This new tool could let 3D-printed guns slip past printer safeguards
The digital arms race over 3D-printed guns is hotting up.
3D printed gun model. Image by microstock3D/Shutterstock
- Cody Wilson has developed Hochulization, a tool designed to alter firearm file hashes without changing printed objects.
- New York now requires new 3D printers to include safeguards that can detect and block firearm files.
- Hash-based blocking can be easier to bypass than systems that inspect a file’s shape and contents.
- The tool highlights a growing conflict between gun controls, printer safeguards, and digital-rights concerns.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
A new tool from the creator of the first functional 3D-printed gun could undermine a new generation of safeguards designed to stop printers from making firearms.
Cody Wilson is the founder of Defense Distributed, which publishes open-source firearm designs for 3D printing and digital manufacturing on the DEFCAD platform.
According to media reports, Wilson has developed a tool called “Hochulization,” as a direct jab at New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who recently passed a law requiring new 3D printers to use technology that can detect and block firearm files.
The tool targets one of the simplest ways such systems can identify prohibited files: digital hashes. A hash is a unique string generated from the contents of a digital file. A printer could compare the hash of a file against a database of known firearm designs. If the hash matches a prohibited file, the printer could block the job.
Wilson’s tool changes the hash without changing what the file does. According to The Verge, it adds a small amount of data to a file, creating a different hash while leaving the resulting printed object unchanged.
Wilson says he will make the tool available to users on the DEFCAD platform, and also intends to make it open-source for wider access.
“New York is trying to reach into the internet and police how open-source 3D printing is done,” Wilson told The Verge.
“I think of it as a self-defense measure.”
New York’s first-of-its-kind printer law
New York became the first US state to pass legislation requiring 3D printers to include safeguards capable of stopping the manufacture of firearms and firearm parts.
The idea addresses a growing concern among US authorities. Police seizures of 3D-printed firearms have increased in recent years, although they still represent a small share of traditional firearms. The technology has also improved since Wilson published the files for his single-shot Liberator in 2013.
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The legislation marked a major shift in the fight against 3D-printed firearms. Rather than relying only on police investigations or laws that punish people after they make a weapon, New York wants to make the printer itself part of the enforcement system.
The development also raises a wider question about how far governments should go in putting controls inside general-purpose technology.
Gun-control advocates see printer-level blocking as a way to close a gap in existing laws. Makers and digital-rights advocates, meanwhile, have warned that scanning files could create a form of digital surveillance and censorship.
There is also a technical problem. Hash-based detection can be easier to bypass, while more advanced systems that examine the shape and contents of a file could block legitimate designs by mistake.
The emergence of Hochulization suggests that printer-based gun controls could face a long-running tussle between regulators tightening the rules and developers finding new ways around them.
