Comment On Electronic Door Lock Security

Amazing, it's the same combination as my luggage.

The real wtf is that someone scribbled out the code instead of just removing the sign from the door!?

Classic

Yet sooooo many people wonder why security consultants get paid so much.

I bet it's not really on the door.

Bjorn:

I bet it's not really on the door.

But is it a wood door?

The benefit of an old-fashioned lock is that you can leave the door unlocked if you want to. For newfangled locks, you have to resort to these measures, which open you up to public ridicule...

At least the illiterate riffraff doesn't get in.

This reminds me of that grocary store I worked in the summer for some 6-7 years ago. They had two safes, one old with a code wheel and another with only a key, the 20 cm kind. The cashier boxes were in the key-only safe.

As the old was sometimes hard to open, and contained the key to the other safe, this would sometimes delay the store from opening for maybe 10-20 minutes, as the staff would only be able to accept credit cards in lack of the cashier boxes. So the 3-4 old people waiting at the entrance would have to wait a bit more, as if they had something else to do.

The only sensible solution, of course, was to overcome this serious problem by hiding the safe key rather than locking it up. Hiding on top of the safe, under some paperwork. This, and, since the staff was not the brightest ever, the codes for the security alarm were on a post-it in the office.

I questioned this approach, but was told that that was the way things was done. Beeing in just for the summer, I didn't really care much, and so I did nothing.

It took about 3 weeks later before someone knowing the code and the location of the key, AND with the key to the door had broken in and taken the money, emptied the cigarette closet and rampaged a couple of vending-machines.

So that was not so good since I was one of the people with a key, but since I didn't do it I didn't really care. The police setteled for a telephone intervju. I told them the store's insurance would have to be void. Haha!

And the next summer I was at a bigger store from the same chain of stores, and as 1 of 3 holding a key (and certainly the least trusted) there was a claim that a good sum of money was missing from a safe. This naturally caused a lesser working environment for everyone that summer, untill the 4th holder of a key came back from vacation and noticed that the manager, rather embarrasingly, had forgotten to count a lot of lottery tickets as part of the safe. Pfft.

Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!
Yes, sir!
And change the combination on my luggage!

Wait, this is the office gym, right? So anyone that's working at the office (I assume) has access to the gym. So if there's 'rifraf' in the building, wouldn't it be better to keep them from getting into the building at all then just simply locking them out of the gym?

Some offices (like mine) will only give you gym access if you sign a waiver promising not to sue the company if you act like a dipshit in the gym and injure yourself.

This is not necessarily a WTF. In my apartment block, we installed an electronic door lock in order to avoid sleepy, drunk people, that on their way home decide to crash below our stairs. On the inside of the front door, we put up a sign for a month or so informing residents and visitors what the access code was.

It all depends on the context.

Bjorn:

I bet it's not really on the door.

I've seen this before: password for a key coded door written on the door and it did its job quite well.

The door was an exit to an "old folks" home (long term care / palliative). The door was sufficiently secure to keep any of them from escaping.

Jonas:

It all depends on the context.

And both contexts are WRONG!. You never know wich kind of visitors stays in your neighbour houses.

There was that kind of lock, with the sign, in a residence for old people I visited. It allowed to keep those who were too senile to read inside the house without too much watching, and the others could still go take a walk and come back.

Dan:

Wait, this is the office gym, right? So anyone that's working at the office (I assume) has access to the gym. So if there's 'rifraf' in the building, wouldn't it be better to keep them from getting into the building at all then just simply locking them out of the gym?

It's the same idea as a locked executive washroom. The riffraff works in the building, but can't have executive priviliges, like a gym.

Franck:

There was that kind of lock, with the sign, in a residence for old people I visited. It allowed to keep those who were too senile to read inside the house without too much watching, and the others could still go take a walk and come back.

At the head injury/stroke hospital they put "house arrest" bracelets on the patients. When they walk over to the door, the sensor locks it and sounds an alarm. Vistors can enter and leave easily. This is reverse key-card security.

I cracked the code. It is 4580x.

I'm a leet hax0r.

It's a good thing they scribbled it out so people can't see it!

They might as well just scribbled it out with a highlighter...

Hey, they left off the last digit, so it's not like they gave out the WHOLE combination. I mean, there's still 10 possible codes....

Anonymous:

It's a good thing they scribbled it out so people can't see it!

They might as well just scribbled it out with a highlighter...

The real WTF is that none of you recognize a captcha when it isn't on a web page!

This effectively secures the building from robots.

The real wtf is the scribbled through "See note on door".. on the note.. on the door..

It's like paper-based DRM :)

Franck:

There was that kind of lock, with the sign, in a residence for old people I visited. It allowed to keep those who were too senile to read inside the house without too much watching, and the others could still go take a walk and come back.

At an Alzheimer's long-term facility I'm familiar with, they have a similar lock with a note on it for the visitors. "The combination is the current year." The visitors can all get out, and none of the people who are far enough along to be there can remember what year it is. This was for folks that were pretty gone.

