House key copied from photo

Cool

Keygen.exe FTW!

Too clever by half.

So with a digital camera, a telephoto lens, a computer, some bespoke software and a bit of time you can calculate the necessary details, feed them into a machine and cut a key. This solution replaces, er, plasticene (or a bar of soap at a pinch), a key blank and a file.

Now the security aspect. Who are you more likely to be suspicious of? The bloke taking pics of you at range with a telephoto lens who has a van-load of kit in tow or the bloke sitting at the next table wearing a jacket that may, or may not, have plasticene, a file and a set of key blanks in the pockets.

The one with the plasticene, the file and the key blanks in the pockets, obviously.

I've been waiting for something like this for a while.

Just think of how many places where security personnell walk around with a big bunch of keys hanging on a chain in their belt...

And with 5Mpixel cameras becoming common on cell-phones, it may not be too long before someone breaks into a 'secure' location this way.

Possible solutions are:

'3D' keys where the 'teeth' are layered, and possible even spread around the key, or inside it...

Digital' keys, where part of the key is transmitted, either using RF, an electronic tip, or even using light.

Or possibly even a spring-loaded 'sleeve' on the keys which is pushed back as the key is inserted into the lock.

That is, if the lock-makers could care about security...

They still sell 'high security' doorlocks which isn't even protected against bump-keys...

Mine's the one with the lockpics in the inside pocket...

But

Can this method actually be carried out in full (i.e., from seeing a photo of the key to gaining entry) in less time than it would take an expert with a lock-picking set?

If not, we probably all have drier lentils to soak.

For added security...

...just keep the door with you at all times.

And in case you lose your key, leave a window open.

</yokel>

5" telephoto

That's seriously expensive, and not at all stealthy. Cheaper to kosh me and use putty to copy my key.

I prefer the keyless pizza entry system - deliver pizza, door opens.

Paris because she has nowhere to put her keys.

Yes thank you science

Very handy indeed for no-one except criminals and the once every 100 years incidence of needing to get into someones flat and only happening to have a picture of their keys...

Can't you invent something to destroy the earth now please?

@Trygve Henriksen

simple - just use one of those mifare based contactless card readers..

Another blow to photographers then

Adds to the government's ammunition against photographers then. Though they don't need any more laws, just shove it like everything else under the banner of anti-terrorism.

Surely...

you just need a skeleton key, or a lockpick, or a credit card, or something to #force the lock, or failing all that it's ctrl-D and hope you don't wake anyone

I love my Brick.

So, with some intelligence, a camera with expensive lens, time to write a software application, key cutting equipment and all the rest of it, you can copy someones key and break in.

Or, use a brick?

Lock bumping

Any old yale key and a file is all you need to open a yale lock in a couple of seconds.

Quite frightening really.

Am I missing something?

people can copy something from looking at it?

@ Dave B

Faster than keygen..exe is boot.exe!

Mine is the one with the battering ram in the pocket....

Security tip

I like the idea of having 6 locks on the front door, but randomly using only three. The thief with high tech key copying software can then spend his/her time unlocking some but also locking the others...

Public Keys?

All "yale" type keys are insecure. Go to Youtube and search for "bump key".

The funniest clip is of a Dutch lock picking club where they have spent years perfecting their craft.

The bump key man opens several locks in a few seconds with no skill needed, the others look *really* pissed off.

Your insurance will not pay up if someone uses one to open your house as there is no trace of forced entry.

As for me, I don't bother locking the door. This laptop is 9 years old and weighs 20lb! Plus you would have to swim with it across the Pentland Firth.

Paris, 'cos she leaves her doors open too

Meh

Wake me when they can make a key based on a picture of a lock taken 200 meters away...

re: Trygve Henriksen, M7S...

Most, if not all, new cars sold in the US have a key with a chip in it as part of the theft deterrent system. That technology has been around since the early 90's, if I remember correctly. makes for a pain in the bum to replace lost keys (and allows the dealers to charge whatever they want!), but it does a small amount to slow down the non-determined and non-professional thieves.

As far as home and low end commercial locks go, they *all* have vulnerabilities, some more documented then others. It all boils down to cost and how much they slow down the cretin trying to break in.

Mine's the flameproof one with the burning rod and the oxy-acetylene tank attached to it.

Re: Yes thank you science

"Very handy indeed for no-one except criminals and the once every 100 years incidence of needing to get into someones flat and only happening to have a picture of their keys...

Can't you invent something to destroy the earth now please?"

They probably didn't invent it. They stole it from the CIA. Or the Lizardmen. Or the Bilderberg Group. Or the Rand Corporation. Or Area 51. Or Doctor Who (oh wait, he uses a sonic screwdriver). Or the non-lizard grey aliens with big heads.

I now wrap all my keys in tinfoil for safety.

Feh.

"Carded locks?

Yeah, right. Ever seen one of those WITHOUT a mechanical override?"

