It is interesting to note that, mathematically speaking, most "combination locks" should really be called permutation locks (because the order matters), but these locks are truly combination locks because the order you punch in the numbers is not relevant.
@@ilonachan Yes, Combination is a meaningful mathematical word. "Combinations and Permutations" is an area of mathematical study. The OP is right to say that this is a Combination lock.
@@johnwinters4201 oooh interesting, I didn't know that was the name for that. Still, the commonly seen design where order matters is also not a permutation lock. Is there a name for ordered combinations? oooor it seems "permutation" can also refer to an ordered selection where elements can repeat and be missed out. That's not how we EVER used the word, but I can accept that.
One office I used to work at had two of these locks on the two entrances, with different codes - and in absent-mindedness I'd occasionally input the wrong code for one, and I'd know instantly because it "felt wrong" I think if casual users can feel that there's a difference in regular use, it's always going to be easy to decode.
Same for me and others at my workplace. I was on vacation and one of my deft coworkers was able to figure out the code to a little-used lock without calling me. Our IT guy whom she let into the room gave her the nickname "Jimmy Valentine" and it stuck.
@@jearlblah5169 that's usually the main tell, the only way they will feel different in regular operation is after a considerable amount of use and the springs are weak. A new lock will not feel different nor will a lock that has had regular code changes.
A building I used to look after locked all the bathrooms with a different code for each floor. One morning I touched each button with a UV dye pen, the next day recorded the clean keys and wrote it on the door jam above each door really tiny. Did that for years lol.
Was once told by a mate who had a job in the security industry (in sales), that these types of locks are easily bypassed by mashing all buttons simultaneously. Sometimes it was made easier by using something flat and stiff such as a ruler. One time, I was told to head to an ambulance station for a break when we were way out of our area. As such, our code didn't work on their lock. I found a piece of scrap timber and placed it over the keys and hit the timber. From memory we got in on the second go.
I have managed to get through one of these without knowing the code simply by looking at it from the right angle and seeing which of the buttons has greasy finger marks on it - just a reminder, that if you have one of these sorts of mechanisms, make sure your change the code regularly enough to avoid such an easy decode
There's a Team Fortress 2 video called 'Meet the Spy' which features a number pad like this. The code to get in is '1111' and the 1 is the only key that's worn down on the number pad. I always thought that was a nice detail.
This is my lock! Thank you for doing a video on it. I had no idea the order of buttons didn't matter. I had never seen another like it before and we got a new digital (probably less safe) deadbolt. This is awesome.
@@akaraven66 agreed, and not ironically. A Chee-Wee will let you know there's a stranger about, and really, that's all you need. Well, that, and a phone. It's rare that an intruder will try to enter a building with an alerted occupant, and even if they do, most buildings - including homes - are full of things you can use to defend yourself. Fort up, call the authorities, and prepare to kick ass if needed.
Used to be one of those locks on one of the rooms in my local train station, and I would often play with it while waiting for a train. It was always easy to open, as the room was used by decorators for storing paint and 4 of the buttons were covered in painty fingerprints!
I have one of these similar locks on my office door but the handle turns freely if you don't put in the correct combination. After watching this video I just went and tried something. Turn the doorknob slightly, just so there is resistance but not too much that it frees up and fully turns. While maintaining the position of the handle, push all of the buttons once (don't push clear). Then release the handle and turn it again. It opens about half of the time.
This helped us so much! I’ve been watching your videos for years, but today it really paid off. Staff has lost the code for the office at our petrol station, so we have been keeping it unlocked for months. Couple of times someone accidentally locked the door, and we had to jump over the counter to get it unlocked again. Imagine what it looked like to customers seeing staff do that. Very embarrassing. Today I find this video and finally I could decode the lock and share the code with other staff members. No more getting locked out, no more jumping over the counter. Thank you so much!
I've worked in a place that had one of these types of locks on the door to the office. Every so often they'd change the combination but it was always made up of the same four numbers, so no matter what order they said it was I just hit the relevant numbers in numerical order.
Likely, they had some sort of compliance requirement that dictates they change the combination regularly, and this was a bit of malicious compliance on their part.
I remember one time I was locked out of a shed that had a cheap wire lock with a 3 digit roller wheel. I used this method learned by you! I applied tension to the shackle and spun the wheels till it felt set correct. It worked! Ever since then i've realized any combination lock that allows you to use the shackle/bolt to apply pressure to the code is generally going to be very easy to decode
I learned first-hand how these locks function when trying to replace a damaged button on one on an office door at work. It was a good experience going through the innards of a lock like this, and now I’m the resident “lock-picker” lol. Thanks again LPL!!
Interesting to note this may only work on that specific brand. My shop has 2 different brands in stock and we just tried it on several different locks with no success at different amounts of tension and in some cases, the buttons completely bind up and don't have any springiness to them at all. The combination of this lock is changed by removing pins from the back that are color-coded and arranging them to where the red ones are coded and blue are non-coded with a combination of your choosing. We are guessing the shape, size, and possibly length of the pins, and how they fit into the lock may be the key to having that brand work that way, or possibly it may be a matter of wear and tear as the locks we tested were all brand new.
Same here. Sourced mine from bunnings warehouse. They seem to be a simple yet good design, when new they have very low tolerance for binding, or no binding at all. The mech is also reliable, I can't see it being picked, knocked or unlocked by magnet.
