The physical category covers offensive work against the controls that protect a facility and the people and equipment inside it. The objective is unauthorized access to a space or asset, and the techniques range from manipulating a lock to walking through a door behind an employee. This is distinct from hardware, which attacks devices once you can touch them; physical security is about reaching that point in the first place.
Why it is split this way#
The subcategories divide by the type of control being defeated, because each control is a different discipline with its own tools and tradecraft:
- Lock bypass: defeating mechanical and electronic locks through picking, bypass tools, and decoding.
- Access control bypass: defeating badge readers, credentials, and electronic entry systems, including cloning and reader manipulation.
- Physical entry: getting through doors, windows, and other openings, including under-door and latch attacks and forced or covert entry.
- Surveillance bypass: defeating cameras, sensors, and monitoring so that entry is not observed or recorded.
- Elevator and stairwell bypass: reaching floors and areas gated by vertical-access controls.
- Environmental control manipulation: abusing HVAC, power, and building systems to enable or cover access.
- Social engineering: using people rather than tools, through pretexting, tailgating, and impersonation to be let in.
Splitting by control type matches how a physical assessment is planned: a site has a specific mix of locks, readers, cameras, and staff behavior, and the operator picks the technique that matches each barrier. Keeping them separate stops a lock-picking method from being filed next to a pretext, since the skills, legality, and preparation behind them are entirely different.