How to crack many Master Lock combinations in eight tries or less
by Dan Goodin - Apr 29, 2015 - Ars Technica
There's a vulnerability in Master Lock branded padlocks that allows anyone to learn the combination in eight or fewer tries, a process that requires less than two minutes and a minimal amount of skill to carry out.
The exploit involves lifting up a locked shackle with one hand while turning the combination dial counterclockwise starting at the number 0 with the other. Before the dial reaches 11, there will be three points where the dial will resist being turned anymore. One of them will be ignored as it is exactly between two whole numbers on the dial. The remaining two locations represent locked positions. Next, an attacker again lifts the locked shackle, this time with less force, while turning the dial clockwise. At some point before a full revolution is completed, the dial will resist being turned. (An attacker can still turn through it but will physically feel the resistance.) This location represents the resistance location. The two locked positions and the one resistance position are then recorded on a Web page that streamlines the exploit.
The technique was devised by Samy Kamkar, a serial hacker who has created everything from stealthy keystroke-pilfering USB chargers to DIY stalker apps that mined Google Streetview. In 2005, he unleashed the Samy worm, a cross-site scripting exploit that knocked MySpace out of commission when it added more than one million MySpace friends to Kamkar's account.
by Dan Goodin - Apr 29, 2015 - Ars Technica
There's a vulnerability in Master Lock branded padlocks that allows anyone to learn the combination in eight or fewer tries, a process that requires less than two minutes and a minimal amount of skill to carry out.
The exploit involves lifting up a locked shackle with one hand while turning the combination dial counterclockwise starting at the number 0 with the other. Before the dial reaches 11, there will be three points where the dial will resist being turned anymore. One of them will be ignored as it is exactly between two whole numbers on the dial. The remaining two locations represent locked positions. Next, an attacker again lifts the locked shackle, this time with less force, while turning the dial clockwise. At some point before a full revolution is completed, the dial will resist being turned. (An attacker can still turn through it but will physically feel the resistance.) This location represents the resistance location. The two locked positions and the one resistance position are then recorded on a Web page that streamlines the exploit.
The technique was devised by Samy Kamkar, a serial hacker who has created everything from stealthy keystroke-pilfering USB chargers to DIY stalker apps that mined Google Streetview. In 2005, he unleashed the Samy worm, a cross-site scripting exploit that knocked MySpace out of commission when it added more than one million MySpace friends to Kamkar's account.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015...tries-or-less/
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