
Re-keying every lock in your house all by yourself - colinprince
https://a.wholelottanothing.org/2020/01/12/re-keying-every-lock-in-your-house-all-by-yourself/
======
ThePowerOfFuet
> The best part was my original key wasn’t even a Smart Key, but the existing
> Kwikset key that came with the house.

So the old property owner (plus who knows who else) can still get into the
place — and through every door with nothing more than what used to be the
front door key?

What a missed opportunity.

~~~
pubutil
Yeah, that’s a big mistake. The author should have at least had a new key cut,
preferably one with a difficult-to-pick bitting.

From a security perspective (which is presumably the point when discussing
locks), one would use different keys for all doors; or at least for all
external doors. I understand the convenience of using a single key, but the
author really should have cut a new key instead of using an existing one.

~~~
parliament32
>one would use different keys for all doors

This sounds like common sense, but when you think about it, how is this more
secure? You're going to store all the keys together anyway, so if you lose
them, you lose them all. And it's not like a thief can make a fake key after
picking your lock, they have to pick all your locks individually anyway... So
how does it help if your front/side/back/garage doors all have different keys?

~~~
dpark
It doesn’t. Someone tried to apply digital key management to the physical
world, and mapped it poorly. There is zero value in having each door to the
same space have different keys. There is some marginal value in having
different spaces having different keys (house, storage unit, detached garage),
except that generally you will lose the entire key ring when you lose one, so
the separation doesn’t net much.

~~~
2fast4you
I like different spaces having different keys. If someone is house sitting,
then I can give them the one key they need and not worry about snooping.

Obviously a bad actor could get around it no problem, I’m just keeping out the
honest

~~~
dpark
Different keys for what, though? Separate spaces? Sure. Front and back doors?
Pointless complication.

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jmpman
If you’re buying a new house using locks that have contractor keys, you
absolutely should rekey your locks, if for no reason other than to remove the
contractor key aligned pins. After a quick analysis, my entire subdivision
(100+ houses) could be opened with just 6 specifically crafted keys, and each
of your neighbors has enough information in their locks to determine how to
make those keys.

~~~
jaclaz
I don't know where you live, but at least here (Italy) locks that have
"contractors keys" can only be opened with contractors key until the
"proprietor" key is used once (with an "installing maneuvre"), and then
contractors key won't work anymore.

What you describe is more like the master key systems (used as an example in
some hotels) where there is generally a three level (but there can be more)
set of keys, the manager's one (that opens all doors/locks), the maid one
(that opens - say - all doors/locks in a floor) and the actual customer one
where each key only opens a single lock.

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gmiller123456
Replacing all of your locks doesn't really fit into the category that I'd call
re-keying. It might be the way to go for anyone not at all into DIY, but you
can buy a Kwikset compatible pin kit on Ebay for under $6 (in the US at
least), and it can do several locks.

It looks like the author's total cost was $170, which is probably enough that
it would have been worth getting a quote from a locksmith so see if they could
have done it cheaper. Especially if you're willing to take the locks off
yourself and take them to a hardware store or locksmith.

~~~
setr
>which is probably enough that it would have been worth getting a quote from a
locksmith

He mentions basically doing that:

> I researched getting a locksmith to come out, it would run hundreds of
> dollars in their time plus you can only re-key locks to a key made by the
> same manufacturer

> I could save money by bringing the locks to a locksmith’s store, replacing
> off brands with a single brand and re-installing myself, and there are
> esoteric expensive kits on Amazon for locksmith-style rekeying, but each
> brand requires it’s own $80 box of materials plus many hours of practice to
> master

~~~
dpark
It does not take hours to master rekeying a lock. It would take hours to do a
whole house but probably an hour at most for the first.

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m463
hmmm... I was trying to understand how the smartkey system worked and ran
across this article:

"Millions of Kwikset Smartkey Locks Vulnerable to Hacking, Say Researchers"

[https://www.wired.com/2013/08/kwikset-smarkey-lock-
vulns/](https://www.wired.com/2013/08/kwikset-smarkey-lock-vulns/)

EDIT: and then I noticed there is smartkey gen 1, gen 2 and gen 3 so I'm not
sure if this is applicable.

