In the current Tool rhythm, we have one meetup a week. Both the Amsterdam and Eindhoven meetups are Bi-weekly, where we planned to have one meetup a week. We come together to discuss lock topics, compete in the Toool competition, and generally have fun picking locks.
In this post, I’d like to share pictures topics and projects that have come across at Toool meetups.
A locked coin safe was brought to the meeting. Due to the construction of the box, the lock was a very difficult to put torque on with a turning tool. We succeeded in opening the lock several times, and had great fun picking the lock in literally seconds with an electronic pick.
Once in a while, we receive donations from community members. This Sparrows vault was donated to us with the request for an upgrade to the lock, as the original served not enough of a challenge. We complied, and mounted a Kaba Mas X0 Electronic lock on the Vault.
Everyone has a go-to pickset, one which is a mix of everything. We also bring Sunday’s best to dedicated sets. For example, Moki makes great picksets, which are even better with homemade handles. Or a shiny Multipick set, be it dimple or a dual-gauge set designed by Christina Palmer. Where the only part staged about the photo is to have all the sets neatly displayed.
We went to the Association des Crocheteurs de France conference in December 2022, and brought back a few tools and picks from France. We attempted to pick the Polox-5, and Fichet F3D. Both attempts made possible by the incredible work of Nitiflor, who designed and 3D printed these picks.
Jos brought a suitcase with Chinese locks, which was gifted to him for organizing LockCon 2016. At the time, these locks were unobtainable, and information sparse. The mechanisms are very intricate with 50-element wafer locks, and cores with continuous rotation similar to the Yuema 750, an implementation we have yet to see used in Europe.
If this blog sparked interest in lockpicking, or if you have been picking and would like to join a meetup, please contact us. We are always welcome to new people, be it to teach the basics or to share advanced tricks. https://toool.nl/Gatherings
In the summer of 2022, the Dutch hacker community gathered at the May Contain Hackers conference. The conference was amazing, with over a dozen simultaneous tracks with topics ranging from electronics, privacy and internet security, to art and technology. The program is published at https://program.mch2022.org/ and the talks are published on https://media.ccc.de/c/MCH2022.
For Lockpicking content, Toool organized a lockpicking village, The MCH CTF included lockpicking challenges, and plenty of exciting talks are given. Including Introduction to lockpicking and safe cracking, Anker 3800 Magnetic lock, and bumping electronic locks! More on these after a photo impression of MCH.
Jan-Willem presented an introduction to lockpicking and safe lock manipulation.
Talk description from the MCH schedule: Most security implementations leak information, mechanical security is no different. It takes sharp eyes, a soft touch, and a good hearing to distinguish between information and noise. In this talk we will go in depth on how locks works, and how we can persuade them to disclose their secrets, and open them without damage.
The Open Organization of Lockpickers (Toool) is a group of nerds obsessed with mechanical security. We create, collect, take apart, discuss, and attempt to defeat locks. While we are known for lockpicking, there are many other techniques for opening locks without damage.
This talk will focus on the language of the locks, the side channels in mechanical security systems. We will start with binding order, the mechanism to isolate the locking elements, and exploit them one by one. Then we will discuss a wide variety of other methods of gathering information and opening locks. Most of these methods are not practical, but working them out gives us great joy, and we would like to share the highlights with you.
Walter presented his research of the Anker 3800 magnetic lock. It includes deriving master keyed systems, designing an electronic key/lock decoder, and 3D printing keys.
Talk description from the MCH schedule:The Anker 3800 is a mechanical lock that has both traditional pins as well as magnetic sliders. Can it be opened without the key? This talk discusses how the lock works in a master keyed system and how it can possibly be defeated. It will cover decoding, picking and key duplication.
The Anker 3800 is a mechanical lock that has both traditional pins as well as magnetic sliders. It was designed by Japanese company MIWA and is sold in the Netherlands under the Anker brand. It is a high security lock that is often used in large master keyed systems.
I wondered: can it be opened without the key? I will present my adventures with the lock, having opened it up to see how it works, and several things I have tried to copy the key, pick the lock, decode the lock and find out what the master key looks like. The talk will include successes and failures and I will discuss designing 3D models, C&C work, electronics, Arduino programming, PCB design, and more.
The talk is aimed at people with an interest in lockpicking. No prior knowledge is necessary.
mh shared his research on bumping electronic locks. As in, opening the electronic locks by using a percussion drill and custom attachment.
Talk description from the MCH schedule:Modern electronic locks are often optimized for cost, not security. Or their manufacturers don’t do security research. Or they ignore it. For whatever reason, many current electronic lock systems are susceptible to surprisingly simple attacks. We’ll look at some of them, and at the underlying basics, so that you can do your own research.
In this talk, we look at a number of modern electronic locks and their security flaws. Surprisingly many current systems are susceptible to very simple attacks, like the equivalent of using bump keys. Of course, there are electronic and/or SW-based attacks, too. We’ll look at some of them, and at the underlying basics, so that you can do your own research. Some of the problems have been fixed by manufacturers, but typically only for future production runs, so you will get some practical advice on how to test your own hardware for these critical flaws.
Jan-Willem presented a basic introduction to threat modeling and uses puzzles as an example.
Talk description from the MCH schedule:Mechanical locks are everywhere and come in all shapes and flavors. But choosing the right lock can be rather difficult. For example, what is better? A lock that is hard to pick, or a lock with hard to duplicate keys. This talk will not give you the answers, but it will help you understand the trade-offs. Furthermore, we will have fun threat modeling our locks.
Is lockpicking a threat you should be concerned about, or is the brick the tool you should care for? Jan-Willem, from The Open Organization of Lockpickers (Toool), will share his ideas on mechanical security and threat modeling. We will make it fun and use several case studies, starting with defining a lock, threat modeling mechanical puzzles, and use several case studies where the threat was overrated. Simply put, attacks against locks range from the trivial to mastery. I’ll share multiple failed attempts of attacks that should be trivial, but were not in practice, and we will analyze them together.
We are happy to present the talk Experiment driven lockpicking by Jan-Willem at HackerHotel 2023.
The talk goes into uncovering information leakage in locks like Bowley Rotasera and Kromer Protector. May this talk inspire to do research and share all the interesting results.
In a previous blog post, I’ve written about Qikom’s cutaways. Whereas, this post is a tangent on why we would like to see more cutaways made and the knowledge shared.
When we teach beginners, and show them a unique lock, often they can’t imagine what happens in the lock. As all they can see is the outside. To illustrate this, let’s play a short game with a Fichet 787. The key looks quite interesting, as it has half a dozen cutouts on each side. It’s not symmetrical, and can only be inserted in the keyway in one direction. You feel a spring pushing against the key, but at rotation it seems to be like any other lock.
If you haven’t seen this lock before, take a moment to imagine what the internals are like.
Fichet 787. CC-BY-4.0 Jan-Willem, Toool Blackbag
It’s quite obvious where I’m going with this. There can be almost anything inside the shiny cylinder. It will be very difficult to find the solution without taking it a part, or looking at a diagram. The cutaway, like the one from Qikom below, shows the internals from the lock. Reducing the guess work over a picture of the parts.
Qikom Fichet 787 Cutaway CC BY-NC-SA 4.0Qikom Fichet 787 Cutaway; The interaction between the lever pack and the gears. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0Qikom Fichet 787 Cutaway; The lock is open. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Is it anything like you imagined it to be?
What does the 787 do? The Fichet 787, is a push lever lock. Where the push action allows the lateral movement of the levers to rotate a set of gears to the opening position. The sidebar is a passive element that checks if the gears are all aligned. With the correct key, the cylinder moves inwards, clears a blocking element, and is able to rotate. At the same time, the key is trapped by two half circle disks.
It is quite possible you have seen this lock before, as it has been around for decades. I’ve learned about the lock in 2018, and recently expanded the knowledge at the Association des Crocheteurs de France lock conference in December 2022. I’ve learned the dovetail, which connects the cam to the core, is a fairly recent addition that prevents a (partially) destructive attack, for example.
French locks are my favorite weird lock designs, where Fichet is king. The ingenuity is admirable, with many clever ways to solve the same problem…
Posted in Lockpicking, Locks, General | Comments Off on Cutaway locks, why put in the effort?
