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One of Amazon's top-selling electronic gun safes contains a critical vulnerability that allows it to be opened by virtually anyone, even when they don't know the password.
The Vaultek VT20i handgun safe, ranked fourth in Amazon's gun safes and cabinets category, allows owners to electronically open the door using a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone app. The remote unlock feature is supposed to work only when someone knows the four- to eight-digit personal identification number used to lock the device. But it turns out that this PIN safeguard can be bypassed using a standard computer and a small amount of programming know-how.
As the video demonstration below shows, researchers with security firm Two Six Labs were able to open a VT20i safe in a matter of seconds by using their MacBook Pro to send specially designed Bluetooth data while it was in range. The feat required no knowledge of the unlock PIN or any advanced scanning of the vulnerable safe. The hack works reliably even when the PIN is changed. All that's required to make it work is that the safe have Bluetooth connectivity turned on.
[...] The vulnerability means that anyone who relies on a VT20i safe to secure valuables should immediately turn off Bluetooth connectivity and leave it off indefinitely. Safes can still be locked and unlocked using a traditional physical key, as well as by owners' fingerprints. Some Amazon customers, however, have complained the fingerprint feature is flawed as well.
[It's not clear from the story if the issue can be patched. - Ed]
(Score: 3, Informative) by coolgopher on Monday December 11 2017, @12:21PM (11 children)
Depends on the reason for having guns in the first place. If you're a recreational hunter with kids in the house, a gun safe is the sane thing to do (in addition to teaching your kids to respects guns, of course). If your primary use case is defense against home invasion, then obviously you might be better off with it under your pillow (assuming that's a legal storage place in your area, etc).
Oh, and I'll add another use case: not having your weapons stolen when someone does break into your place when you're not around to defend it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday December 11 2017, @12:29PM (4 children)
I'll grant you that last one. The first should be taken care of by putting the necessary educational effort into assuring your descendants do not receive a Darwin Award once they're old enough and by taking advantage of height differential until then.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @02:08PM
never rely on the height difference, if you care about the kid involved.
my son started stacking stuff when he was around two. in the sense of a kid chair on top of a bag of megablocks (kind of like legos, but bigger), etc.
much safer to have a locked door that he can pull/kick and bite ineffectively.
(Score: 2) by schad on Monday December 11 2017, @04:00PM (1 child)
The security onion. I use it on my computer. I also use it on firearms, which can, unlike my computer, be used -- by a malicious or ignorant user -- to cause permanent harm.
Don't underestimate the ingenuity of small humans, the majority of whom are literally incapable of gun safety until four or five (if not later). But they are absolutely capable of physically getting at any unsecured weapon well before then, as another commenter noted.
Another reason for a gun safe is for travel. Not only do many states require it by law when in a vehicle, you may also find yourself in a situation where you're not able to carry your firearm and need a safe place to keep it for a while.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @04:19PM
Too big a dose of reality for TMB's personal responsibility routine. Can't we just label people idiots every time something bad happens?
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Monday December 11 2017, @05:19PM
Once again:
You cannot control the training level of every child (and adult) in the world, and reasonable people will not want to exclude guests from visiting their home merely because they failed to meet a firearms training level. Thus, any weapons not under your direct control should be stored in a way that makes them not accessible to casual operation (stopping a determined thief is more difficult and may be impractical).
Unless you never have guests in your home...
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday December 11 2017, @04:30PM
Going to repeat this. In general anyone dedicated will find a way into a safe or find a way to steal it and crack it later. I typically keep all my guns in a safe except one in the bedroom and never store ammo with firearms, but where I live the problem is not crime its three year olds.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 11 2017, @08:38PM (4 children)
That's why you buy the biggest heaviest gaudiest overdecorated ostentatious gun safe in the store, fill that dude with pieces of angle iron from the hardware store to make it even heavier, prominently place it unsecured in the garage or living room, and then keep the 9mm under your pillow (assuming no toddlers in the house, etc). Then when some idiot steals your entire safe, you tell the cops to check the ER for folks with hernias and broken backs.
