unless you can set the discs in order. So this was money wasted. I finally was able to purchase a tool from Citadel LockTools in the UK, that can actually open (and decode) Abloy Classic locks. These tools are handmade by Matt and look and work fantastic.

The tool comes with several tips, for different kinds of locks. I bought a few Abloy Classic ‘handbag’ padlocks and it’s interesting to see that they differ. In one, the deepest disc is locked, not so in the other. They both need a different tip on the tool.

Abloy Classic decoder

Abloy Classic decoder

Using this tool, I was able to open an Abloy Classic live on stage in Helsinki, which got me a nice applause!

Here’s a clip of when, after some practicing, I was first able to open the Classic using Matt’s tool:

Posted in Locks, Conference, Decoding | 3 Comments »

Maverick lock

September 24th, 2015

I had this Maverick lock in my collection for a long time. At a Toool meeting, I was playing around and decided to try and open it. Martin then suggested he make it into a cutaway version, which he did. I’ve made a short video to demonstrate how it works.

Posted in Locks | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »