Tag: hacking

Understanding Safe Controls

Introduction

This is part two of a seven blogs series in my quest to open my locked shut fire safe of which the dial combination was unknown. How I got to obtain this safe and why it was locked in the first place, can be read in an earlier blog of mine.

In my previous blog in this current series, Part 1 – Blog Series Description, my motivation behind the blog series was given. In that blog I also outline the structural approach – which is usually followed in (ethical) hacking – to open the safe.

This current blog will first describe how in general to open a safe when the number combination is known. This is called dialing the combination. After this introduction the internals of the safe lock mechanism is described and the number combination will be dialed again but now the state of the lock is inspected at every step of the dialing process so as to get a thorough understanding of the inner workings of the lock.

Continue reading “Opening a Direct Entry Fence Fire Safe by Manipulation – Part 2/7”

Blog Series Introduction

Preface

So I obtained a solid fire safe for free. Nice! The only problem being that the safe was locked shut and the dial combination unknown. How I got to obtain this safe and why it was locked in the first place, can be read in an earlier blog of mine.

This blog series will describe both how a safe lock works (with focus on my particular type of safe which uses a so called direct entry fence lock) and how to open such a safe through a structured process called manipulation. The lock mechanism of a safe is a very interesting topic and understanding the inner workings is essential in successfully discovering the combination number. You kind of have to “see” in your mind how the different components of the lock mechanism are moving when the safe controls are manipulated.

Continue reading “Opening a Direct Entry Fence Fire Safe by Manipulation – Part 1/7”