Re: Master Key crack

From: Richard Herring (junk_at_[127.0.0.1)
Date: 07/29/03 

Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:51:28 +0100

In message <1761049f.0307290239.28dd7f11@posting.google.com>, Stuart
Green <greens80@hotmail.com> writes
>I remeber reading an article about a guy who utilised a master key
>hack, known to locksmiths, to identify pin placements on a key and
>grind them down progressively to build a masterkey for a lock.

That's a system where _either_ key will work in the same lock, and
mechanical limitations make it easy, given one key and access to the
lock, to deduce what the other key must be (in effect, the lock encodes
the difference between the individual key and the master)
>
>This story about a jewel heist in the UK mentioned a two key
>safe-deposit system.

... but this is a system where two keys, in two different locks, are
needed simultaneously.

>Could it not be possible that access to one
>masterkey, or four individual keys, might have lead the thief to be
>able to establish what the master key should be?

There's no similar relationship in this case, since the "management" and
"owner" keys go in different holes.

However, if a legitimately open box were to expose details of the
"management" lock, it might be possible for the owner to deduce the
management key, quite independent of any dual-key logic. However^2, it
would be an extremely weak design that exposed the lock in this way.
>
>http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/28/1059244540953.html 

-- 
Richard Herring

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