I have a suggestion, if you haven’t done this already. Master Lock sells these set your own combination locks. I had one for my school locker for a bit because I kept forgetting my combination with regular ones (yay, undiagnosed ADHD). Basically you couldn’t forget your combination because no matter how much you scrambled it you would be able to feel the tumbler click when you had the right number/ letter. Which was great until other people figured that out, multiple times. I don’t remember having anything stolen because I kept everything valuable in my bag. Presumably whoever it was looked at my moldering 90s public school textbooks in disgust and walked away. But I did go back to a regular lock (which was probably incredibly vulnerable to a simple lock picking tool but not vulnerable to just some teenager in the hallway). I looked it up and they still sell the same model in number and letter versions (which is what I had, which also made it way easier to guess a combination). The design for the school ones look about the same but they also sell ones that look like they are supposed to be used by adults for actually important things and I bet they are all just as easy to get into.
A company I used to work for had something similar on staff only doors, I used to do a lot of visits to different sites and couldn't remember all the codes, however I quickly learnt that jiggling the knob would causes the relevant keys to wobble slightly allowing me quick entry. When the loss prevention team discovered I was doing this they were understandably concerned
I decode one of these which was on a key locker (which had the front door keys in for the main building which my flat was in). Reason being, the housing agency was trying to get me to sign a new contract so they could have "unfettered right of access". i.e. They would remove the dead lock ability of my flat and give themselves the "right" to enter the property at any time without knocking and without any prior notice. Suffice it to say, I didn't sign the contract, so obviously they didn't give me a key for the main building door after having changed the lock. I still have the hand-written note from one of the workers informing me of this. Really should've taken them to court over it. Anyway, it was quite easy to decode the main building key locker. Bit of tension and you can feel (in my case I heard) a fast double click on the correct keys. Being a sound engineer helped to hear the difference between the correct and incorrect keys. They were absolutely furious that I still had access to the main building and couldn't figure out how I was getting in. That's the last time I'll ever deal with housing organisations. They're highly corrupt and engage in many scams. Most notably they claimed they'd made an error with how much rent they should've been charging all tenants and back-dated rent 2.5 years. All tenant in the building ended up in approx. £7,500 debt that we had to pay, on top of the "unfettered right of access" shenanigans. Definitely should've taken them to court...
Way back in junior high (late 80s) the school was doing a fundraiser selling mechanical pad locks that could be used for lockers for PE class or in the hallways, I think they were $5 a pop, but it didn't take long and word spread quickly about how broken they were. In a similar fashion you pull down on the lock to tension the bolt if you wiggle the numbered buttons you can feel some wiggle differently and very easily figure out what the combo is. Not sure how many people lost stuff from thieves, but within a month the school was refunding everyone's money who bought them.
I'm most surprised on it not needing a particular order, I remember having these in earlier workplaces and they were always adamant that the code 'had to' end on a letter. Thanks for another interesting video.
there are similair locks at my office doors and i always try to pick them instead of memorizing codes. So now I consider myself as an expert in picking these locks, usually it takes me only one attempt to pick them.
@@meeperator Thanks very much for your comment! Like you I spent many (many!) hours on Jedi Outcast, not to mention all the Star Wars games for Arcades, consoles and PC that came before (or since). May the Force be with you!
An interesting use was a geriatric ward in a hospital. You had to punch the code to leave the ward. The code was written above the door. Also a hall used for pre-school had one on the main entrance with the buttons on the inside. It worked a rim nightlatch which could be snibbed back when the pre-school was not in session.
I've found this technique works on most of these locks.- tension the mechanism and probe the buttons, works on all the padlocks I've collected and you've shown it work here.
Not sure if it has been mentioned before. But you may want to check yourself for an iron deficiency . The vertical lines in your nails is a sign of it.
I've had those lines at the bottom on my nails for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid I had them I've never thought that it could be a sign of some sort. But I've also never had a doctor that ever mentioned anything about my nails so I've always figured it was normal lol.
These types of locks I found to be fairly common in cheap European hostels. In that setting they have a far bigger vulnerability if that is even possible. The buttons in the combination have had their finish worn off over the years.
The worst part is this is exactly the kind of thing someone who didn't know how would do to try to decode this lock: put on some tension and feel around for differences.
I pick these by observing the wear patterns. Because they are difficult to change codes, they tend to develop wear and "clean" areas on buttons that are pressed regularly.this helps reduce the potential codes.
This sort of lock is _really_ common in offices and retail in the UK, they're the sort of thing you'd find gating off a staff area, or perhaps a "customers only" bathroom in less salubrious parts of the country. They're not a million miles away from a traditional tumbler in principle. Each button has a kind of thick wafer behind it, the "partial disassembly" LPL refers to it removing a retaining backplate (one screw) to spit them all out. Each wafer has either a cut-out notch or a false gate, you rearrange them to set your code. Typing in a code to open just latches up each wafer in turn, and C releases them all. I've decoded these in the past by setting each button in turn and feeling for impact against the false gates when twisting the knob hard, it never occurred to me that the unset positions might differ. I'll have to have a play with that. Really though, if you can access the locked side once then decoding is trivial. Two screws drops the lock body off the door and then a quick glance will give you the access code because the wafers are colour-coded.
@@UKCougar Here is the problem. You talk about false gates and wafers and stuff, but I don't know what they are and what they look like in a lock like this. Hence why I said a visual would be great.
