Slashdot Mirror
High Security Handcuffs Opened With 3D-Printed and Laser-Cut Keys
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "In a workshop Friday at the Hackers On Planet Earth conference in New York, a German hacker and security consultant who goes by the name 'Ray' showed that he could open high-security handcuffs from manufacturers Chubb and Bonowi with plastic copies of keys that he cheaply produced with a laser-cutter and a 3D printer. Both companies attempt to control the distribution of their keys to keep them exclusively in the hands of authorized buyers such as law enforcement. Lasercut plexiglass versions of the Chubb key, which opens handcuffs like the ones used in passenger airline restraints, were selling for $4 at the conference. Ray plans to post the CAD file for the key on the 3D printing site Thingiverse after LockCon later this week."
Mcgyver used a bar of soap and a file to copy keys. Color me unimpressed.
See, that's why they should simply use magical warding and locking spells. Then anyone trying to escape would have to get a really lucky die roll to overcome the caster level of the original lock spell.
Well, $4 is cheap enough.
If you actually read the article, you'll find that he produced keys with a laser cutter and separately with a 3D printer. You don't need both.
The fact that he managed to make a key for these doesn't surprise me at all.
The fact that there is a LockCon on the other hand.....
It's pretty standard to have identical cuff keys... the guard opening them after you go into the cell is unlikely to be the arresting officer that put them on you.
I guess the issue here is they at least need something like a magnetic component to be somewhat secure, but I imagine there's actually very little you can do to make a lock that's immune to being defeated if you have infinite prep time.
Now lets say this type of key creation is outlawed. .
Create handcuff keys
Be put in handcuffs
Use Key. Escape
It will be like bribing Law enforcement with counterfeit cash
. .
Did you read the article? All handcuff keys for a certain brand are identical. That is to allow one officer to handcuff a suspect and any other officer to remove the cuffs. The issue is that the arresting officer may not be anywhere around when the suspect needs to be uncuffed as the suspect may have been passed on for transport. This is the way handcuff keys work. Manufacturers are now trying to restrict the possession of keys by being selective to whom they sell. The printer/laser cutter method of making keys now makes this effort useless.
It has nothing to do with mass production. The reason is so that any officer can open any other officer's cuffs and time is lot lost trying to find the arresting officer and sorting out who owns which cuffs..
The thing about having one's hands in cuffs is that it is pretty difficult to unlock the handcuffs even you if had and could reach the key. Presumably, the first result is wide spread key availability is that your pockets are searched at the time the cuffs go on.
For the laser cut keys to really work, you need an accomplice and to be essentially unguarded.
...It's not like these things are impossible to get out of if you know what you are doing...
That would be the rub. They are quite hard to defeat compared to normal cuffs. Having an interest in the lockpicking community I can say hardly the top 5% of them could get out of these with improvised tools. Making a tool out of scrap bits of plastic makes them easy for anyone to get out of.
Anything a laser-cutter or 3D printer can do so can a human, especially locksmiths with an eye for detail. The skills are not dissimilar to watchmakers before precision machine tools. These new methods makes anyone of no skill and no talent be able to do what only highly trained, highly practiced people can do. That is a security threat.
There have been commercially available disguised handcuff keys for a long time.
This one isn't terrible, but not the best I have seen either.
http://theawesomer.com/bracelet-with-handcuff-key/144904/
Note: The people most likely to want to get away after being apprehended are both guilty AND repeat offenders. The second factor being a group that might have the foresight to wear such a thing.
Ouch
Seemed like a dumb strategy anyway - a combination of artificial scarcity and security-by-obscurity. It isn't like the keys look particularly complex. In the 'olden days' somebody could have just created a mold and cast them or machined a copy. The laser cutter / 3D printer is just the modern twist.
A pair of bolt cutters also works in a pinch.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Interesting the article mentions how those plastic keys are easy to take through airport security. As if it's easier than metal keys. I've routinely taken a keyring with about a dozen keys on planes, could contain any key, never did they really inspect which keys (it just had to go through the scanner). I'm sure just adding a metal handcuff key to that bunch would let me through just as easily. Maybe even easier than with a plastic key, as metal keys are more common.
the goal of a handcuff is to restrain a person, namely a person who isn't likely to have a copy of the key handy, nor a 3d printer. And the detained person will not likely be given access to people who have keys or printers either.
