 We are at the lock picking village at DEF CON 30 and I am going to take on an expert to see who can lock pick the fastest and figure out and do I match up. But right now let's jump in. What do we have on the table right now? We have obviously locks and then we have a couple tools. Yep. So we each have a basic master lock style lock. Yours is actually a master lock. Mine is not a master lock, but it's got basically the same internals in it. We both have a tension wrench aka a turning tool because this actually turns the core and then we have a pick here which is going to push up on the pins and we're going to set them in a certain order to find which ones are binding, which ones are loose. You set the binding pins you know first and then as you go through you'll find all the binding pins once you hit them all the lock will fall open. Okay so we have relatively identical tools, identical locks and we're going to see who can do this the fastest. Now I am I would say I've done this before and I'm curious how this is going to work out. So I would set this in there like that. Yep. I put tension on it. Yep. And I'm delaying for time as I get a as I get a little bit of a head start. Yep. And maybe he'll notice. Oh you're good. Oh okay that was a problem. Well this is clearly a harder lock isn't it? No it's actually not. The internals are pretty similar. I think what I just did this probably has a relatively flat bidding, key bidding. So what I did is when I set that back pin my pick most likely kind of mimicked what the key looks like and just set all the pins at once and that does happen sometimes. It's not uncommon for that to happen. How are you not nervous on camera? I know I'm like fumbling all over the place. I do this a lot and a lot of these locks are pretty worn out because they've been used all weekend but yeah this one is definitely worn out. I can imagine a lot of the picks here the locks here tend to get worn out or maybe even put in a place where they get unpickable a little bit. They do they do. So sometimes when people put too much tension on what'll happen is the pins will actually start to deform a little bit which will make it a lot more difficult to actually pick these locks and unlocks. I can't believe that you're able to just blow through these locks while I'm struggling. So here's the thing though. Yes same tools same locks what what makes you better than me and I know that sounds like a weird thing practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice and what are you feeling for like I know this is like a hard thing like you're trying to describe how food tastes right what are you actually feeling for so you're reaching in and you're feeling the very bottom of the pin so you're trying to align your pickup with the the center of the pin internally and like this first pin you can see it's kind of when I push my pickup it just springs back into place those are the pins you want to leave alone when you find one that's actually tough to push on that is then the binding pin so that's the one you actually want to pick until it clicks and I imagine like if this is if this is the pin that you have kind of this like hole here and when you're doing tension it's kind of like pivoting that and binding it like this inside and then you're kind of kicking it up exactly when it comes to lockpicking one of the things I've always struggled with is how much tension are you putting on and I know this is because I see your your thumb kind of pushing pretty hard on it and I've always heard is it a light touch or is it a really hard to get so to begin it's a very light touch reason being people tend to put way too much tension on we start people out with about as much tension as it takes to push down a keyboard key which is not much at all so if your fingers are turning white like mine are here that we would say is too much tension I'm pretty experienced in this and I tend to actually prefer heavy tension but I've altered my techniques to accommodate that okay so with a beginner putting on this much tension what they're going to do is they're going to lock all the pins in place then they're going to go try to pick one and bend the pick what I'm doing though is I'm putting a lot of tension on just to find the binder the one that I want to push on and then when I go to pick it I'm actually loosening up that tension to set the pin and then I'm putting the tension back on to hold that pin in place and to find the next one I imagine this is where practice comes in getting that feel of the lock yep now if I want to learn lock picking and I want to get better at it so I can actually like maybe maybe compete on on some semblance of a level what is the best way to start is it to pick up this master locks like this or would you suggest a like a beginner said I know tool has these these basic locks where you have six pins in there and then it starts with one pin and then two pins and then three yeah so progressive set when you're first getting the feel of it a progressive set is going to be the best way to go the reason is you can spend a lot of time on the one and the two with the one just one pin in there you can make that pin bind or not bind so if you don't have any tension on the lock the pins not binding you can feel what it feels like to have a springy pin okay then when you force the tension on there or put any amount of tension on there you can feel what it feels like for that pin to resist your pick and I actually have people spend a lot more time on the one and the two than most instructors do reason being you can really drill it into your head the difference between a binding pin and a non-binding pin and the whole game here when you're single pin picking is finding the binding pin setting it then finding the next binding pin and setting it and then finding the next binding pin and setting it and just as soon as you've got all of them set the lock will fall open so you just said something like when you're doing single pin picking so that would be picking one pin at a time is there other ways to like pick a lot there are absolutely other techniques so there's a technique called zipping which works really well on quick set locks it doesn't tend to work as well on these which are actually Corbin keyways would this be like a quick set no those are so those are master locks those are actually a bit more tension on them so they're a bit harder to do this with but what you're doing when you're zipping a lock is you're just kind of putting a little bit of tension on and rip it this isn't the correct pick either I'm just demonstrating the technique but you're ripping the pick out of there trying to actually bounce the top pins up to create a gap between the pins is it similar to like bumping exactly it's basically bumping a lock just with a pick okay now when you're doing this you're kind of tweaking the tension just to try and get keep zipping with a little bit different tension exactly you you want to keep tension on the whole time but you want to keep a lighter tension than you would when you're picking because you want to allow those pins to be able to shoot up if you're putting a ton of tension on there then none of the top pins are going