Hardware hacking: The brute force approach

[unixronin]

In this case, the hardware in question is a York-branded, Diebold-manufactured safe of unknown provenance.  It was given to us when we lived in Tracy, CA, on the understanding that if we managed to get it open, we were to make a best effort to return any important-looking documents it proved to contain to their owners, and anything else we found was ours.

Well, we finally tired of trying to crack it today, upon being told that there was a good likelihood the shear pin on the unlocking shaft was sheared, and with the assistance of databeast and love_is_syn, we went in the hard way through the back.  Which, well, wasn't as hard as it might have been, because this thing turns out to be a really crappy safe. The sides are two layers of maybe-16-gauge sheet metal with an inch and a half of refractory cement and a layer of chicken wire in between.  (I'm serious.  Chicken wire.)  Purely a fire safe, not intended to be secure against more than casual intrusion attempts at all.  It probably only took us about an hour to get in, and only took us that long because we were still trying to do it as non-destructively as possible, up until the point at which we realized that even the inner shell (which I'd expected to be, oh, say, seam-welded quarter-inch cold-rolled plate) was just a spot-welded box of bent sheetmetal scarcely heavier than a tin can.  At that point, we said "Naff this" and went for the holesaw and the tinsnips.

And it contained ... wait for it ... a shelf.

Oh, and shelf clips!  Don't forget the shelf clips!

Bit anticlimactic, really.  And we've been hauling this thing around for seven years.  I mean, there could at least have been, say, a pile of WaMu stock certificates in there, or maybe a pair of Marilyn Monroe's underwear.  (Well, actually, that would probably fetch good money from the right buyer.)

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

At least Geraldo Rivera wasn't on hand.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

quarter inch cold rolled plate? seriously, not heavy enough for that :)

bummer there was nothing inside. the dial knob will make a nice paper weight though.

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[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. But I'd have settled for 1/8" at least.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

well, here's your chance to build a walk in safe in the basement :)

dig! dig! fortify! hell, you need a bunker and personal space too. it could be a den :>

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[unixronin.livejournal.com]

All I need is, say, a masser. ;) Or some other such Sufficiently Advanced excavation technology.....

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

massers are scary. you could jump the boson shark.

sand slurry can be pumped

and you get's plenty of sands then for winter, and concretes, and hey, you can put in a lime pit. everyone needs a lime pit.

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Where is the video!!!!!!

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

Don't you know it's traditional to film such events to show the world your failure? It was started by Heraldo Chevera himself!

:)

Re: Where is the video!!!!!!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Sorry, we were too busy effecting destructive entry. :)

(Besides, we don't actually own a real camcorder. My digicam can shoot 30 seconds at a time of 320x240 video, and that's it.)

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

Did it have a hole in it?

Could this the famous safe that the armor-piercing .30-30 Winchester (now 104 years old) has no problem zipping through, according to the esteemed and honorable Edward Kennedy?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Uh ... it had three holes in it by the time we finished, but none of them projectile holes. Too close to other houses.