okay let's get started all right so this
is lock-picking 101
this is just what it sounds like very
basic very simple course my name is
Colin Jackson I go by didymus so this is
going to be a pretty you know beginner
basic level introduction to locs how
they work different tools we use to
manipulate and open those basically this
is going to be the more lecture
impersonal not as cool teaching that you
would normally get at the lockpick
village by hands-on one-on-one teaching
so we're doing a lockpick community
downstairs we'll be here the whole time
we have lots of people who were helping
out and yeah I'm excited so let me go
into basic so just by the show of hands
who has ever picked a lock before and
this is just kind of review okay who is
never picked a lock all right and who
didn't raise their hand I'm just okay
two three okay good so gonna talk about
a little bit about locks and why we can
use them but actually first let me
I'm gonna cut over to another resource
which is extremely valuable because they
have a lot better slides than I do so
this is there's an organization called
tool which is the open organization of
lock Pickers or locks board and
basically this is kind of a just a
chapter type thing there's a couple
different chapters around the country
and they have a lot of meetups and
they're at a lot of security conferences
and things like that so I'm gonna kind
of use their stuff because it's a great
resource their website is tool us tool
with three o's so basically let's skip
over to this one lock-picking is fun fun
fun so at most security conferences
you'll see some type of lock picking the
reason why is because physical security
is you know one of the ten domains of
security
penetration testers a lot of times they
have to do on-site engagements and if
you can get into places you can spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars on
firewalls and next generation hootenanny
and whatever and then if you protect
your important assets or server rooms or
whatever with like your standard
hardware store cheap locks you know it's
like I'm using a $15.00 walk to protect
a hundred thousand dollar infrastructure
kind of a interesting thing so it can be
as damaging if not more damaging
especially when you get physical access
to resources so one of the rules that
tool has which I think are great rules
there's several of them there's two so
the first rule is do not pick someone
else's locks like don't don't pick a
lock that you're not allowed to like
don't just walk up to someone's house
and start picking their lock it's kind
of awkward
I mean invasive I've never done that but
and then do not pick your locks or if
you rely on them so like I'd recommend
getting locks like from second-hand
stores or hardware stores or something
like that to practice on don't start on
your front door lock and then just
because picking locks
you're basically exploiting weaknesses
in the lock to open it and it is
possible to break them it is possible to
like get them stuck so they no longer
work and if you do that to your front
door and that's the lock you rely on
you're gonna have a bad time
so we're gonna talk about the three
kinds of lock openings so there's your
basic lock picking which is kind of the
it's a skill it's something you sort of
learn over time there's also the quick
and dirty you just kind of rake it and
just pop it open and we're gonna go into
a little bit more in depth on this here
in a minute and then there's the covert
slash high-tech stuff which is really
cool really fascinating you know don't
leave really any trace it's the kind of
stuff you read about in spy novels and
different things like that so this is
tools but what they're like this is what
we do we teach how to pick locks why
it's useful why it's beneficial quick
and dirty this is what criminals do
they're just trying to get in and do
your stuff and let's be honest a lot of
times if they can do breaking
entry like no one's there they're gonna
they're gonna do that and then what
spice do and then this is kind of what
tool says but we'll teach you this stuff
but here's the stuff we don't we don't
want to teach you it's all legal stuff
whatever
so lock-picking is easy this is one of
the things this is actually I've told
many people this this was my gateway
drug into security I was going up to
college and so this might date me a
little bit but Ocean's Twelve had just
come out in theaters an Italian job
wasn't like either in theaters or
recently release and it's like man
that's really cool I I should learn how
to pick locks that seems like a life
skill so I was talking to my parents and
a couple friends like well you have an
uncle who lives just up the road who's a
locksmith why don't you go hang out with
him for a couple nights Mike really he's
a locksmith so I went and my uncle
taught me and from there I was I was
hooked no pun intended you know hooked a
lock thinking at that point so that was
about 14 15 years ago or so and I've
been doing it ever since but what I love
about it is it's easy it's not like you
don't have to be a Linux graybeard and
know the intricacies of why you would do
like psdf versus PF - aux on a command
line if you do know that then you're
like hardcore linux graybeard but I mean
you don't have to be an expert in
computer security or anything like that
anyone can learn how to pick locks I was
