Lock Bypassing Basics: Carding

[Psychlonic]

Carding

A door that swings inward and is only locked by a mere knob is more often than not vulnerable to a simple piece of plastic. As the name implies, carding takes advantage of a mere card, be it for credit, membership, whatever, to open the door. Mind you though that anything with similar dimensions, ruggedness, and flexibility will also serve the same purpose. Plastic bottles, laminated papers, and other similar objects can be cut down into a serviceable tool for this.
The concept behind carding is that rather than attack the cylinder of the lock, you attempt to push the bar back into the knob manually with the card. Thus, this method will only work on doors which have angled bars set into them that retract while closing to clear the door frame.
In most doors like this, you'll be able to push your card into the angle of the bar, and as you continue to push it forward, the card will continue to push into the bar and set it further into the knob until finally the door is able to be pushed open.
While easy to learn, unfortunately the process itself isn't always as easy as it sounds on paper. Getting the card through the gap can often be troublesome, and with some doors you're going to have to really work the card around inside to make progress. Another problem that may arise is that the frame is designed as to not let you card. Depending on the frame material, this can be countered by chipping away parts of it or bending so that your card can access the bolt inside. This will leave evidence though, so decide if it's worth the trouble.

Some things to avoid:
- Don't attempt to card a deadbolt. The exception here is if the deadbolt is clearly the wrong distance away from the frame, that you think you may be able to put something in there.
- Don't card a door that swings towards you. You're only going to hit the back, non-angled portion and accomplish nothing.
- Don't use paper cards unless absolutely necessary. They are too soft to get the job done without serious effort and quickly become useless.
- Don't do something blatantly stupid, like bring along your own credit card or anything that can be traced back to you.

Some unorthodox ideas to ponder when all else fails in a must-complete scenario:
- If you need a card in a pinch try cutting any soft plastic item, such as a soda bottle, so that you have a serviceable tool.
- You may be able to increase the gap between the door and it's frame to insert something else into it instead of a card, like a saw.

Ultimately, carding should be the first thing you try when dealing with any door you see as being vulnerable to the technique. It's fast, it's effective, and when done properly it leaves no evidence. It also requires minimal equipment, and what equipment you need can be improvised in most locations. Always bring a card on your operations. It should also be noted that while you cannot card a deadbolted door, you can defeat the deadbolt by whatever means available and save time by attacking the knob afterwards with the card, assuming both are actually locked and not just the deadbolt. This technique is highly recommended for both novices and experienced operatives alike.

[Illusion]

When I worked fixing Apple systems - I was introduced to the old style white iMacs (THIS IS ON TOPIC, DONT WORRY ). Now to open these up you had to have an "Access Card" -

http://www.synaptech.com/catalog/images/922-7172.gif

Thats an official one, and its flimsy and only usable about 5 or so times; if you're lucky. So some people used their credit cards, some phone top-up cards.. However, most of us got cheap plastic notepads.

We would rip the plastic front off, and cut them down to a specific size. The plastic that these notepads were made of were perfect and generally were thin enough to squeeze into places, weak enough to bend, but strong enough to flip the release catches.

Now of course, when we made our own we estabilished that certain designs were better for sliding in and catching than others.. This was the best design we came up with;

___
| |
|_/

Hopefully my ASCII artwork will have make sense, basically you slide in with the inclined side - so there isn't a massive peice of plastic inside, but you have a larger "handle" to maneuver. I'll try and post pics if it doesn't make sense.

As far as I am concerned, this homemade access cards are perfect for gaining access to far more than an old iMac!

[Psychlonic]

That's actually a pretty crafty idea, man. I sometimes carry around one of those "weather resistant" notepads and it's got plastic covering. The idea might have hit me if I was desperate for a tool and rifling through my pockets, but otherwise I would have never thought of that.