HOWTO: Pick a Common Master Lock With Your BART Card
Finally, a use for those old BART cards with $.30 on them… handy for when you get wasted at Blondie’s, miss BART home, and forget your bike lock combination. I saw it happen, and shrieked and giggled like a little girl at how easy and fast it was. More photos and info after the jump.
* * * * * * *
As it turns out, a Master lock is alarmingly easy to pop open with a simple shim, much the same way you can slide a credit card along (non-deadbolt) door locks to open them when you forget/lose your keys.
Trimming the BART card can make it easier, so you have a ‘handle’ to apply torque to twist the shim around.
The internal latch on these Master combination locks are pretty much the same latching mechanism as an ordinary doorknob; slide something into the slot, wiggle it until it pushes the slide open, and the lock pops open.
It’s also suggested that you can make a simple shim for this technique out of an Altoids tin lid; Jonathan Moore, who demo’ed this for me after sharing much red wine, points out that had we been drinking Tecate we could have also done it with a beer can, and another friend posted a video demo of hacking these locks with metal shims a while back .
t’s especially interesting that BART cards are perfect for this, being of the right amount of firmness, thickness, slip and strength. Yay BART!
You learn something new every day, thanks!
Holy crap that’s awesome. Reminds me of the previous hack to open a kryptonite lock with a bic pen.
Hmmm, now where can I find a Master lock to practice on?
You find out the most random things – I love it.
Slick! I always found it striking how strong the BART ticket stock is, and odd that Muni passes (which would seem to require a longer lifetime) aren’t printed on the same stuff.
I believe I have the same map as is in the background of the pictures. Huh.
Hmm, now I need to take a trip to the East Bay so I can get a ticket to try this with . . .
That’s sick.
now i should start selling my .30 BART cards on ebay as lockpicking kits.
Can you post a video of it? Your pictures are easily the most unhelpful useless aids for a how-to.
Evan… if you are too stupid to understand the tutorial, it’s doubtful a video would help :p
Yes, this technique has been around forever, but now a few thousand extra people know about it.
I hope your bike gets stolen and your gym locker emptied. Maybe some crackhead will use this technique to rob from someone you care about.
This is irresponsible of you.
>I hope your bike gets stolen and your gym locker emptied
If your security system relies on a Master lock, you deserve to be robbed. Might as well use the twist-tie off a loaf of bread -
As Bart writes “This is irresponsible of you”, I think the complete opposite. The more “non-thief” people who know about such tricks, the more who will choose better locks (or any product for that matter) that actually do what they should do. Cheers to more knowledge!
Remember that locks were made to keep honest people honest.
I normally use the metal flap off old 5.25″ floppy disks, it’s thinner and can open better engineered locks that have smaller gaps between the shank and body.
Did Masterlock get a new contract from Diebold to secure the new voting machines?
Btw to “me”: The 3.5″ floppies had the metal flap, not the 5.25’s…
Yes I hope your garage gets doen…you’re a grandstanding idiot.
As for people who think that this kind of information is irresponsible to post, remember it’s been readily available for a very, very long time. The irresponsibility is that anyone would actually trust a masterlock to provide anything more than the most rudimentary level of security. When people learn that it’s a poor lock, they hopefully won’t support that lock with their money next time they go to the store.
Could you do one about how do siphon gasoline out of a car? I’d really like my neighbors’ teenagers to know as well as how to steal my bike. While you’re at it, any tips on breaking into a cash machine?
Geez, the whiny whiners complaining about “too much information” have GOT to be Republicans all. Probably don’t mind that our civil rights are being ‘picked’ for our own good…
Info+dissemination=power to change
SFGary.. you’re right.. what was i thinking.. Duh!
Commenter SteveO, dang you are a n00b! you stick one end of a long piece of plastic hose into the tank, suck on the other end till the gas flows and use gravity to fill a container…at least thats how it was done with older gas tanks. Maybe the new ones have some sort of system to defeat it.
this isn’t new information that wasnt available on the Internet already. STOP WHINING!
To those complaining about too much info… security via obscurity is NOT security. Think of it as a “now you know” scenario and hope that Masterlock (and others) will fix this. If your hopes of not being robbed relies on people not knowing, perhaps a change of tactic is in order… now you know a flaw that a significant number already knows… and your can gain from this knowledge. GO JOE!!!!
These Master locks are worthless, because there’s another easier way to ge them off. Just hit the turn knob as hard as you can with the heal of an army boot (or anything else). They give you these worthless locks in prison and my locker was busted in every week (by my roommmate nontheless). Bust the hell out of the lock. I won my appeal finally, but never got reimbursed by the prison for all the food that was stole (they were suppose to by law but never did). Never got a dime out of 2 years of hell. And had to live with a psychopath in a concrete box who had a penchant for busting locks and no consciense whatsoever.
so what did you do? steal a bike that was lock to a powerpole with a master lock.
that was ment as a joke not an insult
For all you that think “maybe a crackhead will rob you” your wrong. It’s the crackheads that know about this first. If we don’t know, were all vulnerable. Mayabe if this happens enough, master lock will make a better lock.
Wow, I tried this and it really works. Thanks!
Very nice
I’m a tweeker, not a crackhead.. this is great to know!! Between this technique and key-bumping I’ll be able to pay for my Meth habit and the newest ‘puter gadgets plus have time to be up all night with them. Gotta love it!!
those tricks never work
Security thru obscurity. Great plan. Just like keeping it a secret to only a few people on how to rig a diebold machine will ensure elections are fair. ‘tards
Another example of the Have’s vs the Have-nots. Poverty is a bitch aint it.
You know, my next door neighbor has one of these locks on her shed, so I tried it and sure enough, it works! She totally deserves to get ripped off because she’s like 85 and probably doesn’t even read Metrobloggs…
More interestingly, I tried the back door of her house, and guess what! It was left unlocked!
Dumb bitch thinks she can keep using security by obscurity. I would be doing her a real educational service by publishing her address on teh internets. Not that I would personally advocate ripping off that new plasma TV her kids bought her a couple months ago, or that sterling flatware she got as a wedding gift in the 1940’s, but hey – she’s old and senile and probably doesn’t use it anyway since he husband died.
Speaking of disseminating already-available information, does anyone want a copy of my /etc/hosts file? It has all of metblogs’ advertisers in it, so you never have to see those annoying, greedy ads.
im not from wherever the person who posted this is, what is that card? i havent ever seen it before, if i was to use something instead of that what is the thickness/texture etc that make that card work?
nice i can steal stuf at school now
man any one who is complaining can go fuck themselves, if you dont want to see the information on the web then either A. Dont fuckin look for it, or B. when you see a title that says pick a master lock, dont whine cause its already been posted!, so deal with it. and if your so worried about immoral things, then go after fuckin retard bush.
thanks for the info. saves me the loot of calling a pro or replacing a window if i lock myself out. i don’t see a swell in break-ins coming. if you are going to rob someone then you are going to rob someone, and a lot of theives probobly use more professional tools anyway.(not to dis’ the BART card) maybe it should be called the TARD card since it’s so easy.
Very interesting..