My grandfather bought a broken safe at a yard sale once; this was decades ago but now I'd call it a "redundant array of inexpensive safes". They had a real safe in the floor of their basement, the broken safe was a distractor.
I own some guns but they're in super boring locked boxes that are not prominently displayed. Yeah yeah I see cool looking high tech star trek safes and nice looking victorian era work of art safes but I don't see the interior decorating appeal of a giant "please rob me" sign. A pelican (or ripoff clone) case in a gym bag can be locked and is easy to carry to the range or where ever. Someone with the machinery and patience to open a pelican without damaging the gun inside probably doesn't have to work as a thief for a living so its kinda self limiting in that way.
I live in an expensive non-diverse neighborhood, which is yet another variation on "spend money to not get your stuff stolen".
One interesting side effect of the ubiquitous surveillance society with cameras and drones everywhere is we're probably in the last generation of property crimes. The next generation of gun safe will have like 17 webcams on the safe and in the room and some dude in India or some drunk college kid in American will do the Amazon Mech Turk thing to decide if the 100 webcam pixs from the safe and the room match your provided pix and remotely unlock (or not). Fascinating startup idea #23515 that I'm not going to seriously pursue is the FaceBook(TM) connected gun safe where one of your 100+ facebook "friends" has to look at the gun safe's webcam pix and click OK to unlock your gun safe if they recognize you, or 3 outta 5 friends or WTF. Presumably if your facebook(TM) post history appears suicidal your friends will all click "deny", unless they're assholes of course. The next step being the "i-gun" where 3 outta 5 friends have to click "like" on the sight pix before the rifle fires. Of course there will be "oh shit yo thats a funny pix of some farmers cow" and the poor thing will get blown away but at least they tried, LOL.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Monday December 11 2017, @09:37PM (3 children)
Then when you post something Offensive™ then your account gets Zucced and you're locked out of the safe for 15 days. Can't trust the 'analog hole' so there's no mechanical backup.
👍Like 🗨 Comment
😢👍❤25
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 11 2017, @10:50PM (2 children)
Weirdly enough this whole idea got started at a former employer where I/we began with the idea of a social media connected fridge lock for weight loss where you need permission to open the fridge from your FB friends. Which led to a discussion of liking Trump memes will cause family starvation if the holier than thou cat ladies find out. So I proposed, well, what would cat ladies hate more than Trump supporters and their families being able to eat, well, obviously, a facebook(tm) connected "gun safe".
Then the discussion (at least at work) ran off the rails with the proposal that you permit negated friends, so if you have a crazy friend, the nut needs to click "no" to let you open your fridge or gun safe, so you're gonna have weird standoffs where the gun confiscation nut has to think over if he's tagged as normal or inverted permissions, etc. The coworkers also helpfully suggested this technology is also applicable to liquor cabinets and condom dispensers.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Monday December 11 2017, @11:12PM (1 child)
OMG! This is fat shaming! This is Not Okay™. #HealthAtEveryTon
Literally Nazis!
Sad reacts only.
These are the details left out of A Brave New World—If you're not social enough, people won't just shun you; they'll shame you, lock you out of your booze and try to get you fired.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 11 2017, @11:59PM
The brain trust at work eventually decided the remotely locked condom dispenser was the most social idea because a "like" could be interpreted in so many socially interesting ways. Or a lack or "like". Many topics in a binary yes/no answer, is it a social decision on the basis of slut shaming, disease, pregnancy, jealousy...
I'll see your "Brave New World", which is admittedly a good bid, and raise you "The Scarlet Letter". Now you have to squint and read it kinda sideways and upside down, but you can kinda see both Scarlet Letter and Brave New World as both being Puritan holier than thou pricks screwing everything up the path to hell being paved with good intentions by Puritan assholes anyway. This would make a hell of a school essay. I almost never drink and I had a big glass of hard cider so I will see how this reads when I sober up tomorrow. I think this is brilliant analogy, but it could be mere alcohol vapor. BNW and Scarlet Letter are basically the same setting, hmm...