It doesn't matter if the keys can be made easily, really, or even if it's the same key used in all the locks. THe basic point is that a handcuffed person would not be able to get themselves out without the tool.
Perhaps a lot is being made because it's a "high tech lock". Well you can take a low tech lock, such as a chain linked to a concrete block, and even though you could easily get out with a set of boltcutters, it's just as impossible to free yourself without access to the tools.
No matter how complex the key bolt cutters usually work but it is rather difficult to conceal a set of bolt cutters big enough to do the job on one's person and bolt cutters that large are not all that common. Hand cuff components are made of hardened steel and a small set will not work.
Hand cuffs are and never have been completely secure. They are more secure than the cuffs that have been around for years as those keys are very common now but they are less secure than hoped.
There used to be one key that would open every handcuff in current use. Now there are at least three different ones. Even this makes things more secure as the suspect has to have at least three keys to ensure escape. Three keys are much more difficult to conceal than one. Officers can easily carry three keys on their key ring. It is not about making escape impossible; just more difficult.
Handcuffs are just a quick and easy way of ensuring someone can't cause too much trouble. When your hands are held behind your back, you can't make much mischief in general. They aren't intended to be something to hold someone securely for long periods. Just to temporarily restrain someone for transport.
As such it isn't like the keying system has to be top notch. It is far more important that they are easy to unlock than that they are ultra-secure.
For that matter at times the police will just use what are more or less large zip-ties. Plastic flexi-cuffs are easy and cheap to use in a riot situation. They aren't very secure, they can be easily cut off and indeed that is what the police themselves do, but you can cheaply have a bunch of them if needed.
Who holds the design and patent rights to the keys?
Design and patent rights are a civil matter and not a criminal matter. Until there is a law passed that criminalizes the possession of handcuff keys there is nothing the police can do.
There is only one set of legitimate buyers for these handcuffs.
There are actually at least five sets and possibly more; police, prison guards, court house guards , private security and bounty hunters. Basically anyone who has a legitimate reason for detaining someone else.
Well... if you peddle those keys to people in the hood, you'll make a few bucks pretty quick to pay for the machine and probably turn a profit.
Note: The people most likely to want to get away after being apprehended are both guilty AND repeat offenders. The second factor being a group that might have the foresight to wear such a thing.
Wrong. I want to get away after being apprehended illegally.
You know--if the police decide to kidnap and beat me....or just beat the shit out of me while other offices stand by and watch^H^H^H^Hfigure out their cover stories....Maybe they'll just handcuff you and take you back to their torture chair to let you die...or your baby.
Maybe you should do nothing. You'll get your day in court, right? I mean--this is the United States of America where we have due process and a fair trial. The government would never fuck with that perfect system.
Resist. Always resist.
Buy your own set of police handcuffs without a key, and then get a key. With millions of pairs in use it shouldn't be too difficult. Then you have a perfect reason to own a key. If the judge asks why do you need handcuffs you can always claim curiosity about BDSM.
A few years ago someone arrested in Tampa had a key in their back pocket, not found during the frisk, and managed to get loose and killed 3 cops. Not saying its common, but your impossible situation has happend in the recent past with the worst possible outcome. The criminal always carried the key with him anticipating trouble with police.
http://tampabayonline.net/reports/shooting/carrday2.htm
A lock pick is cheaper (usually free)
There are plenty of youtube videos teaching how to make your own.
I've yet to find a lock that I couldn't pick with one... that includes every lock in my house and even my car.
It's really not that hard when you get used to it.
WTF is wrong with normal URLs people?!
If you want me to follow a link then post the orignal link.
So for the sake of convenience, they made the keys identical and therefore not secure. Same as any other security system: convenience and security are incompatible goals.
Forget MacGruber, the only Mac that had any interest to me is The Macallan.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
Well you could produce handcuffs were the wearer would be unable to reach the lock, key or no key. The would probably be larger than the standard model though.
Has the concept of handing keys over when you hand a prisoner over never occured to them? Why does the arresting officer need his keys if he doesn't have his cuffs any more? Hand them over, and then just check out a new matching set from the duty officer next time you leave the building.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Zip ties cost less the first 30 times they are used but after that they cost more. A set of handcuffs can last years. Say someone arrests 100 people a year and cuffs last 10 years. If one used zip ties it would cost around 10*100*2= $2000 or $60 for a set of steel cuffs.
The other issue is the zip ties can be cut on any sharp edge or broken by a strong and/or drugged up person.