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TUCoPS :: Physical Security :: master2.txt

Master Lock Picking File 2

                           Opening Master Locks

                              By Mach Three

If you read the last file, "Opening Master Locks," and tried it out, you
probably have realized that it doesn't really work.  When you turn the dial
with the lock closed, most of them will NOT stop at some number.  Here is a
technique that does work to some degree, but it's not very powerful because you
need access to the open lock.  Well, here it is:

1)  You need to get access to the lock when it is open. If you just want to
impress your friends, this is usually pretty easy to do.  Most people will open
up their locker or whatever, and leave the lock open while they are nearby
working on something.  Then, when they are done, they'll lock the stuff up.  
So when your friend is working, go up to the open lock and pull the shackle
(the horseshoe part that opens) up to the top.  With the lock open and the
shackle pulled hard to the top, NOW turn the lock all the way c
lockwise until you can turn it no farther.  Add five to the number it is on,
and you now have the first number.

2)  Now, before you did step 1, what you should do is read the number on the
combination lock before turning the dial.  99% of the people will leave their
combination on the last number when they open it (You don't spin the dial to a
random number every time you open and close your lock, do you?)  So just by
visually inspecting what the number is, chances are you have gotten the last

 Okay, now that you have the first number and the last number, when your
friend has closed his lock and is gone, or whatever, you can open it up to get
the second number.  Just try every possible second number, and try to open the
lock, which will not take too long because you only have 60 numbers to go

Addendum:  Are there really sixty numbers to try?  No!  Just because there are
sixty numbers on the dial does not mean you have to go through sixty numbers. 
In reality, you can be off by 1 number.  For example, if the combination is
10-20-30,  you could spin to 9-19-31 and still open the lock.  This means that
instead of 60 numbers, in effect there are really only 30 numbers.  Cuts the
lock down pretty small huh?

So if you HAD to open the lock, you can use this technique of "fewer numbers"
to try every possible combination. For each number try 2-4-6-8...and so forth
until you get back to zero.  This can be useful in case you can get only one of
the numbers (such as the last number, which you can just read off the dial, or
only the first number).  In this case, when you have one number, there are only
two more to get.  This means there are about 900 more combinations for you to
try....sure, it's a lot of combinations to spin through, but if you are good it
would take you about one hour to try them all.  So on the average, it would
take a half an hour to open a combination lock, given one of the numbers.

Only a half hour...not bad, considering there might be some good stuff inside! 

One final note is that many locks have a KEYHOLE in the back...I have no idea
why they do this, because it totally defeats the purpose of the combination
lock.  These keyholes are usually pretty small - and if you are a decent
lockpicker you can open the lock up by picking it through the keyhole in around
10 minutes.

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