1) Open up the image in gimp (or any other powerful image editor).
2) Bring up the levels adjuster (layer/colors/levels...)
3) Select blue channel only.
4) Drag the right/white input leftwards to about 10%.
The text will now be about 10 times more readable :)

digislave:

Anonymous:

It's a good thing they scribbled it out so people can't see it!

They might as well just scribbled it out with a highlighter...

The real WTF is that none of you recognize a captcha when it isn't on a web page!

This effectively secures the building from robots.

Haha, this was the best explanation. :D Of course it's a captcha. :)

The scary thing is that this happened recent in the building I work in. A councilor (with a PhD no less) put a note with the building code on the door for a client. It ticked off all the other tenants and the building owner.

That's a nice captcha!

The supermarket near me is refurbishing at the moment and has some aisles behind a temporary wall. As the workman went to the door to enter the keycode, I noticed him look up and carefully study the top of the doorpost. Sure enough, the code is written up there - you just have to know where to look!

You just made me spit cola on my screen. Well done.

For some reason, this WTF made me think of Richard Feynman. People thought he was a genius safe cracker. He was a genius to be sure, but the safe cracker part mostly was due to people being stupid. He cracked relatively few locks, but he made obvious attacks around the locks, found passwords written down, or not changed from their default.

Read all the Feynman books you can, he's a great read, and was a great guy.

Captcha: tesla
Not feynman, but the genius part also applies. Hmm, wonder if they'll make a rock band called feynman....

They did:

The Fine Men

digislave:

Anonymous:

It's a good thing they scribbled it out so people can't see it!

They might as well just scribbled it out with a highlighter...

The real WTF is that none of you recognize a captcha when it isn't on a web page!

This effectively secures the building from robots.

THAT's funny:DDDD
The original post wasn't :)

The real WTF is that you have to enter a "." between each of the other characters.

Dan:

Wait, this is the office gym, right? So anyone that's working at the office (I assume) has access to the gym. So if there's 'rifraf' in the building, wouldn't it be better to keep them from getting into the building at all then just simply locking them out of the gym?

It would be better to require the riff-raff to enter the gym, work out, tone up, and stop being such riff-raff!

But I wonder if that is really the code to the door. Maybe they have the real code memorized, and that code, if entered on the keypad, will cause the blast doors to slam down and the cops to be called. Or detonate a charge under the person entering the code.

Or just open the trap door....

The real WTF is that whoever made the sign thought IP addresses had 5 digits.
That's the IP address to the lock, not the actual code. They only let in the people who can hack the system first.

digislave:

Anonymous:

It's a good thing they scribbled it out so people can't see it!

They might as well just scribbled it out with a highlighter...

The real WTF is that none of you recognize a captcha when it isn't on a web page!

This effectively secures the building from robots.

I wish I could vote you up somehow. Awesome.

sas:

The real WTF is that you have to enter a "." between each of the other characters.

The reason they did it that way was because people were looking for the 4580X button.

Maybe the 0x means hexadecimal, and the real entry code is 1112. Only people who can convert to and from hex are allowed in.

Who gets to decide on the context? Us living in the building or you? To us, this was a good trade off. We wanted to get rid of random people that once in a while tried to sleep below our stairs. We didn't want to make it difficult for residents and their visitors.

The real WTF is that you misspelt the submitter name. :-)

I just had this happen with the security on the door of my building. They posted the note on a door that sits right on a public street. The manager could not understand why i removed the signs and was suggesting he not do it again.

His only response he kept repeating was, "But how will people who don't know the code get in?"

I should probably move.

Tabi:

Some offices (like mine) will only give you gym access if you sign a waiver promising not to sue the company if you act like a dipshit in the gym and injure yourself.

I love USA. Whenever I hear stories like these I always feel better knowing that this is completely unthinkable in my country.

I think you meant "10100111001 h4x0r".

Anonymous:

It's a good thing they scribbled it out so people can't see it!

They might as well just scribbled it out with a highlighter...

Yes, they clearly didn't change the combination.

Looks like a case of indecision.
CAPTCHA: 4580X no quack

Zecc:

At least the illiterate riffraff doesn't get in.

Illiterate riffraff huh?

I think you meant "don't", not "doesn't".

You illiterate riff-raff you.

The real WTF is that you most probably misspelt the submitter's name (Antii instead of Antti). Or is it merely obfuscated so he won't get into trouble?

Anonymous:

The real WTF is that you most probably misspelt the submitter's name (Antii instead of Antti). Or is it merely obfuscated so he won't get into trouble?

Im sure it isn't misspelt, it looks like a Finnish name. In Finnish short sounds is written with one letter and long sounds is written with two letters and (unlike most European languages) double vowels and consonants is independent. (However I wonder how "ntt" should be pronounced..)

Hey it worked without appending the captcha!! ;P