Hackers can now clone keys by recording its sound with a smartphone, study finds

Hackers can hear almost inaudible sound of key unlocking a door through a smartphone that is later used for ‘key cloning’, research finds. scholars at National University of Singapore have published a paper providing a detailed analysis of how by just use of a smartphone microphone and a programme that y designed, a hacker can clone key for respective locks. 

Moreover, if thief is able to successfully install malware on smartphone, smartwatch, or smart doorbell used by house owner, hacker does t even have to be nearby to fulfil deed. In paper titled ‘listen to Your Key: Towards Acoustics-based Physical Key Interference’, researchers talked about physical locks that are widely used as securing mechanism.

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How is such an attack carried out?

method, dubbed as SpiKey, works on common pin tumbler lock where  hackers take te of sound made by lock pins as y move over a typical ridge of key. While a house owner, unaware of such an attack, puts key in lock, emitted sound is captured by attacker’s smartphone. n SpiKey is used by thief to lever time difference between audible clicks to ultimately infer shape of real key. 

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As proof to ir findings, researchers even provided a simulation that is based on real-world recordings and demonstrated a significant reduction in search from a pool of more than 330 thousand keys to three candidate keys for most frequent case. While a lockpick or a locksmith uses a specialised set of tools to move pins inside a lock gradually to strike a correct combination, SpiKey technique has proven to be easier and requires kwledge of using a 3D printer. 

Fortunately, SpiKey technique is t entirely foolproof as its software requires a key to be inserted into lock at a constant speed for sound to be successfully analysed and n engineered. Moreover, thief would have to record key sound from within four inches of lock to get a clear recording if software is t installed on owner’s phone. 

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