teaching my seven-year-old the other day
because he wanted to know and I was like
okay why do you want to learn this is
like well to help people it's like okay
fine I'll buy it whatever he's a good
kid
so there's a couple different locks
there's door knobs you know you see
these everywhere that the lock is
actually inside the knob the part that
you twist or the handle
there's also padlocks which is kind of a
self-contained locking unit everyone
knows this this isn't new and then
there's dead bolts a lot of people say
like well you can pick locks but you
know you can't pick dead bolts like no
it's it's the exact same mechanism on
the inside does the exact same thing you
just have to twist it so pretty much all
three of these locks functionally are
the same and we could go into details
down into lock the community about this
so let's talk a little bit about what
the locks look like so this is what you
know you would typically see when you
look at a lock you
you have your your large core and then
the kind of the tan color then your
yellow is the cylinder that actually
spins once you put the correct key
inside and then you have the darker way
which is the key way and it's cut a
certain way so only a certain type of
key will go in it and then that little
red pin that's uh that's a bottom pin in
a stack which we'll show you in a second
and that's actually called the key pin
really really simple way to remember
this is there's the key pin which some
call it a bottom pin but sometimes
they're upside down so why do I call it
the key pin because that's the one that
the key touches when you put the key in
and then there's a drive pin because
it's actually being driven down by the
spring so it's the one touching the
spring keeping right pin spring there'll
be a quiz later anyway so trying to
twist it without the key so this is how
locks function and you're gonna have a
couple of these in a line but basically
it's gonna bind on that drive pin it's
not gonna let you go now putting in a
correct key what its gonna do is gonna
line up the pins correctly where the
cylinder will actually rotate and when
the correct key is in its going to line
up on that that line there which is
called the shear line pretty much that
so a side angle view this is what the
pin stacks look like and as you can see
the top pins or the drive pins are
usually about the same size just because
it's simple to manufacturer that way and
then the lower pins are different
heights and that will correspond
directly to the cuts that are in the key
so if you look pull out your house keys
or whatever take a quick look at them or
your car keys they're cut and when they
the correct one is inserted you'll
notice how they all line up along the
shear line yeah that's pretty much
pretty much it so using lock picks is
basically doing that same function but
in a different way so there's two tools
you'll need and we're gonna go into
detail on this but basically you have a
tension tool which is that L shape in
the bottom and then you'll have a pick
which is the one that you actually use
to manipulate the pins now well there's
two basic things when beginning lock
picking first is the binding principle
so you'll see that little that little
thing says bind because of
perfections in the drilling in the core
there's only one or possibly two it just
depends that will actually bind and the
other ones will feel springy so it's
kind of animating that their spring
either they're not really catching but
you know that one it doesn't feel
springy at all but this one is kind of
you kind of fill it and then when you
push it up there's a little click or a
sensation like a little like a slight
movement and you can fill through
feedback in the tools and this is one of
those things where I can explain it all
I want but you're not going to get it
until you come down and actually try it
so I definitely encourage you to do that
and basically that's lock-picking you
would do all the pins and once they're
all picked because you have tension on
it
the cylinder turns and bam you're in so
I kind of went over this a little bit
but I really like this top angle view
because they from a top angle where you
see the holes drilled in they're not in
a perfectly straight line otherwise you
could just pick them in like front to
back and get it they're actually like
slightly staggered so so if they were
perfect all of them if they were
perfectly lined up they would all bind
at the same time it would be a lot
easier to break into places and there
there are cheaper locks that are like
this but in the real world you know
these are rapidly produced you know
you're trying to save money you're
making them cheap or whatever and you
know drop drop metal type pins and
things like that but in the real world
it's gonna be more staggered like this
and you're gonna have different ones
that buy not just not just you know all
of them at once and depending on which
way you actually rotate the cylinder
will depend on which one it binds so if
I was rotating this counter rotating
this clockwise this would probably be
the first one that's binding which is
what it's animating there and then once
I pick that the next one over so binding
principle we're gonna talk about that at
the lock pick community but binding
principle is kind of the basic like
you'll fill some that are really bouncy
and some that just like click that
