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MIT Students Release Code To 3D-Print High Security Keys

Posted by samzenpus on from the +10%-lockpicking dept.

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "At the Def Con hacker conference Saturday, MIT students David Lawrence and Eric Van Albert released a piece of code that will allow anyone to create a 3D-printable software model of any Schlage Primus key, despite Schlage's attempts to prevent the duplication of the restricted keys. With just a flatbed scanner and their software tool, they were able to produce precise models of Primus keys that they uploaded to the 3D-printing services Shapeways and i.Materialise, who mailed them working copies of the keys in materials ranging from nylon to titanium. Primus high-security locks are used in government facilities, healthcare settings, and detention centers, and their keys are coded with two distinct sets of teeth, one on top and one on the side. That, along with a message that reads 'do not duplicate' printed on the top of every key, has made them difficult to copy by normal means. With Lawrence and Van Albert's software, anyone can now scan or take a long-distance photo of any Primus key and recreate it for as little as $5."

4 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. "Do Not Duplicate" by DexterIsADog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Really? That makes them difficult to duplicate? On which planet?

    1. Re:"Do Not Duplicate" by DexterIsADog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You have to be kidding - I have duplicated dozens of keys with that admonition on it. Not a single refusal from locksmiths, Home Depot staff, etc.

      lol, how did you get modded insightful for something patently untrue?

  2. Low-tech solution by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Make the keys so that there are sheaths around them, which can bend away on a spring when you need to use the key, or the key can come out of the end of the sheath. Or some other way to hide the tooth pattern when the key isn't being used.

    --

    Technoli
  3. Uhm... not really impressive by dbitter1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Former locksmith here. The Primus (and nearly all of the other high security keys) are simply relying on patent protection to keep people from duplicating the keys. Any locksmith worth his/her salt already has key machines that could reproduce them onto a chunk of brass (worst case) or just onto a normal key blank.

    If you want to see something that would impress me, look at a German company - DOM - that has a design that includes a floating ball bearing in the key, which is integral to making the lock work. If they could make THAT with a printer, I'd be impressed.

    One model:
    http://www.dom-sicherheitstechnik.com/DOM-ix-Saturn.667.0.html

    --
    For us carnivores, "Sucking the marrow out of life" isn't a transcendentalist philosophy but a practical instruction.