Security Tales: How a Smartphone “Recognized” Its Owner
Vladimir Bezmaly | 02.05.2017
- Johann, will we exchange news today as usual?
- Of course, Rita! After all, today is Friday. And what, do you have something to tell again?
— Of course. Just a few days ago, the S company announced new flagship smartphones: S8 and S8+. The devices boast not only beveled edges, a “high” screen and new chips. They are also equipped with several biometric systems at once: a fingerprint scanner, an iris recognition system and a face recognition system.
- Interesting. And is it really impossible to open all this?
— I don’t know yet. Let’s try.
A month has passed.
- Johann, we got our hands on the suspect's smartphone. We needed to open it, but it was locked with a PIN code.
- Of course not, you warned us.
— What kind of smartphone is it?
— New. S8+.
- Okay, we'll try to help you. Rita, here's the phone you told us taiwan whatsapp data a month ago. Try it, maybe we can do something.
- Okay, boss! I think we'll either do it or not within a week.
Another four days passed.
— Boss, we unlocked the smartphone. It turned out to be much simpler than we thought. We can say that the authentication system of such smartphones does not stand up to any criticism yet. We opened it using a photo of the suspect. We showed it to the camera of the device and the smartphone unlocked. The result? The facial recognition system, as well as the fingerprint authentication system, turned out to be no more than convenience. Not security. Alas, alas. So far, nothing more stable than a long PIN code has been invented.
- Rita, thank you very much for the work you have done!
The facial recognition system implemented in the Samsung Galaxy S 8 and S 8+ turned out to be vulnerable to a simple attack using a photo. Maybe in the future it will be implemented normally, but for now it is nothing more than convenience!