Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Long ago I used to maintain a door lock system. I was responsible for designing a new system to encode the room keys and it became obvious as I worked with the internals that it had a vulnerability that would allow anyone to open any lock from this vendor with the right tool.

When I quietly mentioned this, the response was that everyone knows this but we don’t talk about it.

When Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was assassinated with no signs of forced entry on his hotel room, let’s just say it wasn’t surprising. And no, I don’t think these security flaws are some conspiracy or by design - it’s simply the difficulty of updating firmware on 10 year old boards with a 20 year old design with millions of them out in the field. And they cost around $750 a piece to replace and that was back in 2010.



Securing the room's internal physical latch after the assassination was a nice touch.



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact