Shostack + Friends Blog Archive

 

If You Blow Hard, You Can Find a Disclosure Debate

So there’s a video of how to “Unlock A Car With a Tennis Ball.” I advise turning the sound off-there’s no value to a bad pseudo-rock soundtrack, and no information in it (all the narration is in text in the video). There’s also precious little information in the video. It’s not clear what make or model the car is. It’s not clear where the keyless entry devices are. Someone off camera could easily have one, and we have no real way of knowing that the music isn’t a cover for someone yelling “now!”

In the comments, there’s something much like a vulnerability disclosure debate, circa 1997.

Via Ryan Russell

6 comments on "If You Blow Hard, You Can Find a Disclosure Debate"

  • Ryan Russell says:

    Thanks for the link. As you may have inferred from the lack of comments on my blog entry, I’ve had no one come forward to explain it to me yet. I’ve gleaned from random posts that there is a type of lock called a vacuum lock. I can’t find any good Internet references. There are too many parts on a car with the words vacuum, air pressure or plunger in the name. I’ve never been a locksmith, but I didn’t see any references to it when I was subscribing to the literature.
    Still, I’ve been surprised a number of times by how simple it is to bypass locks once you know how, so I don’t discount it entirely.
    But yes, don’t look to the locksmith industry for cues on full disclosure. These are the people who kept the master lock oracle attack secret for something like 100 years before Matt Blaze figured it out.

  • CarOwner says:

    The car is a current generation Mazda3. There are a number of reports from owners stating a well placed bump will short something out and cause the door to unlock.
    http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/19/mazda3-may-be-vulnerable-to-break-ins/ is one such site that details the problems.

  • gwen says:

    master lock oracle attack? uh dont think it was that much of a secret, Paladin Press was publishing information on this “secret” in the early 1970’s. As well as other edgy publishers.

  • Arthur says:

    Gwen, which book(s) would that be? I’ve read most of the paladin press lockpicking books and I don’t recall anything in there about master keyed locks.

  • JR says:

    YOU ALL HAVE HAVE TO BE THE DUMMEST C—S—–S IN THE F—— WORLD !

  • todd says:

    If you blow anything hard enough(or suck),you can do anything!

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