Hacker turns toy into tool that can open garage doors in seconds

Owners of fixed-code garage door openers might want to consider upgrading them because a researcher has developed a technique that guesses the numbers in seconds.

To showcase the new attack, which he dubbed Open Sesame, security researcher Samy Kamkar reprogrammed a children’s toy designed for short-distance texting called Radica Girl Tech IM-me because it has all the needed wireless components and because “it’s pink,” his favorite color.

With a fixed-code garage door opener, the remote control, or “clicker” always transmits the same 8 to 12-bit binary code. For a 12-bit code, there are 4,096 possible combinations — strings of 1s and 0s.

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