Monday, June 16, 2008

A New Attack on Electronic Locks: The Magnetic Ring

Via Toool.nl (Blackbag) -

There has been quite some speculation about this video (YouTube) of a magnetic ring that is used to open some model of Uhlmann & Zacher lock. By now it is confirmed by the company itself the trick works, and supposably a software update will fix the problem (and even log opening attempts).

The ring used in the video now has a name: ‘the ring of the devil’ and is already available on the market (just 25 euro!).

And the questions now are: What is in the ring, how does it work and what locks are affected?

Well … I have some answers. Saturday I received my own magnetic ring and can give you some details.

Some people thought the ring was completely magnetic, but this is not the case. The ring is made out of aluminum and there are four strong magnets inside. The spacing is 90° and the magnets are mounted N, S, N, S. On this image you can see four metal keyrings that are stuck to the ring by the magnetic fields. So far I did not pry open my ring to see what it looks like inside.

The next question is why does this open (some) electronic locks? Electronics is not my strongest point (as you could have read in my previous posting), but by now I understand a little more about it.

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Locks provide such a fake sense of security...it is kinda scary. Good locks are expensive and very few people have them, not even high-end corporate entities.

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