Actually... I work in a secure room which requires a card to enter the first door into the outer room, and the card along with its corresponding code to enter the inner room, which itself contains a safe where the cash is kept. There is no mechanical override; if our phone line is cut or we otherwise lose connection to the security company, the secure room becomes inaccessible except by brute force. It's a good system, and means a potential robber would need to defeat at least two steel doors before reaching the locked safe (which also has no mechanical override. C4, anyone?).

The bottom line is, regular old pin-and-tumbler keys are the most cost-effective residential security. Anyone with a rake pick and a tension wrench can get right past them. Nobody is going to bother making a copy of your key unless you have very nice stuff to steal, in which case you likely have a security system which needs to be disarmed shortly after a door is opened. This is not a breakthrough; anyone with a file and a blank can make a copy of their key from a photocopy. The ability to do so with a low-quality photo is nothing more than a novelty.

BMW already makes a key that defeats this new technique; the cuts are made on both long sides rather than the thin edges, and the key folds into the remote. You press a little button on the side of the remote and the spring-loaded key flips out. It's like a dull little secure-entry switchblade. Even with high-resolution photographs of both sides, it would be very difficult to copy compared to a conventional key. Instead of a file, you would need either a milling machine or a very steady hand with a dremel. Even then, your chances of successfully reproducing the key would be very low.

Picks > Photographs

Required, a title is.

I want one of those fancy ruby prism keys from Da Vinci Code

Open source security

If we publish pictures of all keys, then the householder and the theives will know where the weakness lies and there won't be any security issues.

Google streetview

I wonder if google streetview are going to blur peoples keys that appear in the photos

@ AC 08:43

Because otherwise, the guy with the set of lock picks would already have broken in and nicked all the good stuff, obviously.

Locksmiths across the world...

...are wondering why this is news? "Hey guys, the computer guys finally figured out what we have known since the dawn of time."

Paris, because she can.

@Security Tip

Hate to be you when you stagger home half-drunk after clubbing one night... ain't no way you'll be treating your new lady friend to a fun-filled night of debauchery!

On the other hand, it would save all those nasty moments when you wake up and realise that the beautiful blonde you brought home after one too many White Lightnings is actually the labradoodle from down the road who you wouldn't normally touch with *somebody else's* barge pole...

"Which locks was it, Peter? Um, William? Um, Dave? Um, who are you again..."

remember the 80's

are there none here that remember the eighties when ford introduced a high security chubb key (a sort of hexagonal affair), people soon worked out you could copy the key from just looking at it

also nearly all, if not all cars in the last 5-10 years have an rf transponder in the key to activate the engine managment ECU (if you car has a factory fitted immobiliser it has this feature)

also it is all well and good copying a key, but you need to know where the lock is it fits, so no good taking masses of pics at the pub unless you know the addresses of the doors (work or home) they fit

i see no need to worry unless this becomes a mass market product / software

mine the one with the reality check in the pocket

peter

@A J Stiles

>> Can this method actually be carried out in full (i.e., from seeing a photo of the key to gaining entry) in less time than it would take an expert with a lock-picking set?

I absolutely agree, but why go so far as an expert with a lock picking set when all it takes is an amateur with an automatic lock pick.

Besides anything else, this really isn't news, it wasn't that long ago that we were reading (I think on El Reg) about a UK prison having to spend an obscene amount of money replacing all their locks, after a key was accidentally shown on a regional news program.

Okay, so someone has written a bit of software to automate it, it's not really that impressive. I would be more impressed if someone wrote software that would allow key cutters to cut perfect keys each time, rather than requiring you to go back and get it filed.

>> Most, if not all, new cars sold in the US have a key with a chip in it as part of the theft

>> deterrent system. That technology has been around since the early 90's, if I remember

>> correctly. makes for a pain in the bum to replace lost keys (and allows the dealers to charge

>> whatever they want!), - AC

Indeed, surely anyone who drives must have run into this problem at some point and had to pay a dealership an extortionate fee for a replacement key (and then had to get an actual key cut to boot). The only bigger con is the coded parts (obviously only the electronic parts) where by you can't use an otherwise perfectly serviceable scrap part because it is locked to a different car. Cars are the new ink jet printers (Lexmark may even have copied the idea from the car manufacturers).

Like this is news

Is this some sort of big surprise? I needed a spare key for my car, a good few years ago, and went down to my local Renault dealer.

In order to create the key, without taking it from me, they took a PHOTOCOPY of the key, and the serial number for the electronic / chip code.

A long time ago in a far away place

30 years approx ago in New Zealand , I had a job looking at Bulldozers building roads for NZ Forest Service.

Not anything high tech. or IT but locks and keys got involved.

We fitted meters to the Dozers that recorded the time that they were actually moving (doing work), and I went to a local locksmith to get a spare key cut and he said he could not get the blank required as it was a high security lock.

Blanks difficult to obtain. If I remember correctly it was a pretty secure system-proof that it was your property etc.

There MUST BE improved versions now surely .

I