MIT student hacks his dorm room door lock

Dheera Venkatraman, a crafty MIT student, has just completed the latest iteration in a series of upgrades to his dorm room door lock. Now because MIT's administration doesn't like it if you hack the door locks or the strike plates, Dheera needed an innovative way to enter his own room without using a key. He's gone through a series of various door-opening mechanisms over the last couple of years -- our favorite one required scanning a barcode on a box of EZ Mac to gain entry -- but he's finally settled on the simplest design, a computer-less setup that involves a microcontroller, a motor, and a PS/2 (waterproof) keyboard. (He's got a much more technical explanation, including a circuit diagram and drivers on his website, in case your SO / parents / kids also have rules about messing with your house). We're now taking bets on how long it takes his MIT classmates to crack his password.

[Via MAKE: Blog]

[LittleJoe @ Oct 21st 2006 6:57AM]

haha... you beat me to it. :P


Somehow Im guessing he has on girlfriend.

[Ert @ Oct 21st 2006 12:41PM]

Have you ever been to MIT? That guy's got dates lined up out the door by now.

[alienbinary @ Oct 21st 2006 5:05PM]

Don't be so quick to judge. He clearly wants his privacy, and people do only a handful of things in bed, so you could actually be completely wrong. Besides, jealousy is ugly no matter how you paint it. Hackers get all the chicks.

I think it's a great piece of work, nice job to this student, although the barcode to the "ez mac" was the most inventive. Proof that whatever you can build, someone can also hack.

I just hope his drivers include serious cryptography.

- alienb

[bones @ Oct 21st 2006 6:03AM]

Not really a "hack", but nonetheless, two cheers:

1. for exhibiting technical know-how surpassing that of about 80%+ of the population

2. for being one of the brown fam

[SteveZ @ Oct 21st 2006 10:57AM]

@bones

the definition of a hack at MIT is a bit different
it's not the computer related hacking we're used to hearing about
it's more of a clever and highly technical prank

and @ everyone else
i'm sure the girls at MIT are on the same level of geekness as him
he will GET girls by doing this =p

[sammyVicious @ Oct 21st 2006 7:53AM]

im betting that by the time this article was posted, they already broke into his room , realized that he was equally a loser as they were, so he had nothing to steal, and left his room as is.

stupid MIT geeks.

[Rossmo @ Oct 21st 2006 7:39PM]

sammy:

Only losers graduate from MIT.

[omega @ Oct 21st 2006 10:07AM]

Thats kinda cool...but very strange at the same time.

[Picky @ Oct 21st 2006 11:56AM]

His password is in his source code...36541, and it was 5 digits long.

[dheera @ Oct 21st 2006 12:09PM]

the source code doesn't have the real password. :-P

[alienbinary @ Oct 21st 2006 5:06PM]

hooray for open source.

[Top @ Oct 21st 2006 12:36PM]

I wouldn't do that.
What if someone cut the cord?

Isn't that really simple?

[Anonymous @ Oct 21st 2006 12:57PM]

Oh man, this guy's crazy. Check out his thing on Slashot today - a huge LED display!

[Mala @ Oct 21st 2006 1:01PM]

Dude! That's hott!! Just FYI, all u losers who think girls won't like that, I'm a girl, and I think that is totally awesome! ^_^ I

[Wyatt_Z @ Oct 21st 2006 2:06PM]

Wanna bet his password is "White and nerdy"?

[kunal @ Oct 21st 2006 2:09PM]

I expected a solenoid attached to the door as well (linear motion -> to 'open' it) ... guess I was expecting too much from an MIT student :P

[RijilV @ Oct 21st 2006 2:52PM]

"computer-less setup that involves a microcontroller"

Uhhhhhuhuhh... the above makes no sense.

"A microcontroller (or MCU) is a computer-on-a-chip used to control electronic devices"

First line off of wikipedia... Jee I'm sorry it doesn't run Windows but that isn't what defines a computer.

[digfans @ Oct 21st 2006 2:53PM]

not really "without using a key", there still a KEY-board.

[Eddie @ Oct 21st 2006 3:27PM]

Hmmmn, I wonder why he didn't just drill a hole through the door for the wire to go through. Maybe get some thin aluminum piping (to run the wire through) to discourage vandalism.

Oh well, It's pretty cool overall =P

[Stephanie @ Oct 21st 2006 4:05PM]

what a dumbass...this isn't news. they already sell door handles that have coded locks on them. this mit student is just procrastinating on his homework.

https://www.buyasafe.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=368

[robert @ Oct 21st 2006 4:32PM]

You idiots, he more than likely used that keyboard because he had it.... Improvisation is the name of the game in engineering.

[foo @ Oct 21st 2006 5:03PM]

there's also the whole electronic locks cost a lot of money for a student part. this was a DIY solution that probably cost close to nothing and PICs can be sampled for free in small quantities. and furthermore MIT would get very pissed if you made it so the regular key doesn't still work, and i'm sure it still does here.

[alienbinary @ Oct 21st 2006 5:06PM]

Adding to what you're saying, if he decided to add to it, he could have more functionality. A small dimm card would give him the capability of adding things like deadbolts, keyboard lock, override of both keyboard and standard entry method, you could use it to have multiple passwords, each signifying a different command for everyday situations, such as "I neglected to turn of the lights." or "I shouldn't have left that condom out in the open when it's parents weekend" or access to his desktop pc, allowing him to do things like change an away message. I think it's brilliant. The more keys, the more functionality.

