how can i bypass a magnetic door lock without cutting the juice ?Bypassing Electromagnetic Locks with a Screwdriver? From the comments of a (very neat) Hackaday project, a bypass for electromagnet-based door locks I wasn’t aware of: if the lock is accessible from outside the door (often is for inward-swinging doors), it may be possible to bypass it. Use a screwdriver to wedge it apart from one end. “Magnetic force is a funny thing, and it weakens pretty quickly. If you wedge a screwdriver near the mag latch and lever it apart even just a little, your 400 lbs of force becomes 40 lbs. From there, a little more wedging becomes 4 lbs. Thanks to archimedes, high tech magnetic locks pose little challenge to the average monkey with a screw driver. Most of the world doesn’t know this, but it can save your bacon when you’re locked out of a server room and for some reason aren’t carrying the touch tone generator needed to disable WOPR.” ← Semi-offtopic: Killing electronics you don’t want anymore Karsten Nohl on Access Control →

Starting this week, you can use a smartphone app to open your room at some Aloft, Element and W hotels. Over the next few months, Starwood (which owns those three chains) will upgrade 150 of its hotels to allow keyless, smartphone entry to some 30,000 rooms worldwide. Hilton, which is a much larger hotel chain, plans to roll out a similar system next year. Keyless entry via smartphone is obviously more convenient than using a magnetic swipe card (which is easily lost or demagnetized), and probably a lot more secure, too, considering how easy it was to hack conventional Onity locks. Did I mention that keyless entry also means you can skip the check-in desk and go straight to your room, too?Keyless hotel room entry works like this. You enroll your phone by installing an app. On the day of your stay at the hotel, a “key” (some kind of encrypted code) is sent to your phone via a push notification, along with a message telling you which room number you’ll be staying in. Then, you just hold your phone near your hotel room door, and voila — it unlocks.

In this case, the app is Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) — a loyalty scheme for its Aloft, Element, and W hotel chains.sliding barn door directions Starwood will have to roll out brand new locks that support this new form of keyless entry — but beyond the fact that Bluetooth is used between the phone and lock, we know very few technical details. garage door replacement panels-lowesIn an interview with the BBC, the company that made the new locks — HID Global — says it uses its own AES encryption method, with a “rotating key.” sliding glass dog door ebayThis could imply that the locks themselves are not networked — i.e. they’re standalone devices — and that they just rotate through a series of unlock codes.aluminium garage doors east london

This is probably safer than the Onity magnetic key card locks — which could be hacked very simply with an Arduino — but if anyone reverse-engineers the encryption algorithm then this new keyless scheme might not be much safer. baldwin door hardware parts(And unlocking millions of hotel rooms with a smartphone is an even lower barrier to entry than using an Arduino!) garage door repair gloucesterA much better alternative would be connecting each room lock to a central computer — so that a smarter encryption/unlocking method could be used — but I’m guessing the cost of running new cabling/routers for tens of thousands of hotel rooms was prohibitive.linear garage door opener stopped working

Security concerns aside, keyless entry with a smartphone is so, so superior to magnetic swipe cards. First, it’s much harder to lose a smartphone. Second, your smartphone can’t be demagnetized by other things in your pocket. Third, you can skip check-in completely and go straight to your hotel room — and you can skip the check-out, too. The only problem I can see is if your smartphone runs out of battery — and it also isn’t clear how you would handle multiple people sharing the same room (does everyone get the key sent to their phone?) I assume there is some kind of fall-back solution available in such situations — Bluetooth-enabled cards that can be handed out by the front desk, or something along those lines.Starting Wednesday, November 5, 10 Starwood hotels will be enabled for keyless entry via the SPG app. The plan is to have 30,000 rooms enabled in 150 Aloft, Element, and W hotels by “early 2015.” Next year, Hilton is expected to begin the roll-out of a similar system, with somewhere in the region of 4,000 hotels — 600,000 rooms — being enabled for keyless entry by the end of 2016.Now read: Hack the diagnostics connector, steal yourself a BMW in 3 minutes

If you’re carrying around an exposed circuit board and a bunch of wires people are going to notice you. But a dry erase marker won’t turn any heads. And this one holds its own little secret. It acts as a master key for hotel room door locks. This is really more of a repackaging hack. The exploit is already quite well-known. The Onity brand of key card locks most commonly used in hotels have a power jack on the bottom that doubles as a 1-wire communications port. The first published proof of concept used an Arduino board and a simple adapter to unlock any door in under one second. Now that hardware has been reduced in size so that it fits in the hollow shell of a dry erase marker. Even better, the felt tip has been replaced with the appropriately sized barrel jack. Check out the ultra-fast and inconspicuous use of it after the break. We think using this is no more obvious than actually having the key card.Step 1: The remote Show All ItemsEvery year, untold numbers of drivers either lose their car keys or lock them inside their cars.

Fortunately, it is possible to get a car door unlocked without a key. When faced with this frustrating situation, many people try to unlock their cars using coat hangers or magnets, but these may not work on modern cars, and they might damage car windows, doors, locking mechanisms or paint jobs. A car is a major investment, and calling a locksmith is the safest and most reliable way to unlock it in an emergency.Professional locksmiths can use several methods to open locked cars. The choice of tools and procedures depends on the type of car and its locking system. Here are a few of the most common tools a locksmith uses to unlock a car safely.Locksmith WedgesTo unlock a car, the locksmith has to access its locking mechanism from outside. This requires creating a gap between the door or window and the car’s interior so that another instrument can be inserted to release the lock. Several types of simple wedges can accomplish this. The typical locksmith’s tool kit includes various plastic, vinyl or metal wedges.

If necessary, a small, thin wedge can create enough space to insert a larger one. Metal wedges are the strongest, but they can damage a car’s exterior or window glass if not used cautiously. An inflatable air wedge is inserted in a flat state and then pumped up to gently widen the gap between the window and the weather-stripping.Long Reach ToolsAfter gaining access to the car’s interior, the locksmith inserts a long tool to manually pull open lock tabs or press buttons to unlock the door. For older cars, a tool called a Slim Jim may work. This is a long, thin metal strip that the locksmith can insert between the window and the weather-stripping to grab the lock rod. Slim Jims designed for various makes and models of cars are available. Many newer cars have built-in defenses against Slim Jims, and they are not always safe to use on delicate lock systems. Other reach tools consist of long, slender steel rods. Some are solid, and others are bendable. The ends of some reach tools form an angle to assist the locksmith in maneuvering corners and awkward spaces.

Other tools have a lasso or loop pull at the end to grab handles or lock rods. A thin sleeve placed between the reach tool and the car’s body protects against damage to the glass or paint.Automotive Lock PicksProfessional locksmiths can also use lock pick sets to release locks without manipulating the car’s doors or windows. These picks are available for both foreign and domestic makes and models. A special automotive torsion wrench assists by placing tension on the lock cylinder while the locksmith picks the lock.Police AssistanceIn the past, some people have relied on the police to unlock cars in an emergency. Although they do have the capability to get into cars, they do not have the professional tools to unlock them without risking expensive damage or rendering locking systems unstable. For this reason, many police departments no longer respond to simple car lock-outs unless it is a true emergency, such as when a driver or passenger is in physical danger.Trust the Local ExpertsCar lock-outs are extremely common across the country, and wherever they happen, help is just a call away.