I've read stories on some sites where this style of lock had been installed, but the installers forgot to reset them from the factory default key codes. If one knows the combination the lock comes with by default, entry is very easy. If LPL were to buy one of these, it would obviously come with factory default codes, not difficult at all to open. Just an FYI to anyone installing these locks, don't leave them on the factory default codes, change them or get the owner to change them immediately after installation.
I've installed a lot of these branded Lockey. Changing the combination is a pita. I was critical of the any order codes but never tried to decode them. Well done boss, now I am better prepared to deal with them
...but, what if the knob actually rotates all the way around regardless, and he was just acting like it stopped halfway, so he could rotate it the rest of the way when he acted like it was decoded? What if he's been playing us all along????? What if it was fluke????
I went on holiday to small in South Australia call Whyalla. The motel I was to stay at used this type of lock. I didn’t stay in the room because of 2 security issues, it’s to hard to change code after every customer check out. It’s to easy to decode.
I stayed at a sketchy place once since I was too tired to back out and safely drive to the next, but I did literally barricade the door with all the furniture in the room. Also, brought in all my stuff from the car.
I am a recycling artist and frequency visit the local dump site. I found that contractors dumped a lot of rubble from a renovation of a bank. I found heavy bullet proof doors which have this lock on them. I didn't understand as I found no pc board. Thanks for explaining. I will try to play with one want to understand.
The education that the order doesn't matter is an important one. I know of one lock that had a "fancy" code, which just used 1,2,3 & 4 in a different order. It was on a military base.....
Before hearing that the order of the buttons doesn't matter, I was pretty dumbfounded that this was even possible and excited to see the mechanism. Now things seem a little more plausible.
When the order doesn't matter, there are really only a handful of combinations. So if you're unfamiliar with the decoding technique, you might also just try every combination. I reckon you can get it open within 10 minutes.
My colleague once lost the combination to one of these at the office shortly after changing it. It took him 5 minutes to recover - he asked the cleaner.
These locks are used on the bin sheds at a friend's apartment block - when I take down her rubbish I can open the shed without even needing to look... and yet we had the same locks on our office building!!
Even easier is to look as the discolouration round the keys. The frequently pressed key surrounds will look cleaner. I have several of these locks round the farm and have to remember occasionally to clean them with a squirt of WD40 and a rag so that the combination is less obvious.
Real estate agents like to use these to lock up houses for sale. When I was a kid, some of the neighbors and I figured out how to open one of these so we could explore an abandoned house. They really are trivial to open.
AirBnB rentals as well as houses up for market are often coded to either the street address of the property or some part of the owner's phone number. I don't think most people realize that this style of lock is indifferent to the order in which the numbers are entered.
@@johnpublic6582 that's why they're used. Also boarding up windows. But you'll notice I said "Reduce," not "eliminate." But I notice you ignored *THAT,* too. Pretty dishonest of you.
Where I work we have locks like this, but the knobs are made so that they turn all the way easily. However, they don't engage with the mechanism unless the code has been input correctly. As such, trying to find the code with this technique, which requires significant tension on the handle, is impossible, since it's impossible to get the required tension without turning the knob all the way.
@@DavZell Also, you can download a cheat sheet of codes to try and since order doesn't matter there are about 128 possible codes. So brute force of the keyspace in under five minutes.
used to be one of these for my moms breakroom and they would change the combination fairly often so as a kid i figured out how to decode these locks since i didn't want to bother her co-workers to get the new combination.
I know of a number of places which have these on their doors, and the codes haven't been changed for years. At least one of them, an indoor electronic model, has lost the printed numbers on the three keys which are used for the four digit passcode. One key is much more worn than the other two, giving a huge clue about the code to anyone who understands the main focus of the business. It's rather like the 4711 perfume company if they tried using their name as the passcode.
That reminds me of an electronic code lock I saw during military service, where the four correct buttons were so obviously worn off, that the only question was the order they had to get pressed.
Great vid, as always My question is, when the buttons are pressed, can they be heard using a mic? One other thought. When I was USN, I worked in a secure space. One of the requirements for assuming the watch, every eight hours, was to clean the cypher lock rocker buttons. The combo was also changed at random intervals... depending on the roll of the dice, and Division Officer's direction. Thanks again, and look forward to more outstanding videos.
A venue in Auckland, New Zealand installed one of these on the toilets to stop people from using them without buying anything from the food court. Ultimately I taught some friends how to decode it. Last I heard was that someone had destroyed the head on the screws to prevent it being disassembled and having the combination changed.
These locks are easy to brute force as they only have two thin screws holding the two halves together through the door. I had to remove one recently because mechanism had seized up so got a hacksaw blade and slipped it between the outside part of the lock and the door and cut the top screw which was enough to get the lock off. I would think a good hit to the side of the lock with a heavy hammer would shear the screws if you didn't care about damaging the door.
We have loads of these at work, various sites, and people insist that my number, 1234, is wrong and that theirs, 4321, is correct. I love the look on their face when I get in.
This is the sort of video that has you wishing you had that lock to try your luck with. Especially if was at your workplace so you could impress your workmates.
If they use Blue Tooth or Wi Fi in an open and unecrypted format then the lock is not safe, I would also be leery about using any lock that requires you to log into a site as that relies on the site's security protocols to prevent your data from being hacked.
None that I've seen. I had a Schlage smart lock for demonstration work on a project, and it's very rakeable, even with a gnarly, paracentric keyway. If you have technical knowhow, you can break into the network and send unlock commands to it. Of course, you'll need to get into several accounts first to do so.
