Getting Started with Lockpicking
blog.yaelwrites.com
blog.yaelwrites.com
Lockpicking ought to be exponentially hard. You should have to try all the pin position combinations. Something like 5^6 for a 6-pin cylinder. But is in practice, it's not much worse than linear. You can tell when you're making forward progress. That's considered a total fail in a cryptographic system, but is accepted in the keyed lock industry.
The guy with the Stuff Made Here videos did make a lock that is not supposed to let you know if you're making progress. That makes picking exponentially hard again. The info the key provides is recorded mechanically, and then, as you turn the key, that info is later tested with the cylinder in a position that blocks access to the mechanism. That isolation between "read key" and "test key data" is what makes it work. He has an elegant, reasonably compact design, although it turned out to have other vulnerabilities. If you were willing to have a big box of a lock inside or behind the door, like many 19th century and earlier locks, this would be much easier to build.
As locks wear, they become easier and easier to pick. Heavily worn pin-tumbler locks can be opened by almost anything that randomly moves the pins up and down while you apply some tension. Rakes, vibrators, etc.
Many electronic locks are vulnerable due to putting the electronics that makes the decision to open on the outside, where it can be tampered with. You'd think the outside would just have a keypad or sensor, with all the good stuff behind the door, but all too often, no. Also, most electronic locks come with a mechanical backup lock, usually one that's not very good.
The real value of a lock that's hard to pick is that it forces the burglar to carry more tools and use noisier, time consuming methods. All of this makes the break-in far more obvious and detectable much faster by neighbors, or anyone really, even the owner.
And you want to make the job harder and riskier for the burglar so the bar is higher for how willing they must be to go through with the job.
Most burglaries are "blind" ones, meaning the burglars have a reasonably good idea of the job's value and difficulty level. So if you have a lot of valuables you have to do your darnedest to raise the job's difficulty: make the break in take time, be noisy, and generally draw attention, or forcing the robbers to leave a lot of evidence behind.
I agree with what you said, but I wanted to put in the context of what I wrote. Unless your windows and doors have actual anti burglar features, the lock doesn't matter at all. A large screwdriver is often enough to force a window open and a pry bar will make short work of a door. Not until those have been properly secured does the lock matter. And according to some insurance companies in Denmark, thieves does not pick locks anyway. They use a method of force.
Then again, as noob I suspect there may be very simple reason why this isn't implemented.
If it takes a lockpicking artist more than a minute to pick it while being able to move it around in three dimensions it would take so time on the street too.
Not everyone has two hands or all fingers for a good grip? I have made the interesting observation that on very cold days my fingers are sometimes too numb to turn the key around in order to unlock the door. I then need to use both hands to turn the key to get inside my apartment to warm up.
Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY
I find it odd he hasn't ever found a lock that would defeat him (I didn't watch all his videos though).
That said, a good security system will have multiple (nested) zones and multiple controls to defeat in each zone - picking a lock by itself should not be enough to gain access, and you should not be able to get to the lock to begin with without being spotted or setting off alarms and triggering a police response.
These are the kinds of things I miss now that conferences have gone virtual for now. I hope they return to in person when safe, or at least a hybrid model going forward.
I'd personally found that picking never stuck: Something between understanding the fundamentals and individual pin picking that my brain refuses to handle.
With that said, I discovered impressioning, which I find infinitely more tactile, interesting and exciting.
As you say, there's almost infinite space for evolution.
For next steps, I'd highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Black-Book-Lockpicking-Profess...
It's written by a friend who teaches picking to hobbyists, locksmiths and LEA.
If you're in Europe, we also just launched https://lock401.com - highly curated collections of lockpicking tools.
People buy these believing it's actual physical protection, yet it's usually not.
The highlight of my "career" though was when an escape room we played had an optional lockpicking challenge. It turned out to just be a clear practice lock which I got through it with no trouble, and then proceeded to pick a pair of handcuffs that apparently I wasn't supposed to pick. I had never tried before, but it really was as easy as it looks on TV. (they gave me a lockpick but apparently I'm not supposed to use it? there was an actual handcuff key inside one of the other locked boxes)
This involves (as the name implies) just twisting the lock if it sticks out or using a blow tourch to melt the handle or just snapping the handle off, to a get purchase on the lock see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqHryHXSj8
btw LockpickingLawer did a review of imho of one of the better locks to protect against this and is reasonably pick proof (he had no negative comments!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOakyPgrpyw. Which is the lock I have (I'm not affiliated in any way)
My collegue was asking how do we get new keys, I then showed him the easy way and put a large long flat screwdriver in to the lock, another screwdriver through the hole in the handle and turned it effortlessly. twisting the whole lock and opening it
he learnt that there was no real security there
Recent law changes make it illegal to own an ammunition shell. I have had one huge artillery shell as an umbrella holder at home, hope my parents got rid of it.
Tension wrench and triangle rake. Works 80% of the time. And if that fails there's usually more doors to try.