In an effort to quantify the locksport world, I’m taking my measuring tools to locksport in an attempt to learn the details. For example, how much torque is required to pick a lock. With this knowledge, we can build better lockpicks, and teach proper technique. In this blog, I’ve set out to compare the hardness of key blanks for impressioning.
As I’m not a machinist, nor do I have access to fancy hardness measuring equipment, I’ve found the cheapest method I could use at home. There are many methods, and many systems, to measure the hardness of metal. One difficulty was to get familiar with the lingo and to find a measurement tool that works for key like metals, thin, soft, etc.
The most common method of cheap hardness testing is to use Rockwell hardness testing files from measuring hardness of knifes. Usually in the range of C40 to C65 in increments of five. I’ve found similar methods online for testing the hardness of lead with pencils. Where HB hardness pencil will be equivalent to a certain percentage lead in tin. To my knowledge, none such system exists for brass.
More expensive methods press a hardened piece of metal with a known force into the sample, and measuring the indentation. While most of these measuring jigs are too expensive, I’ve found one for cheap. That is the Poldihammer test, which is sold on eBay for around €100. The tool uses a captive ball bearing which presses both on a bar of known hardness and the sample. You just simply place it on the object and hit it with a hammer. The ball bearing presses with equal force into both metals object. Comparing the dents gives you the Brinell hardness.
My Poldihammer came with a small magnifier and scale. It’s not so easy to use, and the resolution is minimal. The kit also comes with convention tables, but they feel very approximate. My solution is to measure the indentation with a digital microscope and calculate the BHN from this formula from Wikipedia:
BHN = Brinell Hardness Number (kgf/mm2). P = applied load in kilogram-force (kgf) D = diameter of indenter (mm) d = diameter of indentation (mm)
It doesn’t take much to use the dent on the reference bar to calculate the force. As the force is equal on the key, we can use the force to calculate the hardness of the keys. Let’s take a look at a real world example. The next two images are the dents under high magnification.
Key for measurement B1: 214.581 by 209.048 pixels. This is 2.00 mm on average.Reference bar with hardness 187. Measurement B1: 163.809 by 162.959 pixels. 1.55 mm average width.
For completeness, I’ve added the calculations as to make the method repeatable, and accessible to more hobbyists. The force is calculated as follows: P = BHN(reference) * PI * D * (D – SQRT(D^2 – X^2)). Where X is the dent on the reference bar. In LibreOffice Calc, this is =187*PI()*10*(10-SQRT(10^X^2)).
The hardness of the key is calculated BHN(Key) = P /(PI * D *(D^2-Y^2)). Where Y is the dent on the key. In LibreOffice Calc, this is =P/(PI()10(10-SQRT((10^2)-(Y^2))))
For the numbers above, I’ve found the force as 706.25, and the BHN of the key as 110.8. I’ve repeated the test for four more keys and measured them as 114.5, 103.9, 97.0, and 118.2 with an average of 108.9. In similar measurements, I would drop the minimum and maximum and take the average of the remaining samples, which is 109.7.
The following table is the result of my measurements. The results are surprising.
Brand
Average
Aquired date
Comment
Measurement [BHN]
Silca
Three keys
2018
CS206 Brass.
147.1
Silca
Three keys
2022
LD5R Steel.
222.8
JMA
Three keys
2018
Keys from Nigel Tolley.
135.4
Bauelemente
Three keys
2019
SSDeV Impressioning.
123.5
Abus
Three keys
2019
LockCon
133.4
Abus
Three keys
2020
Toool Inventory
135.8
Abus
Five keys
2022
LockCon Box A
127.4
Abus
Five keys
2022
LockCon Box B
108.9
Abus
Five keys
2022
LockCon Box C
131.5
Table of key measurements. Keys for Abus C83 with keyway similar to Y1.
The data revealed something interesting and confirmed a hunch. The hardness of steel keys is the highest, obviously. We see the brass alloy (nickel silver) have a range of values. There are also outliers, for example Box B, these keys are softer than keys acquired on the same day.
I’ve since played with both harnesses and can tell one hardness from another in impressioning. But only after I’ve switched from one hardness to another after a dozen opens, with the same hardness. After switching backwards and forwards, I can’t tell the difference in a blind test.