Skeleton brick will get into most houses, been to 1000s of burglaries and picking or decoding are virtually never used. Vast majority of the time it's a trusty screwdriver or a stone used to smash toughened glass.
Gulp - I used to work in offices containing very highly sensitive data that used these. 😮 I love your videos, but they do leave me wondering if there any locks that are actually secure??
I tried this on a well used lock and noticed the difference and was able to decode but on a newer one they still give a double click on all keys even ones part of the combo. I think the smooth feeling you got was only because this was an older lock that was broken in by long term use.
Always laughed at these when I worked on a military base, they thought they were secure, until I opened seven of these in a row and entered the CIC office.
The box I got only came with parts that allow the code to be programmed to 3-6 digits, but if you can source more parts and require all the buttons to be pressed to unlock, no one would believe that is the code and no one will ever guess the right code is press all the buttons. Also prevents individual button wear clues.
Or spray the entire lock with UV paint, wait a day for people to wear off the paint from the buttons that are used, and read the combination by flashing it with a UV flashlight. These locks that allow entries in any order are inherently low security devices.
![[1398] A Padlock I’d Use: Abus Granit 37RK/80 (Pick & Gut)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HrV86GqlY8o/mqdefault.jpg)
![[1398] A Padlock I’d Use: Abus Granit 37RK/80 (Pick & Gut)](/img/tr.png)
![[527] Pickproof your Kwikset For Less Than $1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7JlgKCUqzA0/mqdefault.jpg)
It is interesting to note that, mathematically speaking, most "combination locks" should really be called permutation locks (because the order matters), but these locks are truly combination locks because the order you punch in the numbers is not relevant.
Thanks dad
you're technically correct, the best kind of correct
This is the very thing that confused me when I did my homework and gave the lock example.
@@ilonachan Yes, Combination is a meaningful mathematical word. "Combinations and Permutations" is an area of mathematical study. The OP is right to say that this is a Combination lock.
@@johnwinters4201 oooh interesting, I didn't know that was the name for that. Still, the commonly seen design where order matters is also not a permutation lock. Is there a name for ordered combinations?
oooor it seems "permutation" can also refer to an ordered selection where elements can repeat and be missed out. That's not how we EVER used the word, but I can accept that.
One office I used to work at had two of these locks on the two entrances, with different codes - and in absent-mindedness I'd occasionally input the wrong code for one, and I'd know instantly because it "felt wrong"
I think if casual users can feel that there's a difference in regular use, it's always going to be easy to decode.
Same for me and others at my workplace.
I was on vacation and one of my deft coworkers was able to figure out the code to a little-used lock without calling me. Our IT guy whom she let into the room gave her the nickname "Jimmy Valentine" and it stuck.
Imagine the buttons looked different aswell from all the wear
@@jearlblah5169 that's usually the main tell, the only way they will feel different in regular operation is after a considerable amount of use and the springs are weak.
A new lock will not feel different nor will a lock that has had regular code changes.
A building I used to look after locked all the bathrooms with a different code for each floor. One morning I touched each button with a UV dye pen, the next day recorded the clean keys and wrote it on the door jam above each door really tiny. Did that for years lol.
@@cardiffpicker1 A new lock wouldn’t show signs of wear on the buttons either…
Was once told by a mate who had a job in the security industry (in sales), that these types of locks are easily bypassed by mashing all buttons simultaneously. Sometimes it was made easier by using something flat and stiff such as a ruler.
One time, I was told to head to an ambulance station for a break when we were way out of our area. As such, our code didn't work on their lock.
I found a piece of scrap timber and placed it over the keys and hit the timber. From memory we got in on the second go.
That would make a very cool scene in an action movie...
I heard a story of a multiple-choice test machine used in car license exams that can be tricked by pressing all options simultaneously with a ruler
@@vftdan well, that's disconcerting...
Makes sense.. would be like raking but with a ruler
I have managed to get through one of these without knowing the code simply by looking at it from the right angle and seeing which of the buttons has greasy finger marks on it - just a reminder, that if you have one of these sorts of mechanisms, make sure your change the code regularly enough to avoid such an easy decode
Or wipe it clean after each use.
@@kingzach74 Or push all of the buttons sometimes.
@@mikelolol they wont wear that fast as a keys you use regulary. Anyway you can feel the difference whenever you touched binding key.
There's a Team Fortress 2 video called 'Meet the Spy' which features a number pad like this. The code to get in is '1111' and the 1 is the only key that's worn down on the number pad. I always thought that was a nice detail.
or do like they did with this one and use all the keys
This is my lock! Thank you for doing a video on it. I had no idea the order of buttons didn't matter. I had never seen another like it before and we got a new digital (probably less safe) deadbolt. This is awesome.
*was your lock
You're not getting it back lololol
@@Skinflaps_Meatslapper 🤣🤣 I'm very much ok with that. Amazing name btw
Thanks for sharing it!
@@Skinflaps_Meatslapper that is a quality name my freind
My parents had a great sense of humor, the school board didn't. Especially during graduation and award ceremonies.
Still more secure than a MasterLock.
As insecure as some 4 digit masterlocks.
🙄
At this point a chihuahua is better security than a MasterLock.
@@akaraven66 agreed, and not ironically.
A Chee-Wee will let you know there's a stranger about, and really, that's all you need. Well, that, and a phone. It's rare that an intruder will try to enter a building with an alerted occupant, and even if they do, most buildings - including homes - are full of things you can use to defend yourself. Fort up, call the authorities, and prepare to kick ass if needed.