doesn't quite balance doesn't quite just
fall free but that's binding principle
then the other important one is tension
which I'm gonna cover in a minute so
looking from the front kind of an x-ray
view this is what basically what it
feels like because you have tension on
it and you're pushing up on the key pin
you'll feel like a slight click or even
maybe hear it and you'll see it slightly
turn the direction that you have tension
on riveting right it's a lot more
exciting when you're actually doing it
and you're like I got the lock so cool
this just doesn't do it justice anyway
so not setting a single pin and then you
know with lock picking you're doing
multiple pins and that's kind of what
this is we already saw it over lifting
so this is very common especially when
you're starting out over lifting is
basically where you're going to pick you
start picking and you actually push one
of the key pins up to high past that
shear line and so you know they but they
bound that one and then and often times
especially with the transparent locks
that we have down there you'll see this
like when you push it up too high you'll
see pretty clearly that man I push way
too I and then it'll actually get stuck
kind of like that last pin there so
that's what over lifting is so let's
talk about tools so the animation before
hand kind of had the hook and it was
doing one at a time that's called single
pin picking or SPP that's the most
common way you learn when you start out
and it's also for higher security locks
you kind of have to start like a lot of
times you have to focus on the one pin
or the one security pin and stuff like
that raking is kind of the quick and
dirty this is actually how I started is
like you know you put tension on it and
you just kind of pick through it sort of
a thing so this is an animation of it
putting your attention tool apply light
tension then you have your rake this is
kind of an S rake because it's shaped
like an S and see how you're kind of
manipulating them all at the same time
and I'll be honest raking is mostly luck
it's guesswork but I mean it's fun it's
it's the quick way to get in especially
with these ear locks a lot of times it's
just like in and out you can get it and
especially when you're doing lock pick
competitions that's something that can
happen so let's talk about the half
diamond so the one on the left was the
hook
and the one on the right was the s rake
or the snake rake and then the half
diamond you can kind of do both actions
you can do lifting and you can do raking
with a half diamond and there's several
different types but there's basic kits
that have all the stuff you need so
lifting you're basically using it like a
hook you're lifting one at a time or
raking or shoveling you know that's
another way that's where you just kind
of bounce them as you go now a lot of
times people will ask well how do you
how do I know how many pins are in the
lock and a great way to do that is you
can even use your tensioner if you can
get it in the key way or you use the
flat side of a pick and you push all of
the pins up as like over set them just
push them all up and then pull it out
and count how many clicks you hear
that's a really quick easy way to find
out how many pins you're dealing with
gives you a better tie idea cuz lock
picking is all about you know developing
that touch and being able to see inside
the lock without actually being able to
see on the side the lock so that's
that's basically it turning in the plugs
so this is the second most probably this
is the first most important thing
binding binding is probably the second
most tension is by far I think the most
important thing when you're learning so
the entire purpose of that is to turn
the cylinder a lot of people start
picking locks and they'll actually put
the put the picks in and turn it like
they would a key you don't need to do
that that's what the tension tool the
only thing you do with the pick is like
move up and down in and out so this is
basically pulling so right-handed if
you're right-handed you hold the picks
in your right hand or your dominant hand
I guess and then what they're doing here
is they're using their heavy their
strongest finger to like pull down on
the cylinder and what's wrong with that
well it's not wrong it can work for some
people but it can be really heavy or
you're pulling you so hard you can't
really push things up kind of a better
method is pushing where you actually
like or holding the lock and you're
actually pushing down with your finger
if you're pushing so hard that the blood
is rushing out of your finger where
you're put with the tension tool is
that's a good indicator that you're
pushing too hard it's almost like just a
bit more than dead weight of your finger
this is another one of those things it's
hard to explain until you actually do it
even better than that pushing out
further on the tip so a lot of times
especially professional lock pickers
they'll have tons that will have a
handful of pics and a ton of different
tensioners just to get that better
filler that better grip of it and this
is kind of illustrating good good tool
pressure so you'll see that you know
just your regular finger or whatever now
this one see how the Bloods all rushing
out of it that's a good visual indicator
I mean everyone's different but that's a
good visual indicator that you're
