Pengwuino said:
I believe that is
Illegal
And here is why you won't be able to do it anyways
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/remote-entry2.htm
Not really, reverse engineering is still pretty ambiguous on an academic level, even within the confines of the DMCA (although personally if I were still in the security field, I would be very leery of publishing a journal article). In addition, the DMCA would most likely not be applicable to encryption in this field, as commercial gear uses public domain encoding, such that the security system would not be considered protected material. To some extent, their are laws that make it illegal to provide too much security in the commercial sector (eg dept of commerce export, combined with FCC regulations), thus making the task even easier.
To actually use the device to gain entry would be illegal without a court order or probable cause on the part of law enforcement. (Remember practical jokes gone wrong have landed many a person in jail). You certainly would not want to build such a device and play with it on your street to open other peoples doors. Otoh, the theory you learn in analyzing how such a device works, and designing one on paper is a great way to apply academic concepts to real world problems and in the process learn a great deal.
This is not unlike the days of my organic chem class where we discussed the synthesis of cocaine. No doubt every student had those equations memorized, but no one went so far as to set up a lab in the dorm room. Its pretty much ed psych 101 as a learning methodology to foster the higher levels of learning. I think students of today miss out on a lot due to political correctness. Discussing illegal drug production, or even the synthesis of C4 in an undergrad class would no doubt be beyond the comfort levels of most profs. Otoh, I am sure it is covered in some grad school courses
As far as breaking the code sequences, its challenging, but is no where near as time consuming as the marketing types would lend you to believe, A determined thief could do so, fortunately most of the time, criminals are not very smart, nor are they willing to put the time into such activities, when a vast majority of people disable their systems, or leave their doors open.
Ron
