Most smartphones nowadays feature fingerprint scanners as the most common type of biometric authentication next to facial recognition. In theory, a person's fingerprint is his unique trademark that is almost impossible to duplicate. But, it appears that some hackers have found a vulnerability in fingerprint authentication and was able to unlock smartphones from fingerprints lifted from a glass.
As technology advances, hackers also progresses, and for countless times, we have seen how these group of individuals were able to trick smartphone sensors. In the past, we have seen how OnePlus' optical under-screen sensors were fooled by hackers; Samsung's ultrasonic modules were a victim of this too. Now, a new report reveals that hackers were able to successfully unlock smartphones by once again tricking the fingerprint sensor of the handsets.
A team of hackers working with the Chinese company Tencent was able to pull off the feat below twenty minutes. The hackers are part of Tencent Security's X-Lab team and showed the process during a recent event in Shanghai. During the demonstration, some members of the audience were invited to touch a drinking glass with a member of the team, snapping a photo of the fingerprints and running it into an app that extracted the data out of the image.
The fingerprint cloning took almost twenty minutes, which the hackers used to fool three smartphones and a couple of attendance machines that require fingerprints. In an interview with South China Morning Post, the team's leader revealed that the whole ordeal only costs $140. Aside from the fingerprint hack, the team also claims to have successfully cracked all types of fingerprint sensors, such as ultrasonic, capacitive, and ultrasonic, but it never specified which devices they were able to hack.
Additionally, the team was also discreet on the details of the hack and did not really reveal anything in terms of their method or the type of app they use to clone the fingerprint. According to wccftech, at this point, it is still not clear what type of medium the team is using to imprint the fingerprint data. The presentation ended with a warning to users and instruction to always wipe their fingerprints off of everything they touch.
Given the amount of personal data stored in our smartphones, it is always smart to take the precautionary measures. Being aware of the methods and ways of how things get hacked is a sure way to prevent oneself from falling prey to this kind of activity. Regularly installing an update on your smartphone could also help protect your device from attackers.
