Fingerprints can be hacked

Post by fragmede » Mon, Nov 22, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #120

runnerup wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perfect: A human guard manually taking a fingerprint reading. Can't be beat because the guard can obviously see that it's not really your hand. Well, the argument some people are making is that this might be no better than a human checking your ID. Yes, there the guard can verify that there is some real human there, but both the ID and the fingerprint could be faked (e.g. a fake fingertip mold which matches the vic…

We're talking about a guard who physically takes your hand, inspects it, and puts your finger in ink, and then compares that to the prints they have on file. This is exactly the protocol that's used by the police and military when taking prints.

Post by fragmede » Mon, Nov 22, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

y4mi wrote: post #43

js4ever wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even for that it's not safe if anyone can bypass it with a $5 trick. It's definitely a thumb idea

You can unlock most home doors within seconds even without having the key Nonetheless, we still lock our doors and thieves often break in, even though picking the lock is both safer and less likely to arouse suspicion. Your argument makes sense, but we humans aren't really rational

Post by fragmede » Mon, Nov 22, 2021, 4:46 PM UTC

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #98

bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that the devices you carry with you are exactly the ones you shouldn’t use biometrics for. Law enforcement can force you to use biometrics to unlock a phone. They have used dead bodies to unlock phones.[0] What they can’t do is make you remember a code/password which you have “forgotten.” [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/03/22/yes-c...

> Unfortunately for the FBI, Artan’s lifeless fingerprint didn’t unlock the device (an iPhone 5 model, though Moledor couldn’t recall which. Touch ID was introduced in the iPhone 5S). In the hours between his death and the attempt to unlock, when the feds had to go through legal processes regarding access to the smartphone, the iPhone had gone to sleep and when reopened required a passcode, Moledor said. From your ht…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 22, 2021, 4:48 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #129

Is anyone surprised by this? I've been telling my friends for a couple years now that unlocking via fingerprint is a convenience feature, not a security feature.

Post by webel0 » Mon, Nov 22, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

cool_scatter wrote: post #106

webel0 wrote: post #86

[edit for clarity] As someone who doesn’t specialize in security, one claim that has stood out to me for not using fingerprints is that you can't run bcrypt (or some other salting algorithm) on fingerprints [1]. I don’t see any discussion of that here thus far. Is that still the case? I feel like I would have heard about developments in this area if something had changed. But perhaps I've always misunderstood the cri…

Fingerprints are stored as data, and data is hashable. As someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of fingerprint readers, that sounds ludicrous. I also don't see why it would need to be hashed, however.