pushing too hard
now for the most part that's going to be
installed in the door or something
you're not going to be holding like
regular dead bolts in your hand but a
lot of times it'll be like that so you
do want to put the tension tool in the
most ideal place you can manipulate the
lock and often at least for what these
are showing its bottom of the keyway the
reason why is if you're putting it clear
up in the top where all the pins are
there's a big chunk of metal in the way
you can't really get to it it's kind of
annoying so bottom of the key way you
kind of want to put it there and angle
it in such a way that you that you can
twist it and get good kind of good
feedback kind of feel what's going on
inside common question we get a lot is
which direction should I turn so if it's
at the lock fit community a lot of times
they're just loose locks you can twist
them either direction doesn't matter
when they're installed indoors or things
like that set that's when it matters
padlocks a lot of the time most of the
time are clockwise turn because most
people are right-handed put in the key
they'll turn it the most natural way so
if it's not connected something you can
turn it in either direction usually if
it is like if it's on if you're looking
at the door and the deadbolt is on the
your left you're gonna want to turn it
away in most cases if it's on the right
you're gonna want to turn it to the left
away from the door jamb so yeah I think
that is let's see this talks about a few
different ways you can practice and we
have progressive sets we have easy sets
down stairs they're green or color-coded
we have like one and two and three pin
ORS and then we have kind of the yellows
which are your standard whatever and
then we have some breads that are more
difficult more more skill involved more
practice
and we also have vices and things so you
can actually mount it and have your
hands-free so you're not like trying to
hold something and you know apply a
correct tension and it's actually better
to practice with with vices because a
lot of times if you're if your buddy
calls you up like hey I'm locked out of
my house you're gonna it's gonna be
mounted in something you'll be
practicing it that way let's see so
basically that downstairs we do have one
pinners just just start with one and
once you get one pin you'll you'll start
to develop that that technique that feel
that yeah I can spin I can recognise the
binding different things like that and
then you want to progress and get find a
two pin or a three pin or and work your
way up there's a few different ways and
this is probably more detailed and you
want but different ways to lift we
actually lift the entire pickup and
there's other ones where you kind of
rock it kind of teeter-totter it or you
a teeter-totter it and it just kind of
depends on how you can best manipulate
it and a lot of that is just going by
the touch that you fill or try raking I
don't want to I mean raking raking works
it gets it open you don't want a sawzall
you don't want to just you know do that
because it is pretty rough on the logs
they can break down it can break Springs
and different things I like this one
because why not cat memes so number one
most important thing when beginning is
tension so relax take it easy
sometimes when you're getting frustrated
you'll actually tense up and not realize
it and you know picking under pressure a
lot of times you're kind of stressed out
or you know so just relax take a deep
breath you know and before you know it
it's open kind of a thing so they talked
a little bit about the different tool
chapters I'm going to go a little bit in
depth into the type of tools here in a
second
let's see so we've got about 11 minutes
left and this will just take a second
but for the most part there's basic pics
there's your hooks and fillers you know
filler pics kind of your single pin
picking then you get into your raking
your snake or your s rake half diamond
which we've covered half ball is
basically a rounded off half diamond
there's some locks where it works on
there's also the city rake so this is
for like raking 2.0 like instead of just
using like the little s-curve you're
using like a couple different peaks to
rake through tension tools there's a few
different types so the ones that look
like Z surprisingly they're called Z
tension tools and then you'll see these
others that have a 90 degree twist in it
those are twists flex what's nice about
those as you apply more and more tension
they'll actually Bend so they're a
little more forgiving on heavy handed
people people that are probably using
too much tension let's see there are
some Bogota so this is these are kind of
cool basically it's a two-piece thing
where it can be either the tension tool
or the lock thick sometimes people will
carry just these which is kind of fun
and then we talked about how you would
put the tension tool at the bottom of
the key way these Peterson pry bars
that's what a picture that's what these
are actually those might be sparrows but
these are basically top of the keyway
tools so the benefit of doing that is
you have all that more space at the
bottom of the key way to manipulate it
use your picks and things like that
recommendations I only recommend it
because I have some of these this is a
this is a jackknife it's a southern
