Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
24th April 2024 Issue no. 702

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DefCon expert finds biometric locks to be too fallible

Security maverick Marc Tobias has demonstrated at the annual DefCon gathering in Las Vegas just how simple it is to defeat some of the world's top high-tech locks.

"These locks might be winning awards but they are forgetting the basics," Tobias said. "They might be clever, but they aren't secure."

A Biolock model 333 designed to scan fingerprints and unlock for chosen people was opened by simply pushing a paper clip into a key slot.

An Amsec ES1014 digital safe was breached by sliding a flat metal file folder hangar through through a crack at the edge of the door and pressing an interior button allowing the access code to be reset.

The innovative iLoq used the action of a key being pushed into the lock to generate power for electronics that then checked data in a chip on the key to determine whether the user is cleared for access.

Tobias and lock-cracking colleague Tobias Bluzmanis pointed out that the iLoq design counted on a small hook being tripped to reset the devices as a key was removed.

In what they referred to as a viable inside attack possible on locks geared for office settings, someone could borrow a key and shave a tiny bit of metal from the tip and it would no longer catch the iLoq reset hook.

The result would be that once a valid key is used to open the iLoq it will yield to any key or even a screw driver stuck in the slot because it remains stuck in the unlocked position.

An audit trail left by a compromised iLoq would only stop at the person whose key legitimately opened the lock.

"It is really clever, but it is also very defective," said Tobias, a longtime advocate for tougher standards in the lock industry.

"Electromechanical locks are more secure if done right. The question is whether the technology is implemented properly."

Tobias and his team consistently show up at the annual DefCon gathering in Las Vegas to pop locks with wires, magnets, air, shock, screw drivers and other improvised tools.

4th August 2010