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Hackers Unlock any Type of Phone Using Photographed Fingerprints in Just 20 Minutes

posted by martyb on Saturday November 02 2019, @04:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the under-your-thumb dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Hackers Unlock Any Phone Using Photographed Fingerprints In Just 20 Minutes

According to the Chinese blog Abacus, Tencent's X-Lab team showed how this technique works at the recent GeekPwn 2019 hacking conference in Shanghai. X-Lab's leader Chen Yu asked an audience member to touch a glass and took a photo of the fingerprints.

Yu then ran the photo through an app they have developed in house, which extracts and process the necessary data to clone a physical fingerprint. The team didn't show the physical cloning process, but we can assume that they used a 3D printer like other people have done in the past. He then proceeded to use the cloned fingerprint to open three smartphones that had been registered with the audience member's fingerprint — plus two event registration machines that use fingerprint scanners.

[...] Each of those phones used one of the three existing fingerprint scanning technologies: capacitive, optical. and ultrasonic, like the one in the Samsung Galaxy S10. The latter one is especially worrying, since this technology is supposed to avoid this type of hack by scanning the three-dimensional structure of your fingerprint.

[...] In other words: fingerprint security sucks. And facial identification is not that much better, really. If you are really worried about security, the only thing you can do is probably use a longer password.

Still harder than shoulder-surfing or having no password, right?

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 02 2019, @09:42AM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 02 2019, @09:42AM (#915015) Journal

    That's kinda cool. Did they get that from a former president's desk? And, maybe a Marine kept the key to the phone ready for the president's use? LOL, maybe we can write a story around that phone.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @11:11AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @11:11AM (#915020)
    The Washington-Moscow Hot Line actually isn't a voice telephone, red or otherwise, but a text-only messaging system. They specifically did not want a voice line: speech might easily be misinterpreted, so the leaders of the two countries write in their native language and their messages are translated at the receiving end. The first incarnation in 1963 used teletype machines, then they shifted to fax in 1986, and from 2008 on it's been a secure form of email. All of this is done over dedicated satellite and landline links, and they reportedly use one-time pads for encryption.

    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday November 02 2019, @08:38PM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Saturday November 02 2019, @08:38PM (#915113)

      speech might easily be misinterpreted, so the leaders of the two countries write in their native language and their messages are translated at the receiving end.

      I can see that being a problem:

      Next, Bart dials a palatial-looking building in a jungle. {The view of the building is cut for one second.}

                  Aide: Please to repeat again and I will translating for the el presidente.
                  Bart: [slowly] Which way does the water turn in your toilet?
                  Aide: [in Spanish] He says the tide is turning!
      Presidente: Ay, caramba! Then the rebels will soon take the capital. I must flee! [dives out window]
                                                                  -- Bart checks with Argentina, "Bart vs. Australia"

      Good thing we don't have issues translating intent via modern written mechanisms, like Twitter.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @03:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 02 2019, @03:51PM (#915051)

    That was a dial lock you could buy during the rotary dial era. Nothing special just a simple way to prevent outgoing calls.