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Sneaking lockpicks past the TSA in carry-on luggage |
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Written by ax0n
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Monday, 11 August 2008 |
 Picture this: You've got a flight to Vegas. Your craptastic airline just started charging cash for ALL checked luggage, and you planned on traveling light anyways. Your goal: participate in the lock-picking festivities at DefCon 16. The problem? Lockpicks are not only sharpened metal, but illegal to just carry around with you all over the place. They'd probably be okay in checked luggage, but as such, tucking them into a pocket of your carry-on bag and hoping for the best sounds like a good way to get a full cavity search by some under-paid TSA noobtard, if not arrested.
**UPDATED WITH EDITORS NOTE FROM TOOOL**
Shown above is a pretty mundane X-Ray image of your average carry-on rolly-cart style luggage bag. I just picked it out of a sea of Google Image Search results. One thing I noticed that was crystal clear: There's no way that current X-Ray imaging technology in use by the TSA will be able to penetrate metal of a decent thickness.
As you can see, the rails that form the luggage's handle are dark. No X-Rays are getting through them at all. This confirmed that what I was already thinking of doing next would be very likely to work...
I could have just purchased some cheap lockpicks at DefCon. There are always people willing to sell them for cheap. I really wanted to test out the lockpicks that I made from garbage anyone can find in the street, though. Plus, there's some kind of fun in sneaking benign-yet-forbidden stuff into places it should not make its way into.
I decided to keep pretty quiet about this project until I had gotten safely back home from DefCon. At this point, my bags had been scanned at least twice by different TSA agents and different X-Ray rigs. While I never got to look at the scanned imagery of my bags, I never got so much as a second look from TSA agents. What you see here is me unpacking my lockpicks after having successfully gotten them home in carry-on luggage. Only a few people got to see the end result in Las Vegas. I really didn't feel like causing a media scare and risk having a hard time getting back home.
I checked out a bunch of luggage bags and most of the inexpensive ones that don't have a locking handle (with a button in the middle to retract it) can be taken apart and used this way.
First, you need tools that won't scare the TSA. This keychain screwdriver does the trick nicely. I placed it in the tray with my wallet and they didn't even care. The screwdriver bit it stored in the handle.
I pushed the bit out with a ballpoint pen and inserted it into the driver.
Then I started going to work, removing the screws that hold the handle onto the rails.
Remove both screws.
Take the handle completely off. We're almost there.
I wrapped my lockpicks and spare streetsweeper bristles in foil. This had multiple purposes. First, it makes for easy removal. Next, it provides more metal to hide the picks just in case. Finally, it keeps the loose metal from rattling around inside the handles.
Unwrapping the foil exposes all the goods within.
When I was all done with this, I took some measurements and found out that I really couldn't pack much more than a few cubic inches (perhaps 8 or 9 fluid ounces) into both tubes combined. As far as real life-threatening things go, this method has almost no threat to national security. Besides, I think someone would probably notice if you just pulled your carry-on luggage down and started taking it apart with a screwdriver.
EDITOR'S NOTE: While the tactics discussed in this original article demonstrate genuine creative thinking and crafting, many members of both the hobbiest lockpick community as well as renowned penetration testers and security lecturers wrote in to clarify some misconceptions.
While rules vary internationally, on domestic flights the TSA does not ban lockpicks, either in checked baggage or in carry-ons. As Deviant Ollam (one of the directors of The Open Organization of Lockpickers and a frequent presenter at DEFCON, Black Hat, ShmooCon, etc) stated in an email to me, "As long as they are not part of a kit with a blade or other larger tool that could be considered a dangerous implement, lockpicks are totally legal on planes. Smaller 'jacknife' style sets often LOOK like banned items on x-ray machines, but they aren't disallowed, either. You just have to open them and show that they are simply picks. Lockpicks (even hard-tempered expert ones like a John Falle set or some high-end Peterson models) aren't stiff enough and thick enough to hurt anyone. You can't slash or jab with them. They aren't weapons and thus aren't banned."
Deviant and others from TOOOL, Locksport International, and the Fraternal Order of Locksport all did point out that confusion does exist on this topic even among the bureaucrats and airport staffers who are tasked with enforcing such rules. Many sport pickers and security professionals have been stopped and questioned when picks appeared on an x-ray of their carry-on, but ultimately they are vindicated and allowed to proceed.
Most who wrote in did point out, however, that concealing ANYTHING in your bag in such a blatant way (blatant if it is discovered, that is) will almost surely result in a much harsher attitude on the part of security staff and possible additional screening and/or disassembly of your belongings in the airport as you are trying to catch a flight. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 August 2008 )
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