Safe-cracking
Encyclopedia
Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe
Safe
A safe is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal or formed out of plastic through blow molding...

 without either the combination or key. It may also refer to a computer hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...

's attempts to break into a secured computer system, in which case it may be shortened to "cracking" or black hat hacking.

Physical methods

Different procedures may be used to crack a safe, depending on its construction. Different procedures are required to open different safes so safe-crackers need to be aware of the differences.

Lock manipulation

The most surreptitious way of cracking a safe is to manipulate the lock
Lock (device)
A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object or secret information , or combination of more than one of these....

 in order to obtain the combination required to open the safe without actually damaging the safe.

Some rotary combination lock
Rotary combination lock
A rotary combination lock is a lock commonly used to secure safes and as an unkeyed padlock mechanism. This type of locking mechanism consists of a single dial which must be rotated left and right in a certain combination in order to open the lock....

s can be manipulated by feel or sound in order to determine the combination required to open the safe. More sophisticated locks use wheels made from lightweight materials which reduces this vulnerability. Another anti-manipulation mechanism is serrated wheels (false tumbler notches) that make tactile techniques much more difficult. Another defence is a clutch-type driver wheel that prevents contact of the fence to the tumblers except in one position. These locks can be identified by a "click-click" feeling in the dial or by a dial that is pushed in and turned. Manipulation is the locksmith's preferred choice in lost-combination lockouts, since it requires no repairs or damage, but can be extremely time consuming due to lock improvements over the years, and is also a difficult art to master. Some combination padlock
Padlock
Padlocks are portable locks used to protect against theft, vandalism, sabotage, unauthorized use, and harm. They are designed to protect against some degree of forced and surreptitious entry.- History :...

s can also be manipulated by pulling and applying leverage on the shackle while turning each dial to determine the combination required to unlock them.

In the absence of any other information regarding the safe's combination, a combination lock may be opened by dialing every possible combination. Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...

 discovered that many combination locks allow some "slop" in the settings of the dial, so that for a given safe it may be necessary only to try a subset of the combinations. Such "slops" may allow for a margin of error of plus or minus two digits, which means that trying multiples of five would be sufficient in this case. This drastically reduces the time required to exhaust the number of meaningful combinations. A further reduction in solving time is obtained by trying all possible settings for the last wheel for a given setting of the first wheels before nudging the next-to-last wheel to its next meaningful setting, instead of zeroing the lock each time with a number of turns in one direction.

Guessing the combination

A safe may be compromised surprisingly often by simply guessing the combination. This results from the fact that manufactured safes often come with a manufacturer-set combination. This combination (known as a try-out combination) is designed to allow the owner initial access to the safe so that they may set their own new combination. Sources exist which list manufacturers try-out combinations.

Combinations are also unwittingly compromised by the owner of the safe by having the lock set to easy-to-guess combinations such as a birthdate, street address, or driver's license number.

Autodialers

A number of companies and groups have developed autodialing machines to open safes. Unlike fictional machines that can open a combination in seconds, such machines are usually specific to a particular type of lock and must cycle through thousands of combinations to open a device. A good example of such a device is a project completed by two students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 - Kyle Vogt and Grant Jordan. Their machine, built to open a Sargent and Greenleaf 8400 lock on a Diebold Safe, found an unknown combination in 21,000 tries. Lockmasters, Inc. markets two autodialing machines that work on a variety of 3-digit combination safe locks.

There also exists computer-aided manipulation tools such as Mas Hamilton's SoftDrill (no longer in production) and Cygnus. These tools are like autodialers except they listen to the lock and with the aid of a computer make logical decisions like a human manipulator would do.

Weak point-drilling

While some safes are hard to open, most are susceptible to compromise by drill
Drill
A drill or drill motor is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill bit or driver bit, used for drilling holes in various materials or fastening various materials together with the use of fasteners. The attachment is gripped by a chuck at one end of...

ing or other physical methods. Manufacturers publish drill-point diagrams for specific models of safe. These are tightly guarded by both the manufacturers and locksmithing professionals. Drilling is usually aimed at gaining access to the safe by observation or bypass of the locking mechanism. Drilling is the most common method used by locksmiths, and is commonly used in cases of burglary attempts, malfunctioning locks or damaged locks.

