Senator Ron Wyden has found that the DoD banned the use of such locks for U.S. government systems, but deliberately kept information about the backdoors from the public.

The little known “manufacturer” or “manager” reset codes could let third parties—such as spies or criminals—bypass locks without the owner’s consent and are sometimes not disclosed to customers.

The fact the DoD protected its own interests while not warning the public gives a stark demonstration of what could happen if a backdoor was inserted into a consumer electronics device or similar.

The documentation also explicitly says that sometimes the existence of a manager code may not be sent to an actual user of the device. “In some instances the Manager Code and associated Operating Instructions are not issued to the End User,” it reads, meaning that people may be using these locks without understanding that they can include a backdoor code.