Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones • Hacker News Board

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#11

Post by bluejekyll » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

jerrre wrote: post #5

ixtli wrote: post #2

> Biometric IDs seem to be about as close to a perfect identification system as you can get. This seems a massive assertion that’s not qualified at all in the article. It was my understanding that biometrics in consumer hardware have always been easily circumvented and are largely about convenience.

I don't know where I read it, but it always stuck to me: identification is more like a username, not a password, and should be used as such.

You’re right that usernames are an ID, the password allows the system to authenticate you are who you say you are (but it’s easily exploited).

There’s no reason why biometrics can’t both Id and authn at the same time, as long as both functions have a high degree of confidence.

Multi factor auth is probably always going to have its place. Where the confidence level is low in the authn, it must be increased by adding additional vectors.

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#12

Post by mauriciob » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

Angostura wrote: post #9

chongli wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And honestly they're not that convenient. The Touch ID in my iPhone 8+ rejects my print at least a dozen times a day. On some days it rejects it many times in a row, forcing me to key in my unlock code. Research like this, while ostensibly threatening an increase in false positives (due to unauthorized use of fake prints), will in all likelihood cause vendors to tighten the confidence interval, leading to greatly inc…

Sounds like you should maybe retrain it. My iPhone 6, which has the older sensor tech is fine: unless my hands are wet

This is the problem I have. If there’s just a little sweat on my finger, it stops working.

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#13

Post by mbrumlow » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

There actually is no proof that finger prints are unique. Last time I looked into it. The same goes for DNA.

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#14

Post by electrograv » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

mbrumlow wrote: post #13

There actually is no proof that finger prints are unique. Last time I looked into it. The same goes for DNA.

How could DNA be non-unique, except for identical twins or clones?

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#15

Post by soohyung » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

Original paper can be found here https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.07386

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#16

Post by brian_herman » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

coldcode wrote: post #10

Not enough detail in the article. There is no discussion of what sensors were used to "fool". Now everyone will assume it works on all actual devices using fingerprints, yet there is no information to support that conclusion. If this technique were applied to actual devices (with fingerprints not included in the study) and it worked reliably, then this would be a meaningful study.

Here is the paper on arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.07386

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#17

Post by vickihectora » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

The real deal and the future is here. You should contact a reliable and professional private investigator for all sort of hacking, spying and data retrieval services. Contact lucidionysus at gmail.com today and thank me later.

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#18

Post by jpalomaki » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

jerrre wrote: post #5

ixtli wrote: post #2

> Biometric IDs seem to be about as close to a perfect identification system as you can get. This seems a massive assertion that’s not qualified at all in the article. It was my understanding that biometrics in consumer hardware have always been easily circumvented and are largely about convenience.

I don't know where I read it, but it always stuck to me: identification is more like a username, not a password, and should be used as such.

I believe everybody knows fingerprints or face are not a perfect solution for unlocking mobile phones, but so far they seem to be the best option currently available (taking into account the ease of shoulder surfing and inconvenience of entering secure passwords on small screen).

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#19

Post by nneonneo » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

Speaking of biometrics: anyone remember that Vietnamese shop (Bkav) who made a big stir out of breaking Face ID a week after launch? Was that ever independently verified, or has anyone else broken Face ID a year later?

I remember there being a lot of skepticism about their claim because they didn’t go into that much technical detail, but rather seemed more interested in winning press and fame (as well as being incredibly boastful about it).

Hopefully someone knows about the current state of Face ID security better than I do, since I’ve been a little out of the loop.

Re: Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

#20

Post by deschutes » Sun, Nov 25, 2018, 4:31 PM UTC

mbrumlow wrote: post #13

There actually is no proof that finger prints are unique. Last time I looked into it. The same goes for DNA.

There are no proofs of any kind about the natural world. However, it could be shown with a small population sample that fingerprint and dna signatures from the respective technologies are statistically unique.