Suggested update to FAQ wrt Master Lock Hack

If you know the last number of the combination then there are only 80 possible combinations to try. Older combo locks from a couple of decades ago could be manipulated to find the last number but false gates now make that impossible. Don't get defensive, just disassemble one of your locks and I think you'll see that the false gates prevent a last number guess. I also want to mention that Master combo's have always been either all odd or all even and it is unlikely that they have changed this. There is no code that violates this all odd/all even pattern and besides, it wouldn't increase the security of the lock, anyway.

Your work on this shows that you are bright individual. I hope you'll use your talents as a stepping stone for honorable purposes. Your work also shows that these combination locks don't offer much in the way of security so you're already doing a good service by spreading the word! Now think about this, wouldn't it be nice if we could trust each other enough so that we didn't even have to use these make-believe locks at all? Good luck in solving this interesting mathematical puzzle.

only 80

Probably only 72, but there is a couple of assumptions involved in that. In practice, it is quicker to just run the full 100 numbers instead of trying to exclude them. .

Lovely - you call me a liar twice and then tell me not to get defensive?

Done that - not once but three times.

number guess.

No, what you will see is an *attempt* to prevent a last number guess. An attempt that fails primarily because of the poor manufactur "This method has worked correctly on all twenty locks it has been tried on"

Or are you really claiming (and somehow believe) that on 20 consecutive brand new locks I managed to randomly guess the correct last number on the first attempt in each case? Let's see, if I were to randomly guess 20 last numbers for twenty locks (in order) and could come up with a set of numbers every second continuously twenty-four hours a day, I would expect to hit all twenty correctly roughly once every 2,000,000,000,000,000 billion years. Since the universe is only about 15 billion years old, I'm willing to assert that my string of hits is a little bit more than lucky guesses.

either

this.

You can menti "So far I have encountered three more locks that break the pattern."

You can stick your head in the sand all day long, that doesn't change reality.

Or do you really believe that the following combinations somehow do not break the pattern:

much in the way of security.

How much security should a four dollar lock offer? The presence of a valid manipulation attack that takes, on average, five minutes to defeat the combination has to be compared with a shim attack that can defeat it in about ten seconds (although I must confess that my shim attacks have varied between two seconds and fifteen minutes) and a bolt-cutter attack that is guaranteed to work in five seconds or less. The point is not that these locks are insecure, but that the level of security demanded from a lock must be commensurate with the level of security that is needed - in other words, the choice of what lock to use should be the result of an appropriate amount of risk assessment. I have absolutely no qualms using these locks for a variety of purposes - I would be just as remiss using a $100 lock on fence gate when someone can just climb over the fence as I would be using one of these locks on a gun safe. .

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