cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/4598977
Liberty Safes is the manufacturer of gun safes. They have a pretty big market share overall. Unforunately, some random guy had a federal warrant and the FBI came knocking. Liberty cooperated with the feds, giving them a backdoor code so they could get into the guy’s safe. Naturally, rightoids are seeing red and are trying to make this Bud Light 2.0. They put out a statement that basically says nothing good.
The statement:
https://twitter.com/libertysafeinc/status/1699245595867971969
Random rightoid seethe:
"Thanks, I have three large Liberty Safes in the market fir a 4th. Now I know to replace them immediately because you guys suck.
Sincerely
A former customer"
https://twitter.com/9mm_smg/status/1699269127032983602?s=20
Right now the only serious discussion that should be happening at Liberty headquarters tomorrow is whether the company can survive if it offers lock replacements that don’t have a back door.
Because it’s very questionable whether it can survive if it doesn’t do that.
https://twitter.com/2aHistory/status/1699326512103583873?s=20
Ok, but I can see their point here. They bought a safe. There shouldn’t be a backdoor into a safe. If there’s a backdoor then that means it’s going to wind up in the hand of anyone who wants to break into that safe.
If the FBI has a warrant for the contents of that safe and the owner won’t open it then they are perfectly free to use a destructive method to open it. Or hell, they could just seize the whole safe. But having a safe able to be opened nondestructively by a code the owner can’t change makes that safe pretty worthless as an actual safe. Anyone could just walk in, use that backdoor to open any safe, and walk off with the contents without the owner ever knowing it happened.
It just means that Liberty Safes are no longer viable gun safes.
But frankly any digital safe should be suspect.
Every safe manufacturer, digital or otherwise, will assist the FBI in opening their products when legally required.
Liberty Safes’ name sounds like some decent marketing to rope in the 2A crowd but that is all it is.
If you can buy it in the USA, the FBI can open it.
That’s really cool until someone else uses the manufacturer’s backdoor.
That’s the whole point the Govt misses with every law requiring software backdoors for them. Eventually everyone will have them.
Mechanical Locks have at least the high barrier of skill. No professional is going to break into a gun safe, there’s not enough profit to risk their license, but a nobody with a Reddit account and a thumb drive will because each gun is a minimum of $250 at a fence.
Now you realise that gun safes are not that safe.
They are like barb wire on a battle field. They will slow down an attack but cannot prevent it.
If someone has physical access to a safe, you have already lost.
The safest way to keep a firearm is for no one to know it exists.
That’s really cool until someone else uses the manufacturer’s backdoor.
So what is the backdoor code for liberty safes?
There is a big difference between:
Company giving an access code to the FBI when legally required.
Access codes are common knowledge and can be obtained by any person who want to take your guns.
Dude you are on Lemmy how do you not know that this shit spreads in security communities.
It’ll be on Olem in a year most likely.
I won’t need to know it. It’ll be a Github repository or a text file on Megaupload.
These have been around for at least a decade.
It’ll be on Olem in a year most likely.
So why isn’t it already on Olem?
And back to my main point:
Now you realise that gun safes are not that safe.
You are on lemmy… you should know that no physical security can stop a determined attacker if they have physical access to the device.
You are on lemmy… How did you not know that this is common practise?
A gun safe is safe. No lock is keeping anyone out of they really want in, it’s at best to slow people down.
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There is a big difference between:
Company giving an access code to the FBI when legally required.
Access codes are common knowledge and can be obtained by any person who want to take your guns.
Them giving the FBI access is not the issue here. The issue is that the backdoor even exists to begin with. It isn’t like these safes are receiving frequent software updates. If even one other person figures out how to use it (which for all I know they already have) then there is no fixing that. That information can spread and become commin knowledge. Suddenly every safe this company ever sold is compromised and effectively worthless. We know this can happen because it already has with several other electronic locks. The company will include a hidden maintenance mode or reset option just for service purposes and inveitably someone discovers it and shares that info.
Also there is no reason that backdoor needed to exist to begin with. If they needed to get into that safe then theres plenty of physical ways to do so. Getting a safe open destructively is not difficult when you have the tools and time to do so. With an afternoon and the tools in my garrage, I could probably grind, cut, drill, and torch my way into most gun safes and I’m definitely not a professional. If a three leter agency wants the contents of your safe they’re really not going to care if the safe survives the ordeal or not. Creating that backdoor just made a security risk for no actual benefit.
Exactly. Safes are only useful with unique keys, and Liberty Safes clearly don’t have them.
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