In observational attacks, the drill hole allows the safecracker to view the internal state of the combination lock. Drill-points are often located close to the axis of the dial on the combination lock, but observation may sometimes require drilling through the top, sides or rear of the safe. While observing the lock, the locksmith manipulates the dial to align the lock gates so that the fence falls and the bolt is disengaged.

Bypass attacks involve physical manipulation of the bolt mechanism directly, bypassing the combination lock.

All but the simplest safes are designed to protect against drilling attacks through the implementation of hardplate steel (extremely wear-resistant) or composite hardplate (a casting of metal such as cobalt-vanadium alloys with embedded tungsten carbide chips designed to shatter the cutting tips of a drill bit) within the safe, protecting the locking mechanism and other critical areas such as the locking bolts. The use of hardplate ensures that conventional drilling is not successful when used against the safe. Drilling through hardplate requires the use of special-purpose diamond or tungsten-carbide drill-bits. Even then, this can be a time-consuming and difficult process with safes equipped with modern composite hardplates.

Some high security safes use what is called a glass relocker
Relocker
A relocker is one of various mechanisms intended to keep a safe or vault locked in a burglary attempt.There are two basic classes of relockers:* Relock trigger , an internal relocker built into the primary lock...

. It is a piece of tempered glass mounted between the safe door and the combination lock. It has wires attached to the edges. These wires lead to randomly located, spring-loaded bolts. If an attempt is made to penetrate the safe, the drill or torch breaks the glass, releasing the bolts. These bolts block the retraction of the main locking bolts. To drill a safe with a glass relocker, side, top, or rear drilling may be necessary. Many modern high-security safes also incorporate thermal relockers in conjunction with glass-based relockers (usually a fusible link as part of the relocker cabling), which also activate when the temperature of a safe exceeds a certain level as a defense against torches and thermal lance
Thermal lance
A thermal lance, thermic lance, oxygen lance, or burning bar is a tool that burns iron in the presence of pressurized oxygen to create very high temperatures for cutting. It consists of a long iron tube packed with iron rods, sometimes mixed with aluminium or magnesium rods to increase the heat...

s.

Drilling is an attractive method of safecracking for locksmiths, as it is usually quicker than manipulation, and drilled safes can generally be repaired and returned to service.

Punching, peeling and using a torch are other methods of compromising a safe. Peeling involves removing the outer skin of the safe.

Plasma cutters and thermal lance
Thermal lance
A thermal lance, thermic lance, oxygen lance, or burning bar is a tool that burns iron in the presence of pressurized oxygen to create very high temperatures for cutting. It consists of a long iron tube packed with iron rods, sometimes mixed with aluminium or magnesium rods to increase the heat...

s are hotter than oxyacetylene torches and can be used to burn through the metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

 on a safe.

Brute force methods

Other methods of cracking a safe generally involve damaging the safe so that it is no longer functional. These methods may involve explosives or other devices to inflict severe force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...

 and damage the safe so it may be opened. This method requires care as the contents of the safe may be damaged. Safe-crackers can use what are known as jam shots to blow off the safe's doors.

Most modern safes are fitted with 'relockers' (like the one described above) which are triggered by excessive force and will then lock the safe semi-permanently (a safe whose relocker has tripped must then be forced, the combination or key alone will no longer suffice). This is why a professional safe-technician will use manipulation rather than brute force to open a safe so they do not risk releasing the relocker.

Radiological methods

Penetrating radiation such as X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...

 radiation can be used to reveal the internal angular relationship of the lock's internal mechanism to deduce the combination. Modern safe locks are made of lightweight materials such as nylon to frustrate this technique, since most safe exteriors are made of much denser metals.

Tunneling into bank vaults

Large bank vault
Bank vault
A bank vault is a secure space where money, valuables, records, and documents can be stored. It is intended to protect their contents from theft, unauthorized use, fire, natural disasters, and other threats, just like a safe...

s which are often located underground have been compromised by safe-crackers who have tunneled in using digging equipment. This method of safe-cracking has been countered by building patrol-passages around the underground vaults. These patrol-passages allow early detection of any attempts to tunnel into a vault.

Media depictions

Movies often depict a safe-cracker determining the combination of a safe lock using his fingers or a sensitive listening device to determine the combination of a rotary combination lock. Other films also depict an elaborate scheme of explosives and other devices to open safes.

