Unfortunately, you chanced upon a boob. The referenced books do exist, along with books that have a depth chart to cut a key based upon the serial number of a padlock. Try another vendor, and if you’re still stuck, email me.
Perhaps not, but his point is valid. This amounts to little more than a parlor trick; any thief worth his salt is just going to cut the lock off. The fact that this information is available does little to change the level of security of these locks.
Well, true, but sometimes you want to get in and out of a lock without breaking it. And sometimes you want to simply know the forgotten combination. I’ve had both happen to me before.
Maybe a silly question, suppose I have a storage area that I keep all my valuable faberge eggs and raw conflict diamonds in. If it is locked and a thief physical breaks the lock or picks the lock, is that more of a legal penalty as opposed to if he just took it fom an unlocked storage area?
I didn’t even look at the video because I instantly knew what they were talking about and your description confirmed it. I’ve cracked several locks this way. My gym used to leave signs on lockers where someone had left their lock, saying that in 7 days they’d cut it off. I would try those. I went 6 for 7, or something like that.
So yes, it works, and it works exactly as your description says.
I’m quote sure that it varies by jurisdiction, but I know of at least one case (from sitting in a courtroom, waiting to be called as a witness in another case) where the judge deemed the door itself a means of limiting access to a privately owned/controlled space, and found the defendant guilty of “breaking and entering”. The poor defendant (pleading for leniency) simply couldn’t wrap his head around how this was breaking and entering, so the judge explained it to him slowly.
I suppose it’s hard to set an objective minimum standard of security before it becomes B&E. if you put a ten-cent hook on the inside of your screen door, but the scren is torn, you made your intention clear. Heck, an intact screen wouldn’t have been much protection, but it’d be easy for most people to see the “breaking” part of the B&E if you cut the screen. I suppose one could argue that a free-swinging door with no knob/tongue (but an automatic closing spring) and a “Private” sign could count. A bead curtain? Who knows?
In the case I observed, the judge also made a point about the existence of a lock in the knob and the legality of wandering through a neighborhood testing the doors, but I don’t recall that well enough to repeat here.
Having viewed the linked movie, it has a flaw. The narrator states that the odd number is to be divided by 4 and the remainder noted. As such, the remainder must be equal to 0, 1, 2, or 3. Later on, he states that if the remainder was 3 or 4… buh? When dividing by 4, how does one obtain a remainder of four? Scratching my tumblers smiley
Disclosing a security flaw is not illegal unless you have a contract stating so.
Thousands would be in jail right now for the Microsft OS alone. Think of all the reporters that have diclosed severe security breachs at chemical storage sites to warn the people how easy a malicifant person could cause massive deaths.
He should have said 2 and 3 go to 0 and 1. He’s obviously really bad at math, or the whole video would have taken about a quarter of the time to say. It was painful for me to watch.
Huh? Mosler safe locks (model 302) have the wheel pack mounted on the back plate of the lock. Hence, removing the backcover pulls the wheels out of the lock and leaves nothing but the drive cam. Granted, Sargent and Greenleaf is also a popular mechanical safe lock for Mosler containers. (8400 and 8500 series). I cannot recall ever seeing a Lagard MP lock on a GSA container.
If your work has (goverment)classified material, then the safes must have a manipulation proof combination lock (group 1R) to meet GSA specs. Most of the mechanical ones are being phased out for those spiffy pieces of crap known as the X-09.
Feynman learned different ways of recovering a combination. He by no means was the first to discover them. Of course, as these methods became known safe combination locks changed.
Such As:
vibration in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s it was possible to vibrate the safe lock which would over time line the wheels together. This was due to a solid brass wheel, with one gate cut out. The heavy side of the wheel due to vibration would settle to the botton and the gate lining up at the top. From there you could “backdial” the combination.
This problem was corrected first but serated wheels (S&G) whcih failed, to adding holes in the wheel to correct the balance error.
backdialing once a container was open, you could spin the dial and “feel” where the wheels pick up. Then after some adjustments to those numbers (to account for various contruction styles) the combination can be retrieved. All this without even having to take the back cover off.
x-ray A soviet spy was caught x-raying safes. With the drawer open, you could turn the safe dial 4 times to say 0. Then a quick x-ray would show the wheel gates at angles in relation to the numbers. This gained the three numbers and was a short process to find the combination.
This problem was solved by using Delron plastic for the wheels instead of brass. Also adding a plate in the lock housing that would mimic false gates.
Today the X-09 by Mas Hamilton are becoming all the rage. They are almost impossible to open without damage.
GSA safes as I discussed above are a different breed of safe lock. Home safes of quality will use a group 2 lock. (standard brass wheel, able to be manipulated). Home fire safes (cheap ones) have super easy combination locks.
Master locks as mentioned in the OP, are made in a similar fashion as some of the old Hall safes of the early 1900’s. With patience and understanding of how they work. They can be defeated in a reasonable amount of time.
Security is usually the first thing to go when expenses are lowered.