Practical Lock Picking

A Physical Penetration Tester's Training Guide

Deviant Ollam

• Publisher: Syngress
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781597496124
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Practical Lock Picking: A Physical Penetration Tester's Training Guide introduces the reader to the basic principles of lock picking. The book combines both easy-to-follow, step-by-step lessons, and tutorials that will help security-conscious people learn how to open most of the locks they may encounter during auditing or assessment work. It covers the fundamentals of pin tumbler and wafer locks; the basics of picking; beginner and advanced training; and quick entry techniques. Whether the student will be hired at some point to penetrate security or simply trying to harden his or her own defenses, this book is essential.This instructional manual focuses on pin tumbler locks, the construction and function of which are illustrated with the aid of several diagrams. Everything from straightforward lock picking to quick-entry techniques like shimming, bumping, and bypassing are explained and shown. Guides and exercises demonstrate the use of basic lock-picking tools in order to manipulate and open these locks. The text also describes the most common "alternative" designs of pin tumbler locks and summarizes the tools and techniques that can be effective against them. It comes with a DVD filled with indispensable lock picking videos and color photos.This book is an ideal reference for penetration testers, security consultants, and IT security professionals as well as hackers.- Detailed photos make learning as easy as picking a lock- DVD is filled with indispensible lock picking videos and color photos- Extensive appendix details tools and toolkits currently available for all your lock picking needs

Chapter 1. Fundamentals of pin tumbler and wafer locks

Information in this chapter

• Pin tumbler locks

• Wafer locks

While there are a multitude of lock designs on the market today, produced by many different manufacturers, the bulk of these offerings are not in widespread use. Nearly all of the locks that you are likely to encounter on a day-to-day basis stem from just a few basic varieties, and the mechanisms inside of all of these devices operate in almost the exact same manner. If you can understand the basics of just a few styles of locks, I'm confident in suggesting that you should be able to open with great ease at least three quarters of the locks you're likely to encounter… even more, as you become more skilled with time.

The overwhelming majority of locks that are in use today, particularly in North America, are either pin tumbler locks or wafer locks. A handful of other designs are prevalent in certain international regions. Lever locks, for example, are of an older design originating in the 17th century with keys that tend to be larger and their operation more cumbersome than more recent designs. Such locks are a common sight in Europe, central Asia, and parts of South America. Rotating disk mechanisms are popular in northern Europe and parts of the Pacific Rim, while some locks in Austria and Japan feature magnetic components. However, in all cases—even in the regions outside of North America—it should be understood that these designs are usually not nearly as prominent as basic pin tumbler locks and wafer locks, particularly as far as penetration testing is concerned.

Typical office doors, desk drawers, filing cabinets, and access panels will usually be equipped by default with lower quality locks because they are the easiest to mass produce, the simplest to service, and the most economical to replace or rekey should the need arise. Until furniture manufacturers and hardware stores cease ordering bulk shipments of locks with low production costs and lax quality standards, we are likely to continue encountering them for a very long time.

Pin tumbler locks

The style of lock with which the majority of people are most familiar is the pin tumbler design. I realize that many of you may already be somewhat aware of this hardware (and, indeed, diagrams and photographs of all shapes and sizes seem to abound on the internet and in other printed works), but I feel it would be helpful for us to analyze this mechanism briefly, from the ground up, in order to properly understand how it functions and how it can be exploited.

Pin tumbler locks come in many forms and styles and can be incorporated into hardware that appears in a number of different shapes. Take a look at the locks in Figure 1.1Figure 1.2 and Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.1 A padlock featuring an embedded pin tumbler mechanism.

Figure 1.2 A doorknob featuring a key-in-knob pin tumbler core.

Figure 1.3 A deadbolt featuring a pin tumbler lock in a mortise cylinder.

While each lock has clearly a very different form factor, all three function with a traditional pin tumbler mechanism that is operated by means of a simple “blade” style key, shown in Figure 1.4, the likes of which you have seen multiple times before.

Figure 1.4 Blade style keys, which feature bitting cuts along their thin edge. Many well-known manufacturers' keys can be identified simply by the shape of the key's bow.

The pin tumbler mechanism is one of the oldest lock designs in existence and is still widely used today. Let's take a closer look at how the components of these locks are made and assembled, paying particular attention to how the lock attempts to hold itself shut without the key present. There are two primary large pieces that comprise the bulk of a pin tumbler lock: the housing and the plug. These are the two items that can easily be seen from an exterior perspective and are thus the most understood. We will now walk through the manner in which these two segments are fabricated and how they fit together.

The plug

The plug of a pin tumbler lock is constructed from a cylindrical billet typically made of brass, although occasionally steel is used in high-quality models. Often the first feature to be added, after the metal is cut to the requisite length, is a small divot in what will become the front face of the plug. This helps to seat and align the key during user operation. See Figure 1.5 for a better understanding of how we shall look upon the various components of lock hardware. On the left is a frontal view, what the user would typically see from a straightforward perspective. On the right of the diagrams in Figure 1.5Figure 1.6Figure 1.7Figure 1.8Figure 1.9Figure 1.10Figure 1.11 and Figure 1.12, we see a perspective from the side.

Figure 1.5 A blank plug featuring the key-seating divot, ready for milling.

Figure 1.6 The left side of the diagrams in this figure to 1.12 will begin to focus on a cross-section slightly inward from the exterior front facing surface of the lock.

Figure 1.7 The milled lip at the front of a plug. Note how our “front perspective” on the left side has reduced in size slightly, since we are focusing our attention on ...

Table of contents

• Cover Image
• Table of Contents
• Front matter
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Ethical Considerations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Fundamentals of pin tumbler and wafer locks
• Chapter 2. The basics of picking
• Chapter 3. Beginner training
• Chapter 4. Advanced training
• Chapter 5. Quick-entry tricks
• Chapter 6. They all come tumbling down
• Appendix. Guide to tools and toolkits
• Index