One final note, the kit comes with one reference bar that is consumable. We have about a hundred measurements in them. I have not found replacement bars, yet. But I believe we can use a similar shaped bar of steel, which is then calibrated with the reference bar before use. This will reduce accuracy, but can be accounted for if the measurements are comparative.
Thanks for taking your time to read about measuring hardness of keys. If you have a professional (Brinell) hardness measurement tool, and want to help out, let’s swap keys and compare notes. I’m always open to learn.
Posted in Keys, Impressioning | Comments Off on Quantifying the Brinell hardness of keys
On the 25th and 26th of March, Wendt organized a lockpicking championship in collaboration with SSDeV and ACL. Who is Wendt? They are creators and suppliers of locksmithing and lockpicking tools. They have a yearly house-fair to demonstrate the newest in locksmithing tools, and host competitions. This year’s event was specifically for the lockpicking community.
Wendt HQ in Bergheim, Germany. (Picture copyright Wendt.)
The main attraction is the German-style lockpicking competition. Where, in short, every competitor brings them own double euro pin tumbler cylinder. You’ll have to prove you can pick it yourself in five minutes to qualify. For each of the competitors locks, you get fifteen minutes for your picking attempt. Where the final score is decided by the person with the most opens in the least time.
For this year, a large variety of locks were present. Iseo, M&C, IX Saturn, IX-6, both Abus XP1 and Cisa SP, and Assa twin 2. Some of these, as you can imagine, are not opened often in fifteen minutes. This was felt as a setback by some, while others are encouraged to practice with even harder locks. Not to mention the endurance required to pick locks for over 5h straight.
Walter and Henri competed were in the competition from Toool. For Henri, it was his second lockpicking event. His video (YouTube) is worth it to watch if you are looking for encouragement to join a similar event. For photo’s of the lockpicking, please see the Facebook page of Wendt.
I’d like to share a few notes on a constructive discussion on how to run competitions. To some, the competitions at events like LockCon were too easy. People felt it was a competition in who can rake the locks, the fastest. Whereas, this event had rounds with very difficult locks, and few opens. There is a balance to be found is between the two systems. The comments are clear: give us harder locks to pick, but do give locks that are pickable in a reasonable time.
There was plenty of room to meet other lockpickers at the event, chat with the vendors, and join the side competitions. Han Fey had a very interesting challenge, where you are given a key ring and a box of locks. Where the goal was to match the most keys to the most locks in the least time. The catch is, you only got one chance. If the key didn’t fit, your attempt was over.
Just for fun, Jos and I competed in the electropicking competition and got 1st and 3rd place. The real star of the show are, of course, the electropicks Wendt sells. Truly amazing equipment.
On a side note, we call electropicking non-destructive as the locks remains functional. However, the repeated impact of the pick needle and the pins do create a lot of brass dust, as seen in the picture below.
To wrap up this post, it was great seeing so many old friends and to make new ones. Time well spent. Thanks, Sasha, and the Wendt team, for organizing this event!
This weekend at the Wendt lockpicking event, I spoke with the gentle people from BESA specialty lock shop in Belgium. They brought with them a very intriguing cylinder. It’s a KESO Octro 4000S dimple cylinder, but what makes it special is its size: it is a 14/14 cylinder (total size 2.8 centimeters).
The key is a normal sized key. It goes all the way through the cylinder. That means that the bitting interacts with pins on both sides of the key, which in turn means that the key must be symmetric.
Indeed it is. When the key is inserted, you can see it while looking at the other side.
By looking at the key, there could be as many as 30 pins in there. Not bad for a 14/14 cylinder, especially when you compare it to the 20/20 cylinder that had just one pin I wrote about earlier (see https://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=3882)!
If you have one of these to spare or know where to get them, let me know.
Impressioning competition are all about opening the most locks in the least amount of time. Quite often, every second counts. As we have been playing the game for a couple of decades, it wouldn’t surprise you that the locks become harder, the times have been getting faster, and the openings more consistent.
Most of the players have reinvented their setup multiple times. I’ve seen 3D printed attributes for key marking, and often see the newest inventions. To keep it fair, however, you require sharing the idea before the competition, as to prevent an unfair advantage.
My first improvements have been to watch the masters work, and to copy what they do. Whereas my last improvements are much more subtle. I’ve, for example, reduced the distance between the lock, lamp, and table. And improved my handling process to save seconds here and there. I don’t believe we are done, either, as I’m trying to find a better way of placing my file when I’m not using it.