@@johndododoe1411 A paperclip is more secure than a Masterlock
Used to be one of those locks on one of the rooms in my local train station, and I would often play with it while waiting for a train. It was always easy to open, as the room was used by decorators for storing paint and 4 of the buttons were covered in painty fingerprints!
I have one of these similar locks on my office door but the handle turns freely if you don't put in the correct combination. After watching this video I just went and tried something. Turn the doorknob slightly, just so there is resistance but not too much that it frees up and fully turns. While maintaining the position of the handle, push all of the buttons once (don't push clear). Then release the handle and turn it again. It opens about half of the time.
Post video plz
Nice exploit.
Sounds like a very worn Kaba Simplex. If that's the case better replace it as it won't be long before it freezes up.
You mean 50% of the time it works every time?
My 10 year old son and I have been viewers since video 500 or so. Got him the genesis set for Christmas this year, thanks for the bonding time!
Now he will read this and see the spoiler
Hahaha, youre right
We watch together, and I do not allow him to read comments on anything because people can be quite vile.
@@bluekouki86 Good take - LPL remains family friendly even on aprils fools day
Plot twist.
Unbeknownst to yourself Your son is colloquially known locally as the Pink Panther
Thanks to you I weld my door shut every time I leave my house
This helped us so much! I’ve been watching your videos for years, but today it really paid off.
Staff has lost the code for the office at our petrol station, so we have been keeping it unlocked for months. Couple of times someone accidentally locked the door, and we had to jump over the counter to get it unlocked again. Imagine what it looked like to customers seeing staff do that. Very embarrassing.
Today I find this video and finally I could decode the lock and share the code with other staff members. No more getting locked out, no more jumping over the counter.
Thank you so much!
I swear you could make a video on sequentially removing a jammed bottle cap and I'd still be utterly enthralled from start to finish.
I've worked in a place that had one of these types of locks on the door to the office. Every so often they'd change the combination but it was always made up of the same four numbers, so no matter what order they said it was I just hit the relevant numbers in numerical order.
Jokes on you, they didn't actually change the combination, they just said they did because they knew the trick also xD
Likely, they had some sort of compliance requirement that dictates they change the combination regularly, and this was a bit of malicious compliance on their part.
Anyone who fits these and we have lots knows the order is meaningless.
Lol you got played 😂😂
Had to use one of these at work 25 years ago and as soon as I saw this the combination popped back into my head!
I remember one time I was locked out of a shed that had a cheap wire lock with a 3 digit roller wheel. I used this method learned by you! I applied tension to the shackle and spun the wheels till it felt set correct. It worked! Ever since then i've realized any combination lock that allows you to use the shackle/bolt to apply pressure to the code is generally going to be very easy to decode
I learned first-hand how these locks function when trying to replace a damaged button on one on an office door at work. It was a good experience going through the innards of a lock like this, and now I’m the resident “lock-picker” lol. Thanks again LPL!!
I miss your old videos in which you used to disassemble locks and show us why your techniques worked the way they did.
Interesting to note this may only work on that specific brand. My shop has 2 different brands in stock and we just tried it on several different locks with no success at different amounts of tension and in some cases, the buttons completely bind up and don't have any springiness to them at all. The combination of this lock is changed by removing pins from the back that are color-coded and arranging them to where the red ones are coded and blue are non-coded with a combination of your choosing. We are guessing the shape, size, and possibly length of the pins, and how they fit into the lock may be the key to having that brand work that way, or possibly it may be a matter of wear and tear as the locks we tested were all brand new.
Same here. Sourced mine from bunnings warehouse. They seem to be a simple yet good design, when new they have very low tolerance for binding, or no binding at all. The mech is also reliable, I can't see it being picked, knocked or unlocked by magnet.
I have a suggestion, if you haven’t done this already. Master Lock sells these set your own combination locks. I had one for my school locker for a bit because I kept forgetting my combination with regular ones (yay, undiagnosed ADHD). Basically you couldn’t forget your combination because no matter how much you scrambled it you would be able to feel the tumbler click when you had the right number/ letter. Which was great until other people figured that out, multiple times. I don’t remember having anything stolen because I kept everything valuable in my bag. Presumably whoever it was looked at my moldering 90s public school textbooks in disgust and walked away. But I did go back to a regular lock (which was probably incredibly vulnerable to a simple lock picking tool but not vulnerable to just some teenager in the hallway). I looked it up and they still sell the same model in number and letter versions (which is what I had, which also made it way easier to guess a combination). The design for the school ones look about the same but they also sell ones that look like they are supposed to be used by adults for actually important things and I bet they are all just as easy to get into.
I think Itd be interesting to see inside the mechanism for these things.
Yes. This.
Ong
The mechanical keyboard enthusiast community could probably decode these pretty quickly. They're all about spring tension.
it's the other place where you can get a click on 1, but also a click on Z, a click on F1 and even a click on Print Screen
@@marquiis Nice one! haha Clever.
also pianists
A company I used to work for had something similar on staff only doors, I used to do a lot of visits to different sites and couldn't remember all the codes, however I quickly learnt that jiggling the knob would causes the relevant keys to wobble slightly allowing me quick entry. When the loss prevention team discovered I was doing this they were understandably concerned
I decode one of these which was on a key locker (which had the front door keys in for the main building which my flat was in). Reason being, the housing agency was trying to get me to sign a new contract so they could have "unfettered right of access". i.e. They would remove the dead lock ability of my flat and give themselves the "right" to enter the property at any time without knocking and without any prior notice. Suffice it to say, I didn't sign the contract, so obviously they didn't give me a key for the main building door after having changed the lock. I still have the hand-written note from one of the workers informing me of this. Really should've taken them to court over it.