specialties RCS tool it comes with eight
picks and a tensioner it's about that
big it's on my keychain like I mean it's
pretty small I carry it with me almost
always and it's got pretty much all the
basic tools this is a tool this lock fix
said I got back in college and I've
given parts of it away and I've used a
lot of it but that was from South oriT I
really like that they make good quality
stuff
Peterson pry bars we kind of cover those
sparrows tuxedo sparrows IOD those are
all different types of pick sets which
are really nice and we have lock picks
for sale in the store downstairs we're
selling them at cost whatever it costs
st. Conda buy um rounded up to the next
dollar so we have a we have several
beginner South Lord sets we have some
sparrows tuxedos some kick-starts we'll
also be giving a couple away down in the
lockpick village we have a big hexagonal
box that Lonnie made last year it's kind
of like a six-person head-to-head
basically pick the lock open the door
and whoever reaches in gets the prize so
we'll be doing that throughout the week
yeah there's some good book on it and
different things like that
one of the things I did want to talk
about here at Saint Con is missing so
this is the first year we're doing it
they they asked us to think of a some
kind of contest that's going on so we're
introducing this year the Los Santos
escaped challenge basically there's been
similar ones at other conferences where
you're basically escaping we wanted to
make one that was like kind of realistic
so basically what's going on if I can
find my cursor maybe see basically what
we have set up here is there we go we'll
have two levels of difficulties so
you've been kidnapped by a drug cartel
and I'm kind of breaking rules by having
really tiny font but you've been
kidnapped by a drug cartel all your
belongings everything in your pockets
been removed putting a plastic bin in
this room you're locked in and it's out
of reach you can't reach it
you are either zip tied or handcuffed to
a chair so we're gonna have an easy and
a hard you know novice and advanced and
basically you have five minutes
to escape the room so your pockets are
empty nothing in there
the novice you're gonna be zip tight you
must free yourself from the chair it's
going to be strapped to the floor
somehow so you got to get out of the
chair first and then we're gonna have a
door
on that door there's a series of locks
that we're gonna have a door handle lock
and a deadbolt lock so novice you got a
free yourself from zip ties get out the
door
the advanced you're gonna be handcuffed
legs taped to the chair and blindfolded
you've got to somehow get free of both
handcuffs like it's bolted on so you
can't just get one and like walk away
the handcuffs stay with the chair so you
got to get out of both handcuffs wrist
restraints you know get yourself out and
then you have to pick the two locks plus
a second deadbolt plus a latch lock
which is on the outside of the door does
this sound fun yet don't worry there's a
waiver that you have to sign so we're
doing this Wednesdays and Thursdays this
so tomorrow and the day after tomorrow
from 10 o'clock to 2 p.m. so 10 a.m. 2
p.m. there's a sign-up sheet down there
right now it's right next to the lock
click community sign up put your name
the difficulty you want and will
basically be doing this the next couple
days and there's some scoring involved
so a perfect score for novice is 900
points perfect score for expert or
advanced whatever is 1100 so there's 300
possible time points so whatever is left
on the clock that's how many seconds
correlate to points you get 100 points
for deadbolt 50 points for door handle
100 points for bypassing the external
latch that's the disparity between those
two okay we also have style points
because we're all about style so in the
room they're going to have your personal
items in a clear plastic bin out of
reach so if you can get to that recover
your stuff you're gonna get 50 points um
there's also gonna be a lock safe if you
can crack open the safe by picking or
guessing the combination there's
incriminating evidence about the cartel
who kidnapped you in the safe so if you
can get that all the better there may be
a white powdered substance inside and
possibly a toy gun or things but
remember you signed a waiver so don't
worry about it it's fine um so this is a
fun one 200 points for improvised lock
fix now we do have some rules you can't
destroy the props you can't kick the
door down because I'll be really mad if
you do because I worked on it um but
there's gonna be a few items in there
there's gonna be like
I don't know maybe safety fins maybe
hairpins maybe some I don't know stuffs
gonna be in there so if you make
improvised lockpicks you're gonna and
use those to get out you're gonna get
200 points and then we have kind of a
floater 50 points for a unique approach
I don't know if you do it backwards or
so that's how scoring works
and basically we're going to have the
the top score for hard and the top
scorer for easy are gonna receive a
prize at the closing ceremonies some
cool prizes that we got also anyone who
attempts it will be getting the lo
Santos mini badges so there's two of
those basically I'll just show you those
real quick if you don't know about this
st. condor gosh badge /m b dot php'
which is going super fast right now
but that'll show all the official st.
