The biohack.me forums were originally run on Vanilla and ran from January 2011 to July 2024. They are preserved here as a read-only archive. If you had an account on the forums and are in the archive and wish to have either your posts anonymized or removed entirely, email us and let us know.

While we are no longer running Vanilla, Patreon badges are still being awarded, and shoutout forum posts are being created, because this is done directly in the database via an automated task.

Could a RFID be used to trigger a megnetic door lock?

I have no implants yet but have been wanting to do it for some time now. I have been trying to decide what to implant first, and then while at work I noticed we have a door that has a magnetic door latch on it and it got me thinking if I had a chip in my hand, and a chip reader in the door handle could it potentially be used to trigger the magnet keeping the door locked?

Comments

Displaying all 9 comments
  1. @jamesskhaos, short answer: probably not.

    Your main focus should be on the reader, not the door lock necessarily. If you wanted to do something like that, you would first have to find out what type of reader it is, and the frequency it is operating at, this is most likely either 125kHz or 13.56mHz. You would then select a chip that had that same frequency, but even then, the chips may still not be compatible. Google around a bit for different types of RFID scanners and chips, theres a decent amount of them.

    Also, all of this is based upon the fact that you already have an existing card for that opens the door. It's not like a key, where it is identical for every person. Every card that is issued has it's own unique ID number that is hard coded into it, and the system knows based on what ID it has scanned whether or not to allow access. If you know an IT guy and security is relatively low, your best bet would just to have your chip number to their system. 

    TL;DR With enough work then maybe, but it will be a long journey
  2. Thank you ChrisBot
  3. I have looking into this as possibly the biggest reason to implant rfid. I see what you are saying with the smart lock but what about a reprogrammable one. Something like this https://www.okidokeys.com/content/6-how-it-works . It appears to be able to programmed to work with lots of different chips.
  4. Opening doors with RFID implants was one of the first hacks done with RFID implants that I'm aware of. Like, late 90s stuff.
    I use my 125KHz tag to open the door at my hack space. They issued me an RFID tag when I joined so I copied that to my rewritable tag and I've never been locked out since. Tim Cannon does the same at his hack space I believe.
    You said it was at your job but you didn't say what kind of authentication was used to trigger the magnetic door lock. Is this already done by RFID? My hack space uses ordinary 125KHz tags, low security, so copying was no issue. If your company uses something more secure it's a whole can of worms that's covered in other threads here.
    My company uses HID tags which I've been told can be written to implants but I haven't tried.
    Tell us more about the setup at your work.
  5. This lock I want to do would be more for my house than work and I was thinking only having one rfid chip programmed into it (mine) and a key back up or something, I am just thinking of all the possibilities with implants and want to push the envelope as much as possible
  6. My RFID was assigned to a building I was working in. As long as you have a reader, two compatible RFID types, cloner then yes you can unlock the mag lock on the door. When I read your question it seemed more like you were wondering if a maglock vs bolt made a difference in unlocking it. Is that right? It's not that hard to do once you figure out if the issued card is compatible with your implant. Like @mcstuff said more info about the system(RFID scanner,type of access card). The lock doesn't really matter what does is the means of unlocking it.
  7. There are more NFC door locks for your house then you might think. I hear Samsung makes a decent one. Set up your vehicle to turn on,run,unlock via implant that's not too common I believe. EDIT: I was typing when you responded my b :)
  8. I don't even know what I want to do so that is why I'm confusing you, I was just thinking of different ways to use an implant and my work happens to have a door that is electromagneticly locked and you have to push a button to open it, and it got me thinking, could I put a chip in my hand and have the reader in the handle so when I grabbed the handle it read the chip and disengaged the magnet. This would be more of a diy home upgrade vs something for work. One more question people mentioned nfc tags what would be a better alternative rfid or nfc?
  9. I don't think you will find an RFID reader in a door handle. You would have to make one most likely. It sounds like the door at your work requires some one on the inside to disengage the maglock which would mean unless you get permission to overhaul and change the security of that room..then no it won't work at work. https://americas.nfcring.com/products/samsung-nfc-door-lock That is an example of a decent NFC door lock. You can obviously find others that might fit your bill better. I wouldn't say one is better then the other. I would say the use dictates which one a person would get. Security cards are often RFID an android is NFC. NFC is a "contactless" chip that requires you to put it within mm of the reader (essentially making contact). It has the ability to be locked and is IMHO more secure because of how close you need to be to a reader. RFID is a larger range (inches depending on the reader) which is still quiet secure cause you would need to know where and then get wishing your personal space to access it. My NFC ring is used with a door lock my RFID was used with my work access card.
Displaying all 9 comments