Safecracking for the Computer Scientist

secureman writes "It looks like Matt Blaze (the University of Pennsylvania CS professor best known for finding security flaws in the NSA Clipper Chip and in master keyed locks) is still causing trouble in physical security circles. There's a draft paper (dated December '04) on his web site entitled Safecracking for the Computer Scientist, which is a pretty in-depth look at what computer security can learn from safes (and vaults). The interesting thing is that it describes in detail the different ways that safes are cracked, probably revealing techniques that locksmiths would rather you didn't know about (there's a lot of security-by-obscurity there). The conclusion seems to be that while safes can fail, at least they do so in better ways than computer systems do. Warning: it's a 2.5 meg pdf file with lots of pretty pictures."

Comments

Better Safe Cracking through Chemistry

[Detritus]

The most interesting method I've read about involved drilling a small hole in the top of the safe, filling it with water, and detonating a small explosive charge inside the safe. The hydrostatic pressure burst the safe open without damaging the contents.

When I was a kid, my friends and I put an ordinary paper firecracker inside a wooden box, about the size of a cigar box, and secured the lid. To our surprise, the box spontaneously disassembled itself into its component parts, which travelled outwards at high speed. All of that from a firecracker that would only cause minor burns if you held it in your fingers when it exploded.

No Protection for the Clueless

[scottd18]

There was a burglar in Texas last year that was breaking into city hall buildings all over the state. In almost every one he managed to get access to the safe or safes kept in the building without prying or damaging the safes.

When he finally got caught be debriefed and gave up his MO. He would get in to the building be defeating a usually inadequate door lock with a screw driver. Then once inside he would look in all the desk drawers for sticky notes with numbers on them. In almost every one he would find a sticky note with the combination to the safe. This guy hit over 50 different city halls and got into the safe(s) in almost all of them.

The best safes in the world won't keep people from being clueless about security.

Safe cracking/ Lock picking

[Rank_Tyro]

For $35USD, and a glance at my driver's licence, I was able to purchase a lock-pick set. I was intrigued, after seeing hundreds of movies showing theives and spies opening doors faster than people with keys.
After alot of research, and pracitice, I was able to open several brands of pad-locks, as well as the doors' to my house. Guess What? It's not as easy as it looks.
I did this mainly out of curiosity, but I recently had a chance to put this new skill to the test.
My neighbor had locked her keys in her house, and asked for my help. After thinking about it for 15 seconds, agreed to help.
I broke a pane in the window of her back door. There was no way I was going to let her know that I was capable of defeating the locks on her house. I have no intrest in breaking and entering, but the fact is, if people know you can do it, and something goes missing, guess who the first suspect is going to be?
I would love to figure out how to open a safe, not because I want to rob anyone.....it's just really cool, and the fun is in learning how to do something most people can't.