Anyway, it was quite easy to decode the main building key locker. Bit of tension and you can feel (in my case I heard) a fast double click on the correct keys. Being a sound engineer helped to hear the difference between the correct and incorrect keys. They were absolutely furious that I still had access to the main building and couldn't figure out how I was getting in.
That's the last time I'll ever deal with housing organisations. They're highly corrupt and engage in many scams. Most notably they claimed they'd made an error with how much rent they should've been charging all tenants and back-dated rent 2.5 years. All tenant in the building ended up in approx. £7,500 debt that we had to pay, on top of the "unfettered right of access" shenanigans. Definitely should've taken them to court...
Way back in junior high (late 80s) the school was doing a fundraiser selling mechanical pad locks that could be used for lockers for PE class or in the hallways, I think they were $5 a pop, but it didn't take long and word spread quickly about how broken they were. In a similar fashion you pull down on the lock to tension the bolt if you wiggle the numbered buttons you can feel some wiggle differently and very easily figure out what the combo is. Not sure how many people lost stuff from thieves, but within a month the school was refunding everyone's money who bought them.
I'm most surprised on it not needing a particular order, I remember having these in earlier workplaces and they were always adamant that the code 'had to' end on a letter. Thanks for another interesting video.
I love the idea of putting the word “Digital” on a mechanical thing.
It does use numbers instead of letters for the keys so that marketing is still accurate.
A "digit" means a finger. You press the buttons with your finger. Hence "Digital". There you go. 😉
Digital gloves..
You all are really putting the “Lawyer” in “Lockpicking Lawyer” 😁
there are similair locks at my office doors and i always try to pick them instead of memorizing codes. So now I consider myself as an expert in picking these locks, usually it takes me only one attempt to pick them.
Before card keys, these types of locks were very common in hospitals to “secure” on-call rooms, medication rooms, stock rooms.
Your avatar just gave me lovely feeling of nostalgia.
@@meeperator Thanks very much for your comment! Like you I spent many (many!) hours on Jedi Outcast, not to mention all the Star Wars games for Arcades, consoles and PC that came before (or since). May the Force be with you!
An interesting use was a geriatric ward in a hospital. You had to punch the code to leave the ward. The code was written above the door. Also a hall used for pre-school had one on the main entrance with the buttons on the inside. It worked a rim nightlatch which could be snibbed back when the pre-school was not in session.
They were common in all sorts of businesses to secure rooms that were meant for specific departments or teams, yeah.
The one from your collection is EVERYWHERE in my hospital. They are absolutely dreadful
I've found this technique works on most of these locks.- tension the mechanism and probe the buttons, works on all the padlocks I've collected and you've shown it work here.
Great explanation on a classic method that works very well.
Not sure if it has been mentioned before. But you may want to check yourself for an iron deficiency . The vertical lines in your nails is a sign of it.
I've had those lines at the bottom on my nails for as long as I can remember.
Even as a kid I had them I've never thought that it could be a sign of some sort.
But I've also never had a doctor that ever mentioned anything about my nails so I've always figured it was normal lol.
Maybe instead of chewing them up and spitting them out, LPL should swallow a lock every once in awhile.
@@roypatton1707 🤣😂
@@roypatton1707 Since I traded all my Fluke instruments for iron tablets I am so much healthier!
This takes longer than Masterlock. Bravo!
This took longer than most master locks, so "easy" is a relative term
but he did not need a specialized tool - like any random thing he could find within arms reach.
These types of locks I found to be fairly common in cheap European hostels. In that setting they have a far bigger vulnerability if that is even possible. The buttons in the combination have had their finish worn off over the years.
The worst part is this is exactly the kind of thing someone who didn't know how would do to try to decode this lock: put on some tension and feel around for differences.
I pick these by observing the wear patterns.
Because they are difficult to change codes, they tend to develop wear and "clean" areas on buttons that are pressed regularly.this helps reduce the potential codes.
Today on the breakin lawyer
I'd love to see the mechanics of what you are feeling for, it would make the decoding process much more relatable to watch.
This sort of lock is _really_ common in offices and retail in the UK, they're the sort of thing you'd find gating off a staff area, or perhaps a "customers only" bathroom in less salubrious parts of the country.
They're not a million miles away from a traditional tumbler in principle. Each button has a kind of thick wafer behind it, the "partial disassembly" LPL refers to it removing a retaining backplate (one screw) to spit them all out. Each wafer has either a cut-out notch or a false gate, you rearrange them to set your code. Typing in a code to open just latches up each wafer in turn, and C releases them all.
I've decoded these in the past by setting each button in turn and feeling for impact against the false gates when twisting the knob hard, it never occurred to me that the unset positions might differ. I'll have to have a play with that.
Really though, if you can access the locked side once then decoding is trivial. Two screws drops the lock body off the door and then a quick glance will give you the access code because the wafers are colour-coded.
@@UKCougar Here is the problem. You talk about false gates and wafers and stuff, but I don't know what they are and what they look like in a lock like this. Hence why I said a visual would be great.
My local Maccas has one of these... Gonna get myself some free nuggies!