What is it? It’s a modified cylinder where the pins are replaced by sharp carbide rods. By pressing a key into the pins, the pin positions are marked on the key. Which, in turn, allows a key of all depths one to be made. The process takes a second, instead of preparing a blank with sand paper, a filling jig, or marking the positions one by one with a scribe. To be completely honest, it might not save me too much time, I just like it as a convenience tool.
I’ve built my first version after I impressioned my first lock, early 2018. It’s not the prettiest, but it worked for over a thousand keys. At that time, I impressioned a lock a day for every day in January. At UKlocksport forum, this is known as the January challenge. I’ve got some good stories about it, including a friend that just never stopped and has a streak in the thousands. (Please, Toni, remind me to write a blog about it.)
The key below shows the principle of operation. The scribe replacement tips scratch the surface of the key. For this one, the scratches are deeper than I like, but it shows the idea. You want a mark, but not too deep.
The current version, as shown in the pictures below, are from a small series production I’ve made for LockCon 2022. It was well received, and I’ve helped many of my friends with one of them. Making them commercially is very much not worth it. But if you want one, or the bits to make one, I might have some.
Please remember, even with all the impressioning gadgets, it’s not going to make a difference if you didn’t put in the hours. Consistency is key.
Pictures are copyright CCBY4.0 Jan-Willem Markus @ Blackbag.
Qikom, lockpicker from France, created gorgeous locks cutaways and shared the images online. I believe cutaways to be very useful for understanding intricate lock designs. Where a good cutaway allows us to observe the elements of the lock while still functioning as normal.
Qikom is an associate professor in mathematics and computer science. Who got interesting in lock picking a little before 2000 after reading R. Feynman (the physicist) autobiography. Like many pickers, he is interested in the “puzzle” aspect of locks, and making a working cutaway is another kind of puzzle. Furthermore, he added, to spend more time making cutaways than picking locks!
Screenshot from Qikom’s website as of January 2023. http://qikom.free.fr/ CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
I’ve asked Qikom for tips on making great cutaways. He says about his cutaway strategy:
“I don’t have a well-defined strategy when planning a new cutaway. I know people start by making a 3D model of the lock to plan the cuts, but I don’t bother. In many of the locks I’ve cut, the cutting plan isn’t all that complex, and I try to set things up, so I can adjust things incrementally. One important thing I do, is to never cut a lock on the same day that I come up with the cutting plan, to get some time to think about it.
I usually try to have at least 2 identical locks to cut, and I consider one of them to be expendable. When everything works, I can sell / trade the second one, and if not, I get to correct any mistake on the second try. A couple of times, I badly failed twice, but could salvage enough parts to get the third attempt. But there are still some locks waiting because I wouldn’t want to mess them up.
I’ve made several embarrassing goofs along the way, but none of them would have been prevented by that! The graveyard includes several Robur, Rosengrens, Abloy, Fontaine, and Fichet… I’ve only attempted cutting an F3D when I got a couple of broken ones. This was a good idea, because the first 3 attempts were failures.
But there are still some locks waiting because I wouldn’t want to mess them up. Including the Emhart.”
Qikom often sells his cutaways online to partially fund the hobby. If you have interesting in these locks, or have a few spares that would work as a cutaway, consider contacting Qikom at qikom@free.fr
I got some new (old) cylinders. One was a small 25/25 cylinder with the key stuck in it. When I disassembled it, I was amazed to see six pins instead of the maybe three I was expecting.
The housing pins were tiny and also very short, except for one tall one, that has a double function as an anti-drill pin. The corresponding key pin is also made of hardened steel. There is one regular housing pin that is longer than the others. You would expect the key to have one cut that is deeper than the others, but that is not the case.
After reassembling, the cylinder worked fine again. Here’s a comparison of the key to this cylinder with one of a regular 6-pin cylinder:
Edit: it is a lock from the manufacturer DOM.
Photos CCBY4.0 Walter @ Toool Blackbag
Posted in Locks | Comments Off on 25/25 6-pin cylinder
I’ve only attempted cutting an F3D when I got a couple of broken ones. This was a good idea, because the first 3 attempts were failures.
