Develop 'universal' fingerprints, unlock all phones

Fingerprint sensors are created to make your device more secure without having to complicate the unlocking process. Scientists at the University of New York and Michigan (USA) have revealed the latest research with them, promising to completely change this security method.

According to Popsci, similar to a universal lock that can open any lock, these experts are thought to have invented a "digital multimeter fingerprint" that simulates many small parts. different of a fingerprint, from which theoretically can be used to unlock any device. According to them, will there be a type of fingerprint with the same characteristics as the conventional 4-digit security code (like 1234)? And when they used analytical methods from a digital database, they discovered that it is true that there is a "master fingerprint" that successfully mimics a random fingerprint with an accuracy of about 26-65% of the attempts.

There is a "master fingerprint" form that successfully simulates a random fingerprint with an accuracy of 26-65% of the number of attempts.

Of course, 26-65% is a big gap. That's because this accuracy depends heavily on the size of the fingerprint data warehouse: the more fingerprints that are scanned into the fingerprint sensor system, the "master fingerprint" capability can unlock the device. higher and higher.

According to researchers, the fingerprint scanning process on mobile devices has many potential security issues. The first is the fingerprint sensor is usually very small. The second thing is that a user can scan with multiple fingers. In addition, mobile devices often allow users to try again and again if unlocking fails.

Vulnerability comes from fingerprint sensor size?

Manufacturers have allowed this fingerprint sensor to store and identify prints on many different fingers.

Because the fingerprint sensor is too small, it will certainly not scan the entire fingerprint on one finger. Therefore, manufacturers have allowed this fingerprint sensor to store and identify fingerprints on many different fingers , thereby helping the device to recognize quite a bit of small fingerprints. Security vulnerabilities appear here: when users put their fingers on the sensor, the system does not really know which finger it is, or how you put it; The system simply compares that small fingerprint with the database, if it detects that there is a match, it defaults to the device owner and allows unlocking!

From this fact, the researchers conducted a database analysis of 800 fingerprints, then extracted thousands of small fingerprint sections. Do you think there will be a small fingerprint pattern that can match other patterns with a high probability? Yes indeed, and even this probability reaches 15% of the attempts. However, this test was only done on computers, has not been carried out in practice to unlock any device. So basically this is just a theory, and even some researchers are skeptical about this "universal fingerprint" problem!

Fingerprint sensors from Apple and Samsung do not use minutia points to identify fingerprints.

According to Anil Jain, head of the University of Michigan biometric research group, who is not involved in the study, the researchers used a fingerprint analysis system based on a fingerprint element. called "minutia". If you look at your finger, you will see the "mountains" and "valleys" lines. In some places, "mountains" split, or split two branches. In some other places, "mountains" stopped. The points that these "mountains" split or stop are called biometrics by minors.

Jain said that Apple and Samsung fingerprint sensors do not use minutia points to identify fingerprints. Instead, the iPhone TouchID sensor uses the "texture model" of fingerprints.

However, the team still maintains their views. The instability of the system has always existed for reasons: as the fingerprint sensor shrinks in size, the higher the probability that a person's fingerprint will match a part of the fingerprint that person.