Some of the more famous movies include:
  • A Retrieved Reformation
    A Retrieved Reformation
    "A Retrieved Reformation" is a short story by O. Henry , which describes the events which lead up to the reformation of an ex-convict. It was adapted into the film, Alias Jimmy Valentine in 1928, MGM's first all-talking film, which is the latest of three films that have been adapted...

    (1909)
  • The Asphalt Jungle
    The Asphalt Jungle
    The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 film noir directed by John Huston. The caper film is based on the novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett and stars an ensemble cast including Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, and, in a minor but key role, Marilyn Monroe, an unknown...

    (1950)
  • Rififi
    Rififi
    Rififi is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Tony le Stéphanois, Carl Möhner as Jo le Suédois, Robert Manuel as Mario Farrati, and Jules Dassin as César le...

    (1955)
  • You Only Live Twice
    You Only Live Twice (film)
    You Only Live Twice is the fifth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's screenplay was written by Roald Dahl, and loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name...

    (1967)
  • Who's Minding the Mint?
    Who's Minding the Mint?
    Who's Minding the Mint? is a comedy movie from 1967 with elements of a caper film. Howard Morris directed a cast that included Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine, Walter Brennan and Milton Berle. It was produced by Norman Maurer for Columbia Pictures....

    (1967)
  • Olsen Gang
    Olsen Gang
    The Olsen Gang is a fictional Danish criminal gang in the movies of the same name. The gang's leader is the criminal genius and habitual offender Egon Olsen. The other members of the gang are Benny and Kjeld . The gang members are harmless and never use violence...

    (1968–1998)
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service
    On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)
    On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the sixth spy film in the James Bond series, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Following the decision of Sean Connery to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon Productions selected an unknown actor and model, George Lazenby...

    (1969)
  • Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
    Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
    Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a 1974 American crime film written and directed by Michael Cimino and starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, and Geoffrey Lewis.-Plot:...

    (1974)
  • No Deposit, No Return
    No Deposit, No Return
    No Deposit, No Return is a 1976 comedy film directed by Norman Tokar. It was written by Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson. It is the story of two children who hold themselves for ransom, reluctantly aided by an expert safecracker and his sidekick .-Cast:*David Niven - J.W...

    (1974)
  • Thief
    Thief (film)
    Thief is a 1981 neo-noir film written and directed by Michael Mann and based on the novel The Home Invaders by "Frank Hohimer"...

    (1981)
  • Vabank
    Vabank
    Vabank is a Polish film from 1981; the first film directed by Juliusz Machulski and a popular criminal comedy, set in an unnamed city in interwar Poland.The film received several awards and nominations, among them:...

    (1981)
  • Blood Simple
    Blood Simple
    Blood Simple is a 1984 neo-noir crime film. It was the directorial debut of Joel Coen and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a noted director...

    (1984)
  • Short Circuit 2
    Short Circuit 2
    Short Circuit 2 is a 1988 comedy science fiction film, the sequel to 1986's film Short Circuit. It was directed by Kenneth Johnson, and starred Fisher Stevens as Ben Jahrvi , Michael McKean as Fred Ritter, Cynthia Gibb as Sandy Banatoni, and Tim Blaney as the voice of Johnny 5 Short Circuit 2 is a...

    (1988)
  • Die Hard
    Die Hard
    Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...

    (1988)
  • Disorganized Crime
    Disorganized Crime
    Disorganized Crime is a 1989 heist/comedy film set in Montana. It was written and directed by Jim Kouf and released through Touchstone Pictures...

    (1989)
  • Hudson Hawk
    Hudson Hawk
    Hudson Hawk is a 1991 American action comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann. Bruce Willis stars in the title role and also co-wrote the story. Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, David Caruso, Lorraine Toussaint, Frank Stallone, Sandra Bernhard, and Richard E...

    (1991)
  • Killing Zoe
    Killing Zoe
    Killing Zoe is a 1994 film, written and directed by Roger Avary. The story details a safe cracker named Zed who returns to France to aid an old friend in performing a doomed bank heist...

    (1994)
  • Heat (1995)
  • Safe Men
    Safe Men
    Safe Men is a 1998 film written and directed by John Hamburg. The crime-comedy starred Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn as a pair of aspiring lounge singers who are mistaken for ace safe crackers and get mixed up with a Jewish mobster, Big Fat Bernie Gayle and Big Fat's intern, Veal Chop .Safe Men was...