Most locks are made to keep honest people out. I guess you aren’t one of those honest people.
I've read stories on some sites where this style of lock had been installed, but the installers forgot to reset them from the factory default key codes. If one knows the combination the lock comes with by default, entry is very easy. If LPL were to buy one of these, it would obviously come with factory default codes, not difficult at all to open. Just an FYI to anyone installing these locks, don't leave them on the factory default codes, change them or get the owner to change them immediately after installation.
I've installed a lot of these branded Lockey. Changing the combination is a pita. I was critical of the any order codes but never tried to decode them. Well done boss, now I am better prepared to deal with them
I always thought the difference in the feel of pressing the buttons was because the correct buttons were more worn as they were pressed more often
As a kid I had very sensitive fingers. So I could open every single tumbler bike lock. With age my derma gets thicker and requires maintenance.
It was only done once. How do we know this wasn't a fluke?
Most people that use these locks knows this wasn't a fluke!
its LPL. if it was a fluke, then we need to prepare for the end of youtube.
My thought too..
...but, what if the knob actually rotates all the way around regardless, and he was just acting like it stopped halfway, so he could rotate it the rest of the way when he acted like it was decoded? What if he's been playing us all along????? What if it was fluke????
He already knew the combination from previous examination. He was merely demonstrating the method.
I went on holiday to small in South Australia call Whyalla. The motel I was to stay at used this type of lock. I didn’t stay in the room because of 2 security issues, it’s to hard to change code after every customer check out. It’s to easy to decode.
I stayed at a sketchy place once since I was too tired to back out and safely drive to the next, but I did literally barricade the door with all the furniture in the room. Also, brought in all my stuff from the car.
Always have items to secure doors once you're inside. No protection against theft but it raises personal safety.
I am a recycling artist and frequency visit the local dump site. I found that contractors dumped a lot of rubble from a renovation of a bank. I found heavy bullet proof doors which have this lock on them. I didn't understand as I found no pc board. Thanks for explaining. I will try to play with one want to understand.
You could also basicly just inspect the buttons and click the ones that have quite noticable fingerprints or have gotten most damage from clicking
When he brings out the same design lock from his collection, you know that the lock has already been defeated.
I don’t know, LPL. You only unlocked it once. It might’ve been a fluke. Kidding. Thanks for all the great videos! Peace.
My deployment dorm room has that exact lock thanks for keeping me up at night
Still can’t believe how many locks there are and how much you have review and shit on 😂. Love you LPL
The education that the order doesn't matter is an important one.
I know of one lock that had a "fancy" code, which just used 1,2,3 & 4 in a different order.
It was on a military base.....
There’s a video posted on RUclips by Felix Immler showing him pick a padlock using his Swiss Army knife. He used the tweezers & toothpick.
Before hearing that the order of the buttons doesn't matter, I was pretty dumbfounded that this was even possible and excited to see the mechanism. Now things seem a little more plausible.
Not just a low-tech attack, he used a no-tech attack. *_THAT_* is scary.
well, his finger and arms are well calibrated precision instruments.
They are only more dangerous when armed with pen, paper and a legal purpose.
When the order doesn't matter, there are really only a handful of combinations. So if you're unfamiliar with the decoding technique, you might also just try every combination. I reckon you can get it open within 10 minutes.
we have a similar at work, but it's easier to decode: good buttons are clean, the other have dust !
It's wild that it's so easy to get the combo for these locks, and yet it seems so intimidating.
Hooray a lock that doesn't suck so bad!
Cool, I had searched other places, including lockpicking subreddit, and couldn't find anything. Looks pretty easy to learn, cheers.
YOUR ONE, is the ones we had on our army barracks in 1989
My colleague once lost the combination to one of these at the office shortly after changing it. It took him 5 minutes to recover - he asked the cleaner.
showing us that this is even a thing makes it all worth it LPL your audience loves this stuff
I'd use that on a closet door while on vacation so nobody inexperienced with those locks breaking into my house can steal my shirts.
Shirts are important. No one sets proper security on their wardrobe.
@@lairdcummings9092 Damn right!
You must have very nice shirts. Good style
@@KF1 A few dress shirts, mostly t-shirts. Just don't wanna end up with fewer options.
@@ColtonRMagby They'd steal your Tool shirt for sure.
Finally something I am just as quick as LPL at opening.
These locks are used on the bin sheds at a friend's apartment block - when I take down her rubbish I can open the shed without even needing to look... and yet we had the same locks on our office building!!
Even easier is to look as the discolouration round the keys. The frequently pressed key surrounds will look cleaner. I have several of these locks round the farm and have to remember occasionally to clean them with a squirt of WD40 and a rag so that the combination is less obvious.
Real estate agents like to use these to lock up houses for sale. When I was a kid, some of the neighbors and I figured out how to open one of these so we could explore an abandoned house. They really are trivial to open.
if there is nothing to steal why to bother to protect it. Anyway most locks give you just false sense of security
AirBnB rentals as well as houses up for market are often coded to either the street address of the property or some part of the owner's phone number. I don't think most people realize that this style of lock is indifferent to the order in which the numbers are entered.
@@meladoescraft reduces the number of vagrants, teenagers, and drug users getting in to the building.
@@lairdcummings9092 Keep on believing...
@@johnpublic6582 that's why they're used. Also boarding up windows.
But you'll notice I said "Reduce," not "eliminate."
But I notice you ignored *THAT,* too.
