The bad news for Android smartphones is that biometric fingerprint authentication will face a major security issue that allows some hackers to bypass this authentication method to gain access to your device. Thanks to a new joint report from Tencent Labs and Zhejiang University, we now know:It is possible to use “brute force” to unlock your smartphone.
Brute force attacks rely on: repeated attempts to crack codes or passwords and gain unauthorized access. Here, Chinese researchers successfully circumvented smartphone protections against brute-force attacks by exploiting two zero-day vulnerabilities: Cancellation After Match (CAMF) and Match After Lockdown (EVIL).
Your Android smartphone is not as secure as we thought
The researchers found that the biometric data on the serial peripheral interface (SPI) of fingerprint sensors is not adequately protected, making them vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attack (MITM), allowing fingerprint images to be stolen.
To perform a BrutePrint attack, the attacker needs physical access to the target devicea database of fingerprints that can be obtained from academic datasets or biometric data leaks, as well asThe equipment only costs about $15. Unlike password cracking, fingerprint matches use a benchmarking threshold that allows attackers to manipulate the false acceptance rate (FAR).raise the acceptance threshold and increase their chances of success.
Using a flaw in Android, hackers can inject a checksum error to prematurely cancel the authentication process and Unlimited number of fingerprint attempts without device registration errors. The final element of the BrutePrint attack is to use a “neural style transfer” system to convert all fingerprint images in the database to resemble scans from the target device’s sensor, increasing the chances of success.
iOS smartphones are more resistant to these attacks
Researchers conducted experiments on ten Android and iOS devices and found that all of them were vulnerable to at least one flaw. While Android devices allow an infinite number of fingerprint attempts, iOS devices have proven to be more robust at preventing brute force attacks.
BrutePrint raises concerns about device security and privacy. Despite the attack requires long-term access to the target devicecan be invaluable to thieves and law enforcement as it allows potentially criminals to unlock stolen devices and retrieve private data. The use of these techniques in investigations is also ethical issues and may violate the right to privacy.
