Posted on 05/23/2017 12:45:55 PM PDT by Red Badger
Biometric locks for phones are just getting more and more elaborate. Not content with fingerprints, some devices now offer facial recognition tech for accessing a device, and in the Samsung Galaxy S8's case, an iris scanner too.
Despite Samsung stating that a user's irises are pretty much impossible to copy, a team of hackers has done just that. Using a bare-bones selection of equipment, researchers from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) show in a video how they managed to bypass the scanner's protections and unlock the device.
"We've had iris scanners that could be bypassed using a simple print-out," Linus Neumann, one of the hackers who appears in the video, told Motherboard in a Twitter direct message.
The process itself was apparently pretty simple. The hackers took a medium range photo of their subject with a digital camera's night mode, and printed the infrared image. Then, presumably to give the image some depth, the hackers placed a contact lens on top of the printed picture.
And, that's it. They're in.
"The patterns in your irises are unique to you and are virtually impossible to replicate, meaning iris authentication is one of the safest ways to keep your phone locked and the contents private," Samsung's website reads.
The research didn't take all that much time, either.
"About a day of experimenting until the idea came up do use a contact lens. Then, a little charade of printers until it turned out that the Samsung printer provided the most reliable prints," Neumann told Motherboard.
Neither Samsung or Princeton Identity, the company behind the iris scanner technology, immediately responded to a request for comment.
Don’t worry — I hear the next Apple iPad will require a fecal sample.
“What one man can make, another man can break.”
Tried and true.
First butt-dialing; now butt-unlocking? What's next, swiping?
Or they could just pluck your eye out.
>> What’s next, swiping?<<
OOH! That’s gonna leave a mark!
Too messy. And you can only use it once.............
Apple’s CEO already takes ‘em ...
Hackers used a photo of Angela Merkel to open an iris-scanner lock of her.
Yet another theft-deterrent feature...
What if they took the wrong eye?...............
Colonoscopy...................
If at first you don't succeed....
ping
Well now fedgov and the rest will get into your stuff that much easier too.
...and that’s why I NEVER conduct any financial transaction with my phone. It avoids leaving a history of personal financial info that someone could easily gain access.
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