to move is there other ways of picking the lock absolutely there's zipping raking if you actually if you grab that necessary nine set over there that we offer over at the tool merch counter we have these which are called wave rakes we call them the wicked waves they've actually been designed through a computer program that mapped out a sinusoidal and cyclical wave pattern and there was a lot of time put into these to to determine the best spacing the best pattern and there's a continuous taper from the base of the pick here to the tip so if you look at the thickness of the pick it actually continually decreases as you move to the tip it's kind of hard to see but it it's uh it's definitely there and the reason that's done is when you put pressure anywhere on that pick it's completely equalized throughout the entire pick but so these are that's just kind of how these are made but these are what's called rakes and the way you use these is you would insert them in you know any lock you would use generally you would use bottom of the keyway tension with a tensioner that fits correctly and tension fitment is really important it's actually more important than selecting the correct pick is selecting the correct tensioner that is you can see here you're glazing over this topic because I think this is interesting is when I pull a tensioner I just grabbed any old tensioner yeah I want to I know we're distracting from the rake right now but that's okay how do you select the tensioner like how would I know a good tensioner so you want to select the tensioner that fits in the keyway does not block your pick and puts the uh basically you want it to get out of the way but also be able to um put tension on the core as well so you don't want it to block your pick you don't want it to pinch the core because the tensioner can move under this little piece of wording right here and actually seize up that core and what happens then is you think you're picking the lock but you're actually stopping it from moving by doing that okay so tension fitment is way more important even than proper pick selection um tensioning is seriously the most important part of this that is something which has been lost on me forever I know there's even like these ones which are like sort of sliced out I know you can kind of tension from the exactly those are made to tension from the top of the keyway like this we tend to not tension from the top when we're raking because the rake will knock the tensioner out of the keyway um I can actually demonstrate a little bit better with this tensioner here um when I'm raking the waves on the rake can catch the tensioner and completely pull it out of the okay that is the whole idea that the tensioner is actually like an important tool I know that's sort of silly I didn't realize there was that much like strain put on it yeah right I distracted us from raking yep yeah see it just happened right there so I distracted us from raking let's jump back into that how do you select which rake to use um whether it's a four or five so with rakes you would generally just try them okay um you'll try a few of them um we actually discovered just a second ago this lock is a little bit damaged so this may not work as well and this is the other thing is we're doing this all live so the fact that you're even able to pick while a camera's on you is incredible to me because I'm struggling even with the basic most basic of locks I do have a bit of practice in that so yeah the tensioner's gonna keep popping out so with with this is we've tried raking we've tried it was zipping yep single pick raking is there any other ones um there are so there are other attacks that you there's a there's a whole I know we can talk for so long right so there is an attack which is probably not going to work on this lock but I'll demonstrate how you do it it's called overlifting and an overlift attack what you're going to do is put a tensioner into the lock find the right tensioner that fits and actually let's go this way it's funny by the way I started this video going we're going to get a basic overview and now I'm just fascinated by all the different types because I've only known single pick and maybe raking the zipping and these other ones yeah so what we can do is we can actually take this pick and lift all the pins as high as they'll go and put a lot of tension on that core and then we slowly release our tension and the pins will start to fall back down and in certain locks this one's actually made a little bit too good for this to work but in certain locks what will happen is the pins will actually set themselves as you release tension so you'll feel the individual clicks as you release tension and ultimately it'll just fall open this is so funny my mouth just like wide open staring at this because I know there's like the idea in some old master locks that you can lift it and one of the techniques you're using which probably the cameras and picking up on so actually I just over lifted four oh my gosh and I just had to set the last two you actually got it that's amazing and the other technique you kind of did is you had the pick uh flipped over you weren't actually picking you actually using the flat end to shove it all the way up all right I need to ask there's this red lock over here okay we all know locks aren't all created equal obviously there's basic and master locks but this doesn't feel like any more secure than these other ones I mean like the heck the master lock is heavier than this one like what is obviously I see the name on it the abus in it's it's more of a I know it's a secure lock what makes it a secure lock so this actually serves a completely different purpose than this this one is made to secure you know your shed at home or something like that these locks are made specifically to lock out mechanical and electrical equipment for people to work on them so these locks they're made pretty the the exterior of this lock doesn't matter because it's not for security they actually want to be able to break this open and get it off in case something happens to the key holder and they need to get the machine working again but these are used for safety and the and they have to be destructively opened not covertly open that is wait hold on that's actually a really interesting concept so you use the words uh covertly and what was it what was it destructively would be destructively so effectively I want to be able to take be able to take a hammer break this thing open but not let it be pecked right exactly so when you break this open someone will know that it was broken open if you pick this lock there's a almost similar to like almost like the tamper evident exactly we want to make it be able to break open and people want to be able to open their packages but not like be able to pull it off okay exactly so these will be assigned to individual technicians each technician that's why it has this property of on the back they will generally have their name and technician number written here they will then lock the equipment out that they're working on and when they're done they are the only one that has the key to this lock okay but then if something were to happen to them while