Pretty dishonest of you.
Where I work we have locks like this, but the knobs are made so that they turn all the way easily. However, they don't engage with the mechanism unless the code has been input correctly. As such, trying to find the code with this technique, which requires significant tension on the handle, is impossible, since it's impossible to get the required tension without turning the knob all the way.
See Mike's comment about the same type.
@@DavZell Also, you can download a cheat sheet of codes to try and since order doesn't matter there are about 128 possible codes. So brute force of the keyspace in under five minutes.
used to be one of these for my moms breakroom and they would change the combination fairly often so as a kid i figured out how to decode these locks since i didn't want to bother her co-workers to get the new combination.
I had to go and test this at the only door at my work that has one. Can confirm it’s shockingly easy
I know of a number of places which have these on their doors, and the codes haven't been changed for years. At least one of them, an indoor electronic model, has lost the printed numbers on the three keys which are used for the four digit passcode. One key is much more worn than the other two, giving a huge clue about the code to anyone who understands the main focus of the business. It's rather like the 4711 perfume company if they tried using their name as the passcode.
Not to mention some of the other well-known exploits for these types of locks....
That reminds me of an electronic code lock I saw during military service, where the four correct buttons were so obviously worn off, that the only question was the order they had to get pressed.
I kinda want to see LPL tackle a lock that's been booby-trapped like it was designed by Kevin McCallister.
Got those locks at work...so that's what I'll be trying next week 😁
The one I have used before had a 2-button simultaneous press, then a sequence. Like 5 and 4 together, then 3, 2, 1.
Nice video.
Another path is to examine the face for soiling, it takes some dedication to keep those spotless and free from grime.
Great vid, as always
My question is, when the buttons are pressed, can they be heard using a mic?
One other thought. When I was USN, I worked in a secure space. One of the requirements for assuming the watch, every eight hours, was to clean the cypher lock rocker buttons. The combo was also changed at random intervals... depending on the roll of the dice, and Division Officer's direction.
Thanks again, and look forward to more outstanding videos.
Good security technique.
So you were in after the Walker crimes. At least the system learned something...
@@johnpublic6582
Yup. Enter TPI for all!
Walkers should've been fed a lead Sammy.
A venue in Auckland, New Zealand installed one of these on the toilets to stop people from using them without buying anything from the food court.
Ultimately I taught some friends how to decode it.
Last I heard was that someone had destroyed the head on the screws to prevent it being disassembled and having the combination changed.
These locks are easy to brute force as they only have two thin screws holding the two halves together through the door.
I had to remove one recently because mechanism had seized up so got a hacksaw blade and slipped it between the outside part of the lock and the door and cut the top screw which was enough to get the lock off.
I would think a good hit to the side of the lock with a heavy hammer would shear the screws if you didn't care about damaging the door.
We have loads of these at work, various sites, and people insist that my number, 1234, is wrong and that theirs, 4321, is correct. I love the look on their face when I get in.
That old beat up Japanese lock still probably works better than the newer Chinese knockoff version
This is the sort of video that has you wishing you had that lock to try your luck with. Especially if was at your workplace so you could impress your workmates.
30+ years with the digital one in the garage door, no problems so far
I will be testing this next week!
Ive decoded a few buy looking at the dust on the buttons, the ones that are used regularly don't have dust.
As always, amazing
Thank you LPL 🇺🇸
You make it look so easy every time. awesome.
Question: Are there any smart locks, controllable by smartphone out there, that are safe to use?
Safe from LPL?
No.
If they use Blue Tooth or Wi Fi in an open and unecrypted format then the lock is not safe, I would also be leery about using any lock that requires you to log into a site as that relies on the site's security protocols to prevent your data from being hacked.
None that I've seen. I had a Schlage smart lock for demonstration work on a project, and it's very rakeable, even with a gnarly, paracentric keyway. If you have technical knowhow, you can break into the network and send unlock commands to it. Of course, you'll need to get into several accounts first to do so.
Skeleton brick will get into most houses, been to 1000s of burglaries and picking or decoding are virtually never used.
Vast majority of the time it's a trusty screwdriver or a stone used to smash toughened glass.
@@cardiffpicker1 I worry because I live close to Cardiff.
Gulp - I used to work in offices containing very highly sensitive data that used these. 😮
I love your videos, but they do leave me wondering if there any locks that are actually secure??
I tried this on a well used lock and noticed the difference and was able to decode but on a newer one they still give a double click on all keys even ones part of the combo. I think the smooth feeling you got was only because this was an older lock that was broken in by long term use.
Always laughed at these when I worked on a military base, they thought they were secure, until I opened seven of these in a row and entered the CIC office.
The box I got only came with parts that allow the code to be programmed to 3-6 digits, but if you can source more parts and require all the buttons to be pressed to unlock, no one would believe that is the code and no one will ever guess the right code is press all the buttons. Also prevents individual button wear clues.
you can also look for shinier buttons that have be worn slightly from use, :)
Or spray the entire lock with UV paint, wait a day for people to wear off the paint from the buttons that are used, and read the combination by flashing it with a UV flashlight. These locks that allow entries in any order are inherently low security devices.
I just wanted to say that I resubscribed now that every video stopped being a Lishi ad
The best way Ive found is if you do a hard tap on each one, the correct ones bind up more than the others.
@LockpickingLawyer, loved the video. What if the lock has a free turning lever?
Still took longer than the most expensive masterlock
Because it's a tutorial