hello Internet CJ here so thanks to the
wonders of the YouTube algorithm and my
particular interests I've come across a
video or a talk by a rather interesting
gentleman by the name of with the
interesting name of deviant aalam he's a
physical penetration tester companies
pay him to basically break into their
buildings this is the gentleman here
break into their building still a bunch
of stuff write a report about how he did
it so that they can improve security and
presumably reprimand the people involved
as well perhaps in some cases but anyway
very interesting video and it got me
thinking about this so what follows is a
bit of a public service announcement
basically because so I'm here in my
bedroom and the point of this video for
whatever reason my my bedroom door has
this very common style of a lockable
lever style handle sit on it okay key
way on the outside thumb turn on the
inside there and it's a dead latch I'll
explain that in a second the point of
this is that by watching one 40-minute
youtube video I was able to get using a
technique learn in that video I was able
to get this look this very very very
common style of lockable handle set open
in about five seconds using a technique
I've never tried before with it with a
piece of plastic like just any I'll show
you I'll show you how it works but it
just scared me and I thought wow this is
amazing I should probably tell people
about this especially you know because
just this is so common so basically as I
say it's a dead latch system so old
locks so here's the here's the lock tank
right this gets called the tank the
metal bit that goes into this what's
called the strike plate on the door
frame okay that's the strike plate there
the old locks
you'd probably you just had the tank
right like that okay and you lock the
door and then the tank wouldn't move
except most of those older style locks
like this handle sits like this when the
Tang was engaged in the strike plate you
could still it would still move
and so you could shim the door you could
slide something in and push that Tang in
and get the door open the idea of a dead
latch is it's got this little bit on the
back this is called the dead latch
plunger and when that's pushed in so you
see if you push the whole thing in like
this as you would win that when the door
is closed and hits the strike plate the
whole thing moves like that once it's
engaged that dead latch plunger is
supposed to be pushed in and if that's
held in the latch Tang won't move so it
can't be shimmed
that's why it's called the dead latch
the latch is now dead it can't be it
can't be manipulated from the outside
that's how this is supposed to work the
problem with these is that most of them
or an awful lot of them as pointed out
by deviant an awful lot of them are
installed incorrectly to the point where
this dead latch plunger doesn't get held
in when the doors closed and so you can
you can still shim it and I'll
demonstrate that right now okay
so I'm outside my bedroom in front of
the door the the hand the door is locked
okay I locked it with the thumb turn on
the inside you could lock it with the
key
all the thumb turn doesn't make any
difference it's doing the same thing
what that's doing is locking the handle
preventing the handle from turning it's
not doing anything to the actual locked
a inside because if the lock was locking
the lock Tang you wouldn't be able to
lock the door with the key or the thumb
turn while it was open and then pulled
the door shut and have it locked behind
you right so all that's all this is
doing is locking preventing the handle
from turning it's doing nothing to the
lock pane itself that's supposed to be
held in place by that little dead latch
plunger that I showed you before right
that's the poke that's what's supposed
to prevent the latch be manipulated from
the outside but in fact their box
plunger isn't being held in place
properly being retracted I can take the
cover of a notebook
like this doors open how long was that
three seconds four seconds unbelievable
so I'll show you why that works so
basically as I said before that
deadlocked plunger has to be engaged in
order to prevent the lakhtin from being
retracted what's happening here is that
the strike plate was installed too far
away from the doorframe
so if I pull the door shut see that
little play there basically when I pull
it pull the door shot the strike plates
too far away from the did been installed
too far away from the door frames so the
door swings too far forward and the
whole lock Tang including the dead latch
plunger goes in and now I've just locked
myself out and left no plastic bit
inside Tommy go find another bit of
plastic haha kidding of course I'm not
dumb enough to lock myself out of my own
room without my keys on me cuz I'm not
this guy I'm not an expert lock picker
but you know here we go here's a thumb
turn flipper that you can slide under a
frameless you know those double
frameless glass doors you see on the
front of office buildings and they have
little latches down at the bottom and
the double doors and you just slide this
underneath and twiddle it and there's so
many ways these lever style handles you
know under the door over the door
there's around the side of the door
there's so many ways to get them open if
you're somebody who is concerned about
your residential security or is involved
in you know securing a commercial
building for a job or whatever whatever
it is you do if that's part of your
mandate you really should have a look at
this video it's fascinating stuff all
there's a link in the description down
below have your day Cheers