When I was in college, everyone had whiteboards, and you would run out of space, fast. He could just log all password attempts, and the wrong entries would show up as comments, like that exploit in apache that allows users to insert messages into the access.log file.

I agree with all the fellow ubernerds out there that applaud him. And as for the girl who said she found it hot, I just think it's hot when my girlfriend's getting her A+ certification, if she could install a PS/2 MCU that could govern the locking mechanism on her door, I'd start thinking about rings.

People are too quick to decry genius. They find it so frightening that someone out there could possibly be better at something than them. Grow up. We're all (hopefully) learning in this life.

[bar @ Oct 21st 2006 5:17PM]

Plus you may or may not know that MIT students are generally very good at picking locks. There are probably students running around with master keys, too. The doors are already very vulnerable. Many can be opened with a credit card, but there is generally a higher level of trust and honor amongst students. Students at MIT also generally respect DIY gadgets and aren't going to cut wires for the hell of it. The security is mainly in your hallmates and entry to the dorm itself, and this is a practical solution to returning from a shower or kitchen or something like that, with a bunch of innovative alternative methods that the student used. Cryptography isn't necessary at all, for if it was done, anyone there could resort to lock picks instead.

[Luke @ Oct 21st 2006 7:26PM]

Cracking the password should be relatively simple -- clean the keys nicely before he enters, then dust for fingerprints. Alternatively, put invisible crap on the keys that can be checked with a UV lamp or something. Unless he's really tricky with the setup, that should work quite nicely.

[MIT Lover @ Oct 21st 2006 9:46PM]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gkefoundation.org/cafe/dheera.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gkefoundation.org/cafe/gkeusateam.html&h=194&w=170&sz=51&hl=en&start=14&tbnid=Y-cBAeGg8XpxPM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDheera%2BVenkatraman%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official_s%26sa%3DG

Could have figured it out.

[Gadget Guy @ Oct 21st 2006 10:05PM]

I want to know if he used a CueCat for the EZ-Mac opening...

[dheera @ Oct 21st 2006 11:51PM]

yup, it was a cuecat with the traditional unencoded-output mod. hey, whatever i could get for free :)

[Michael.R.Gibson @ Oct 22nd 2006 4:55AM]

Personally, I would have chosen a bluetooth setup that could be controlled from my cell phone. I always carry that around with me.

[Bryce @ Oct 22nd 2006 9:06AM]

someone at my school did something like this. and i go to a fucking state college. to me this really doesnt impress me too much. he also had to get rid of it for safety measures or fire hazard or some bs like that.

[Marc Bon @ Oct 22nd 2006 11:38AM]

some people have way too much time on their hands!

[Marc Bon @ Oct 22nd 2006 11:38AM]

yup

[wickedjimmy @ Nov 2nd 2006 8:28AM]

First, Why did he find it necessary to use a full keyboard? It seems that a $5 keypad would have been simpler.

Second, I doesn't look like he has a protection against a mean-spirited individual yanking on the cord and locking him out of his room (unless he is not too lazy to carry around a key with him =P ). I imagine the waterproof keyboard is for when he comes back from the showers. What a bad day it would be if someone pulled the cord while he was in the shower. "Ha Ha!"

[turn.self.off @ Oct 21st 2006 10:04AM]

to answer that first question, wickedjimmy, harder to crack passwords.

using a number keypad you have about 10 in how many symbols you feel is needed. for a normal 4 symbol pin thats about 10000 diffrent codes.

using a keyboard you have something like 30 or more (case sensitivity and non-alphanumeric symbols adds even more). with the same 4 symbol code you now have 810000 variations.

allso, it looks so much more geek ;)

hmm, i wonder why he didnt tilt it out from the door, entering multikey combos will be a pain on a vertical keyboard will be a pain...

[Ran @ Oct 21st 2006 10:42AM]

Its quite obvious why he would use a waterproof keyboard:

The waterproof keyboard, you can't exactly pull off the keys nor is dust and junk likely to get between the keys.

[Kevin @ Dec 26th 2006 11:26PM]

1. Some one could cut the cord, not to get in the dorm just to &#&$ you over.
2. The lock can still be picked, there is no added security. In fact it makes it weak, because now there are 2 way to open the door.

My solution: Why not just use a simple RF tag? You would not need to have a keyboard or anything on the outside of the door in harms way.

Also, you can inject a encrypted rf id in your hand so you would always have the key! If you don't want an rf id in your hand you could always just carry a tag with you.

This adds the functionality, because now whenever you get close it opens it automatically, and when ever you leave it could lock it up!

[Ros @ Jul 2nd 2008 3:42PM]

MIT is the best in World

[Grimble @ Feb 1st 2009 5:27PM]

It's a neat idea and I built something like that once. When I was a student at University of Essex in UK, the dormitories were in tower blocks. Each floor had a kitchen and 16 student rooms. Each floor was supposed to be all male or all female but some students had girl friends who were frequent visitors or semi-permanent residents. As the visitors couldn't get a key to the outer door on our floor, I built an electronic door lock with a 26 key keyboard outside. Authorised visitors could enter a password to unlock the door. It didn't have a microprocessor as these had only just been invented. That was in 1974.