    (1998)
  • The Newton Boys
    The Newton Boys
    The Newton Boys is a 1998 drama film based on the true story of the Newton Gang, a family of bank robbers from Uvalde, Texas. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dwight Yoakam. It was filmed in Austin, Bartlett, New Braunfels, and San Antonio,...

    (1998)
  • Blue Streak
    Blue Streak (film)
    Blue Streak is a 1999 American action comedy film directed by Les Mayfield and starring Martin Lawrence. The film is a remake of the 1965 British film The Big Job, although the original film is uncredited...

    (1999)
  • Small Time Crooks
    Small Time Crooks
    Small Time Crooks is a 2000 American crime-comedy film directed, written, and starring Woody Allen, along with Tracey Ullman and Hugh Grant.-Plot:...

    (2000)
  • Ocean's Eleven
    Ocean's Eleven (2001 film)
    Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 American comedy-crime caper and remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film of the same name. The 2001 film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and features an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, and Julia Roberts. The film was...

    (2001)
  • The Score
    The Score (film)
    The Score is a 2001 crime thriller directed by Frank Oz and starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett and Marlon Brando.It was the final film performance for Brando and the only time he and De Niro appeared in a film together The Score is a 2001 crime thriller directed by Frank Oz and...

    (2001)
  • Panic Room (2002)
  • The Italian Job
    The Italian Job (2003 film)
    The Italian Job is a 2003 heist film directed by F. Gary Gray. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def, and Donald Sutherland. It is an American remake of a 1969 British film of the same name, and is about a team of thieves who plan to steal...

    (2003)
  • Bad Santa (2003)
    Bad Santa
    Bad Santa is a 2003 American screwball black comedy film directed and co-written by Terry Zwigoff, produced by the Coen brothers, and starring Billy Bob Thornton as the title character and Tony Cox as his partner in crime. Actors Bernie Mac and John Ritter co-star...

  • Brainiac: Science Abuse
    Brainiac: Science Abuse
    Brainiac: Science Abuse is a British entertainment TV show with a science motif. Numerous experiments are carried out in each show, often to verify whether common conceptions are true or simply to create impressive explosions...

    (2003) - The safe was eventually cracked by a kinetic energy round fired using a Challenger 2 Tank
    Challenger 2 tank
    FV4034 Challenger 2 is a British main battle tank currently in service with the armies of the United Kingdom and Oman. It was designed and built by the British company Vickers Defence Systems . The manufacturer advertises it as the world's most reliable main battle tank...

    .
  • The Ladykillers
    The Ladykillers (2004 film)
    The Ladykillers is a 2004 dark comedy film directed, written and produced by the Coen brothers and stars Tom Hanks, with a supporting cast that includes J. K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst and Irma P. Hall...

    (2004)
  • The Bank Job
    The Bank Job
    The Bank Job is a 2008 British crime film written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Jason Statham, based on the 1971 Baker Street robbery in central London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered...

    (2008)

Three safecracking methods seen in movies were also tested on the television show MythBusters
MythBusters
MythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...

, with some success. While the team was able to blow the door off of a safe by filling the safe with water and detonating an explosive inside it, the contents of the safe were destroyed and filling the safe with water required sealing it from the inside. The safe had also sprung many leaks.

See also

  • Access control
    Access control
    Access control refers to exerting control over who can interact with a resource. Often but not always, this involves an authority, who does the controlling. The resource can be a given building, group of buildings, or computer-based information system...

  • Lock picking
    Lock picking
    Lock picking is the art of unlocking a lock by analyzing and manipulating the components of the lock device, without the original key. Although lock picking can be associated with criminal intent, it is an essential skill for a locksmith...

  • Physical security
    Physical security
    Physical security describes measures that are designed to deny access to unauthorized personnel from physically accessing a building, facility, resource, or stored information; and guidance on how to design structures to resist potentially hostile acts...

  • Security
    Security
    Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...

  • Security engineering
    Security engineering
    Security engineering is a specialized field of engineering that focuses on the security aspects in the design of systems that need to be able to deal robustly with possible sources of disruption, ranging from natural disasters to malicious acts...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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