they're working if an emergency occurs they need to be able to take a hammer shatter this thing and get into the equipment but um you know no one can remove this without the people knowing I've now seen you pick I don't know three four five locks why could you pick this one just as fast as these ones I'm not sure uh I haven't tried this one and actually this is slightly different I guess the question is is like if is I don't I is this one a secure a special lock it is so the internals of this are actually very secure it has what's called security pins in it I think these have what are called spool pins which what'll happen is when you get to a certain point in the lock it will fall slightly open it will like try to open I would imagine like again I'll kind of use a crude example as if this is a normal pin where this is how these things adjust what the spool make it like a spool of thread so come in here and then just make basically you're you're thinning out the center no all the way yep all the way in the side you're thinning out the center of the pin making it look like a spool of thread yep so like that on both sides exactly so what's happening in a normal one without this you're you're picking it up across what's that line called the shear line yep you're picking this up so if this is one pin you're pushing it up and aligning the shear line where with this you kind of pick up and it binds right here yep like where the lock would come in here and bind versus then so what you have to what do you have to do after that so if you haven't bound like that yep so what you do at that point is you'll get into what's called a false set where the lock you feel like it's going to open but it doesn't and then you have to go through and you'll test each pin and find ones that will give you what's called counter rotation so when you feel counter rotation you actually feel the tensioner pushing back on this finger okay so I'm guessing it goes you know something like this exactly and so when you feel that you're going to actually let up on the tension a bit to allow that counter rotation to push your finger out of the way and then when you get past that lip there you will then apply a little bit more tension when you're right here and then the pin will set itself okay well I won't set it you'll set it but it will be able to sit up on that shelf that's created every time that you pick a pin is there ways to learn security pins similar to the basic lock set where there's going to be like six pins in there is there a way to is there like a security basin yeah we actually have what's called the advanced set and that has um from one to four spool pins in the lock it's progressively pinned with one through four spools okay now we've talked about tool so much I mean actually I should say we haven't talked about tool nearly as much as I would like to because it's such a cool organization not a sponsor or anything like that I just love what they do I've referenced this URL so many times for local laws because every state has different laws about lock sport absolutely whether or not you're allowed to use them last time I checked Michigan they're even worded a little weird because how Michigan does theirs is you have to be a certified locksmith but the way you become a certified locksmith is by declaring yourself a certified locksmith and then all of a sudden you're allowed to own lockpicks it's a really goofy law yeah and it may have changed it changed at one point but I love I love that if you go to tool that us you can see all of those laws yep absolutely the other thing is is this is do you know anything about tool where you can speak to it a little bit is it yeah absolutely are they a non-profit they're a non-profit we're a 501c3 non-profit and yeah everything we do goes back into the organization to do things like this to teach lockpicking to the public we do have individual chapters all over the US tool is actually worldwide they started in the Netherlands so tool.nl was the original guys they have they have chapters all over Europe and probably further than that I think there's tool in Japan as well in Japan I think I'm not going to speak on the legalities there I think it's a little iffy but we also have international law on the website as well oh that's great and the one thing I love about tool is like you see them here but like we disclosure is this we don't arrange these videos we come in we sit down we talk and this is the type of help that they give everyone around con which is so cool the other thing is is this is a great resource to buy lockpicks I know if you'll sell serving you seeing it but I have bought enough here I recommend other people not only do you get the learning sets and everything like that around people who are passionate about it but lockpicks are like fall into that category of you get some really scummy companies often selling them absolutely not only do they sell cheap things but also like you get like a really goofy set like a set with like yeah five different triangles this is a set on the site this is actually like the set you're selling here this one's mine too so yeah this is the set that we're selling here it's slightly different than the set we've had in previous years we used to actually have six tension tools what we've done is we've actually changed the tension tools to where instead of just being a different width they're actually a different thickness and that is way more important than the width of the tool now when I look at my kit I have tons of tension tools in there I even have metal to make tension tools on the fly because of how important tensioning is for every specific lock but we do our best to include everything that a beginner would need to start out so you know we have the the hooks here we've got the the half diamond which can be used for both single pin picking and zipping um and also to count the pins I didn't mention that but it's really easy so basically just put the flat side in lift all the pins all the way up and then slowly extract it and you'll hear the clicks you just count the clicks and that's how many pins are in the lock oh that's cool um so we have this guy which is kind of just to reach in the back of certain locks and then we have the two wave rakes which are kind of I wouldn't say the most useful but they're definitely out of the set there's a set of four of these um but these are kind of the ones that you'll get the majority of locks open with we do sell a wicked wave set that's four of these which is kind of a more complete set but we really did try to include it in the basic set because we want to make it accessible to everyone so if I want to start today yep what would you recommend picking up a set like this and then maybe the basic set of locks absolutely absolutely and uh we we generally offer a slight discount at cons where if you buy the two together you get like ten dollars off oh that's great hey thank you so much this is nothing by the way that is his handle thank you so much this was so much information I the thing I learned is that the tensioning is way more important than the pick selection that's huge for me thank you so much thank you for watching and as always hack on