con mini badges that you can get while
you're here alright all of you should
have got that top one but down here so
there's the ez badge and there's the
hard badge so if you attempt it um you
will get the blue badge just just by
attempting because you're subjecting
yourself to like being bound and
whatever hey good job you signed your
life away here's a badge anyway and then
if you do the hard one you get the hard
badge and also a secret covert escape
tool yet to be identified so that might
be helpful after you know after the fact
hey this would have helped you but we're
gonna do that we've only made a hundred
of each of these so if you want them you
got to sign up and actually attempt it
other than that we are doing one other
mini contest so we're gonna be doing the
black box head-to-head contest we're
going to be doing the Los Santos contest
the next two days that you have to sign
up beforehand and then we're also gonna
do one we're gonna call it hooks and
hoodwinks this is going to be like a
tournament style basically we have all
these hood winks and we're gonna have
like similar locks and it's gonna be you
against one other person you're gonna be
blindfolded you can't touch the locks or
your tools they have to be in front of
you and you're gonna pick them blind and
then we're gonna basically do a
tournament style and whoever wins
they'll win something at the end prize
I think it's a Sparrow's revolver for
those who know what that is yeah I think
I covered everything
lo Santos we have a store this year
check out the LPC if you have questions
check out the LPC so that's all I had
didn't want to have any questions here
yes okay there are well let me show this
because in a couple slides hold it'll
answer your question these are a couple
of websites that are have our good
resources tool lock vici Sheila Town
South org that's a that's a lockpick
brand site lock-picking 101 the
subreddit lock-picking has great stuff
sparrows lockpicks is a great place to
order lockpicks from their reasonably
priced I really like them let's see
these are books that I really like one
of them was written by deviant olam he's
physical penetration or he's a physical
security consultant he does amazing
stuff but practical lock-picking he
wrote another one as well called
advanced lock-picking some something
like that there's also this one on
unauthorized access that's all about
physical pen testing for security teams
there's a chapter on lock picking but
there's also stuff that covers several
other different things so if you're
looking into physical pen testing I
highly recommend that book it's got
great stuff and now to answer your
question these are a list that deviant
put together these are different types
of locks that he recommends the Schlage
Primus is extremely nasty I've got one
of those downstairs
I still haven't picked it it's horrible
best is the brand best s fix that's
small something interchangeable cor
Lonnie what's the F for format small
format interchangeable core
abus and ABLOY they have these cool
locks called disk detainers it's a
different type there's not pins in it
they're actually discs they have to be
rotated a certain order before it'll
turn Sargent and Greenleaf has some good
stuff mr. locksmith is a fun
YouTube channel to fall he's an actual
locksmith based in Canada but he highly
recommends the ABLOY protect to
high-security deadbolt 175 bucks when he
filmed it there was no known way to
bypass it
there's since I wrote this there's also
the Boley lock company it's a wicked
cool looking key like it's there there
are ways to get it but it's a bugger
it's really hard to get so any other
questions all right in that case come on
down to the LPC we'd love to teach you
guys some stuff we also have the LPC
mini badge basically you have to open up
a lock and you get it we have a couple
toys safes and some real safes just to
kind of practice picking on and stuff
like that so yeah come on down
thank you
[Applause]