The recording helps attackers determine the time lapse between the audible clicks to identify the distance between the key ridges. This information can be processed to create several likely keys.
Ensuring physical security in the information age has always been an issue of great concern. The latest research from the National University of Singapore’s computer science department further intensifies the debate by exposing the risks associated with smart locks.
Reportedly, a group of researchers, including Harini Ramprasad, Soundarya Ramesh, and Jun Han, have discovered a way to clone your lock keys using their designed software and a smartphone’s microphone.
The researchers have named the attack model as SpiKey. Using this model, they could determine how to shape a key that can open any tumbler lock.
The researchers’ trio revealed their findings at the International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications’ event HotMobile 2020. They stated that if a hacker can install malware on your smartwatch, smartphone, or smart doorbell for recording audio from somewhere else, the attacker may not need to be physically close to the lock to carry out the attack.
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According to the researchers, SpiKey will ‘significantly’ lower the bar for a hacker against the traditionally utilized lock-picking techniques. The method is relatively straightforward; they only had to insert the key into the lock and record the sound as the key moved past the tumbler pins.
Researchers hackers clone recording clicks smartphone
