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This fingerprint-verified smart lock can be foiled by a magnet:
Tapplock, a company that makes fingerprint-verified locks, has had a rough time with its locks' security. The company's flagship lock, which has been available since 2019, is apparently easy to pop open with a magnet. YouTuber LockPickingLawyer published a video last week showing how he could use a powerful magnet to turn the motor inside the Tapplock One Plus, causing it to open. The entire process takes less than 30 seconds.
The Tapplock One Plus costs $99 and features a fingerprint sensor. It also has built-in Bluetooth, so people can unlock it using an app. In response to the video, Tapplock commented: "Wow! Shout out to LPL for finding this exploit. Working on a fix with magnetic shielding, will be back."
This is a commendable reply, although it doesn't do much for people who already bought the lock. Most companies ignore bug reports or fail to fix the flaw. It at least seems like Tapplock wants to figure out how to prevent this kind of attack.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday April 06 2020, @02:22PM
You probably know most of this, but for everyone reading:
Seeing this last evening, my first thought was to make a motor with no iron pole pieces in the armature/rotor. The rotor is the thing that turns in a motor, and in this case drives the mechanism which unlocks the lock's shackle.
Most small DC motors have an electromagnetic rotor, with "brushes" to get the electric current into the rotor's wire coils, and permanent-magnet stator, aka field.
The rotor's iron (steel) pole pieces, around which the wire coils are wrapped, are attracted to the force of the external magnet that LPL used to pick the lock.
Iron is used for pole pieces because it greatly improves magnetic efficiency and motor torque (output force), but it's not necessary. You could make the rotor out of plastic, with copper wire coils, and the plastic would not be attracted to the external lock-picker's magnets. The motor would be weaker, but it might still be good enough in this case.