

Hacking your apartment's electronic entry system - jmtame
http://jmtame.posterous.com/hacking-your-apartments-electronic-entry-syst

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caryme
I actually implemented this idea using Twilio almost a year ago and have been
using it actively ever since. I give my close friends 4-digit PIN numbers to
my condo. When someone dials my number in the directory, it first prompts them
for a PIN. If they enter a valid PIN, it welcomes them by name (my friends
love this) and unlocks the door. If they enter an invalid PIN or no PIN,
Twilio rings my and both my roommates' cell phones and connects to whomever
answers first.

I also can create one-time-use PINs and one-day-only PINs for parties or
whatnot.

As an extra plus, I used to have a home phone because my intercom requires
local phone numbers. Since I built my "doorman," I don't need it.

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TimothyBurgess
Any particular reason you haven't turned this into a startup?

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caryme
Mostly time at this point, but I also wasn't sure if there would be interest.
I should have some more free time this spring... maybe I'll work to get an MVP
out then? I'll let y'all know.

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tastybites
I would buy it! You could charge per-usage too, since most people don't have
an unlimited stream of people coming to their apartment every month.

I'm not sure how the phone # allocation works but I imagine the biggest
challenge is getting local #'s for people who don't have google voice or
whatnot.

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patio11
You can do this a wee bit more securely than "Let anybody in", too. Ten
minutes of work and you can give your script state, letting it do things like
e.g. accept a text message or web interface request to let anyone in for the
next ten minutes.

I was considering implementing Port Knocking 2.0 on my server(s) for giggles:
permit SSH logins without a key for ten minutes after calling a number and
keying in a password. (I have had to do emergency maintenance from net cafes
before, which is unfun in the best of circumstances. Being unable to login
just makes it even more unfun.)

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caryme
I've thought about this - when I get time, I want to implement this into my
system. Know someone is about to come over? Go ahead and let them in advance.
Maybe even leave a message for them for the phone to read when they get there.

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norova
Danielle Morrill of Twilio shared something very similar to this on her blog
back in June of 2010. One difference in her post is the fact that she set up
different secret codes for various roommates.

Link: [http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2010/06/how-i-built-a-
multi-u...](http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2010/06/how-i-built-a-multi-user-
door-buzzer-for-our-apartment/)

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gommm
I'm sorry to be pedantic, but please use capital letters where needed. I found
it rather difficult to read...

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nollidge
Weird, I didn't even notice the lack of capitals until you pointed it out. I
wonder if it's because of all the AIM I did during my formative years.

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swolchok
Why do you want to disable the locking of the exterior doors of your apartment
building at night? You still can't legitimately enter your apartment without
keys, but observant criminals can come in and force your interior door without
worrying nearly as much about passersby.

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JesseAldridge
They used the same gate system at my last apartment. It was pretty useless. I
had two other roommates and guests would come over all the time, so my phone
was always going off. I had a special ringtone when I got a call from the gate
and when I heard it, I would just hit 9 reflexively without even thinking
about it. I was surely not the only one in the complex to do this -- so if you
wanted to get in all you had to do was dial one apartment after the other
until somebody let you in without questioning you.

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pmcginn
Would putting the MP3 on your phone and playing it into the entrypads mic get
you in as well? I'm picturing waling up to any apartment building, choosing an
apartment number at random, and then just playing the MP3 when someone answers
(or when voicemail picks up.)

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caryme
I doubt it. It's listening for the 9 tone on the other end and I _think_ it
can distinguish between the two.

This reminds me of a hack we did in my freshman dorm though... we cut the wire
from a card reader to a washing machine and recorded the signal the reader
sent. Then reconnected the card reader to the washer in parallel with an
1/8inch audio jack. The folks who were in the know would plug their iPod into
the audio jack on the back of the washer, play the "free laundry" mp3, and get
a free load of laundry.

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k7d
What's the deal with all lowercase? Totally unreadable.

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rjett
I wouldn't go so far as to say unreadable, more like annoying. Hopefully he
takes this into consideration for the book he's writing.

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jmtame
someone else is doing the editing, for good reasons =]

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mlamb1976
An apartment I lived in had a similar system. I noticed that the caller ID
showed what appeared to be a valid number. So one day I tried calling it while
at the door... when it started ringing, I started hitting buttons on the
keypad (on the door) and when I hit the # key (or maybe it was *), it picked
up. I was then able to dial 9 from my phone, and it let me in.

I no longer live there, and don't have access to an apartment that has one.
I'd be interested to see if that works on other systems. If anyone wants to
try, let me know if it does.

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electromagnetic
I just realized that my system appears to work the same way. I always wondered
why the caller ID showed a different number for my buzzer from the rental
company main lines, so I'll have to program it into my cell phone and see if
this works for me.

Great insight, my mind never jumped to this idea. I was thinking of putting
the '9' tone on my answer machine.

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tingletech
when I was in college, I sublet an apartment where we had like 8 people living
there for the summer and only 3 keys to the front gate. I solved the problem
of getting buzzed up when no-one had keys by pressing 9 at the end of the
outgoing message on the answering machine. Call the apt on the box and if no
one was home we could still get in.

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thesis
Or just press the digit at the begining of your voicemail.

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electromagnetic
That was my idea for this trick, I was wondering if the sound would come out
too distorted to trigger the system.

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Raesan
I did something similar with Google Voice. I created a new voicemail greeting
of the tone and calls from the apartment's callbox are sent straight to
voicemail with that greeting.

You have to hold your phone next to the speakers on my computer and record the
greeting by playing the tone since the tone you get from pressing the number
on your phone isn't picked up by Google Voice, for whatever reason.

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bound008
I did this many years back with my work's phone system and an unused DID. Pro-
Tip: Make a phone tree. 1 calls your cell, 2 calls your roommates cell, and
pressing a secret key like 6 dials your 9 response.

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drivebyacct2
Huh. @koush had this idea a few days ago:
<http://twitter.com/#!/koush/status/39435576788647936>

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ccamrobertson
A service similar to this was built and, sadly, already hit the deadpool:
<http://buzzer-o-matic.tumblr.com/>.

