A savvy tech fiend has fooled the new Samsung Galaxy S10 with a 3D print of his fingerprint. The hack which was done using pretty basic software and tools didn’t take long according to the blogger darkshark.
Be the first to read our latest stories, analysis, and trend-spotting on tech from every corner on earth. Sign up for our weekly newsletter today.
Stay on top of the latest engineering news just enter your email and we’ll take care of the rest.
Stay ahead with the latest science, technology and innovation news for free
By subscribing, you agree to ourTerms of Use andPrivacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
RELATED: SECURITY FIRM HACKS IPHONE X'S FACE ID USING A $150 3D PRINTED MASK
In a post on Imgur, darkshark explains how he started the process by taking a photograph of his fingerprint on a wine glass using his smartphone.
He took the photo into photoshop where he increased the contrast and added an alpha layer. He then dropped that corrected image into 3DS MAX and created a geometry displacement from the Photoshop image which resulted in a raised 3D model of every last detail of the fingerprint.
That model was then dropped into 3D printing software and printed on an AnyCubic Photon LCD resin printer. This particular model gives an accuracy down to about 10 microns (in Z height, 45 microns in x/y), which is absolutely adequate to capture all of the ridges in a fingerprint.
The printing took about 13 minutes after which darkshark could do some gloves and then place the printed fingerprint which looks like a microscope slide onto the phone.
Voila absolute access. While being able to unlock someone's phone isn’t such a big deal, darkshark says what's scary is that many of the banking apps the uses only require a fingerprint authentication to approve transactions.
Darkshark makes the good point that a stolen phone will be covered in fingerprints that could easily be photographed and replicated. He says the process took three prints to get right but once you have the method down replicating fingerprints could be done in under a few minutes.
Lots of phones and devices have embraced the use of fingerprint recognition as a form of security. The latest Samsung smartphone uses an ultrasonic sensor that’s apparently meant to be more difficult to spoof.
It isn’t the first time 3D printing has been used to unlock a phone, back in 2016 Splinter reported that Michigan police had roped into a biometrics expert to help them create a 3D print of a murder victim's finger so they could unlock his phone.
Apparently, the police had reason to believe the contents of the phone would assist in their investigation into the man's death. And back in November 2017, a Vietnamese security firm claimed to have broken the Apple FaceID tech using a mask that cost less than $150 USD.
When Apple released the iPhone X a couple of months earlier, it boasted its face identification software was so good it would take 1-in-a-million for it to be unlocked by the wrong person. That was a statement that almost every hacker and security software around the world took as a challenge, and the Vietnamese firm, Bkav seems to be the winner.
The company says they created the mask using 3D printing, makeup, paper, and a hand-molded silicone nose. The team that worked on the hack, said they didn’t really use a particular method to break into the phone, but just kept adjusting the mask until the phone unlocked.
Cybersecurity experts have long said that relying solely on biometric security measures is risky. If you are concerned about the privacy of your devices its best to use several security layers particularly when it comes to anything financial.
For full access to all features and product updates.
Already have an account? Log in