Experts unlock a smartphone by fingerprinting a glass of water
We have all seen spies in the movies take a person’s fingerprints from any object, a glass of water, for example. But is this actually possible? Well, information security experts say that it is, and that it can even be used to access a smart device.
X-Lab, a team of researchers from the security
firm Tencent, has just demonstrated a method to take a person’s fingerprints
from a glass of water and, by just using an app to extract accurate data,
create physical recreations of the samples to unlock any smartphone that
include ultrasonic fingerprint sensor in just twenty minutes.
“To create this attack scenario we invest
less than $150 USD, plus we needed a smartphone and the app,” said Chen
Yu, an information security specialist in charge of research. This team of
experts claims to be the first to ‘crack’ these fingerprint sensors.
However, this is not the first time these
fingerprint sensors have failed. A few months ago, a British woman bought online
a screen protection for her Samsung
Galaxy S10. After placing it on her smartphone, she discovered that the device
could be unlocked with anybody’s fingerprint, a serious failure on the part of
the company.
These ultrasonic sensors, developed by Qualcomm, are considered a safer option than fingerprint sensors embedded in smartphone screens. According to information security experts, they work by bouncing sound waves against your fingertips to create a three-dimensional image of your fingerprint.
Researchers say they’ve been working on
developing the app to record accurate data for months, adding that it’s even
easier to take a fingerprint from a user’s smartphone than from a glass of
water. For security reasons, experts refused to report further details about
the method used.
Although the exploitation of this attack is highly
complex in real environments, information security specialists from the
International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) mention that constantly cleaning
our mobile devices to reduce the likelihood of a threat actor taking a sample
of our footprints is a good advice, as well as never leaving our equipment
within reach of a stranger.
Gloss