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JUST DAYS AFTER its release, Germany’s Chaos Computer Club claims it has successfully hacked the iPhone 5S’ fingerprint sensor and successfully unlocked a phone without the need for a human fingerprint.
The famous hacker team took a picture of the fingerprint of the user to which the phone was registered, then printed it on a transparent sheet of paper before using this to unlock the phone.
This video demonstrates how they did it:
YouTube: star bug
“This demonstrates – again – that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as access control method and should be avoided,” the CCC said in a statement on their website.
The claim, which Apple has not yet responded to, will be an embarrassing one for Apple which hopes its new fingerprint scanner will set it apart from other smartphone rivals.
CCC is Europe’s largest association of hackers and is based in Berlin.
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If you think this is embarassing for Apple you really fail to understand Biometrics. This scanner was neither designed nor intended to prevent a group of incredibly skilled hackers from breaking into your phone.
Agree completely. I doubt the lads in the pub trying to frape you or the junkie on talbot street that robs your phone will have the same capabilities.
It’s his own fingerprint on that piece of plastic too. He hacked nothing.
Shane
Never mind a finger print scanner was installed on a Toshiba Windows phone I had over 5 years ago!
Apple doesn’t invent anything it just re markets old technology and the iboys lap it up.
” I doubt the lads in the pub trying to frape you or the junkie on talbot street that robs your phone will have the same capabilities.”
While it probably isn’t a concern for the average user, the same can’t be said for phones used by government, military, or say, business users. There are a lot of people who store, or access, highly confidential information using their smart phones, this should be a massive concern for them, especially as it was done so easily, using such low-tech means.
A glass in a pub is a great way to lift some prints. Depends who your friends are, if they’re from CCC or Tóg, then consider yourself frape’d.
Yeah, I’m sure all the high ranking military officials were issued iPhones to store classified documents.
“Yeah, I’m sure all the high ranking military officials were issued iPhones to store classified documents.”
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/17/4340252/department-of-defense-approval-iphone-ipad
And you think the most sophisticated military force in the world are storing classified information on their phones?
Let it go, you were wrong.
He did use a different finger than the one he configured the iPhone with.
Sorry, above comment is in response the Karol RE: his own finger print being used…
Thomas,
To put it bluntly he could have used his cock to unlock it. That piece of plastic has his fingerprint on it.
Not really hacked until you can actually lift fingerprints off the secure enclave.
By their logic I can hack your bank by shoulder surfing you at the ATM.
Well if you think about it I’d you have robbed or acquired another person’s iPhones lifting finger pro rd off the device wouldn’t be that hard especially off the home button especially as that’s where you need one solid finger print registered to even set the scanner up in the first place
The overly publicised misuse of the work hacking, is frankly ridiculous.
Couldn’t agree more! And all these ‘life hacks’ wreck my tits!
Poor tits.
Always getting it.
In other news a 10 year old with a €75 Android tablet can read e-books which proves the rotten fruit company are misleading teachers & parents into paying for overpriced unnecessary I-Crap.
Plain text e-Books are quite a world away from the rather impressive interactive books that Apple have worked closely with numerous publishers and educational institutions to produce.
Maria
Ever heard of Adobe Acrobat? It is used to create the feature rich e-Books.
The books can be written with word processing programs that can handle text & graphics like the FREE one LibreOffice Writer. However most are produced using, desk top publishing programmes like InDesign or QuarkXPress.
But you are correct the rotten fruit company has as you say “worked closely with numerous publishers and educational institutions”, but the results are e-books that are priced the same if not even more expensive than the paper versions of the books.
Don’t believe me? Simply check out paper & e-book versions of the same book on Amazon.
However if you are simple enough or even an employee of the rotten fruit company and allow yourself to swallow the lies, go ahead, but don’t expect people who conduct their own independent research to agree with you.
Tell me Carcu, do any of these ebooks you’ve seen created with LibreOffice (shudder) or Acrobat (vomit) have interactive videos, in book quizzes, 3d models or interactive images? No? Thought not.
Carcu you came on and made a comment totally unrelated to the article.
You are EXACTLY the same as the Microsoft haters of the 90s who used Apple OS or Linux.
Get the boat, everyone has preferences. Dont come on here with your hate.
Maria.
No they do not but that is not the point I was making. You made the claim that only the rotten fruit company can make interactive e-books which is simply not the truth.
Aidan. How exactly is showing that spending 10s of €s on a tablet to do the job the rotten fruit company claim requites 100s of €s off topic? As for bashing Windows, over 5 years ago I had a Windows phone with a finger print scanner?
Now both of you answer this which is better for the environment and your bank balance? Contuining to use a 15 year old desktop computer & a 7 year old laptop with all be it not top of the range but up to date free software or rushing out to buy the latest products because the sales literature say you should and spending 1000s of €s on software?
Whatever you do DON’T address the article itself. Just rant on about whatever you want.
Also, the companies name is Apple. Not “rotten fruit company” as you suggest constantly.
You need a heavy dose of grow the f**k up by the sounds of things.
Why do you feel the need to emotionally attach yourself to one product or another?
You mostly likely had no input into either. At all.
Aidan
As others had pointed out before my post “hacking” finger print technology was shown to be possible a long time ago. I even made the comment that a Windows phone I was using 5 years ago contained a finger print scanner. That was why my opening words in this post were “In other news”.
So you don’t like me refering to your obviously beloved as the rotten fruit company. Fine by me would you prefer I use the term “Fruit of Satan” in its place? After all is that what the bible teaches some of its followers? Or would you simply be seeking to ban freedom of expression?
I don’t feel the need to attach myself to one product or another. From my early teens until my now in my mid 40’s I have used the many different computer systems, including Spectrum, Digital, Atari, PC-DOS, Windows 3.0 up to and including 8, Novell, Linux and its older brother Unix, and I must admit some of the offerings from the Fruit of Satan.
I have fallen in & out of love with many of these products, including forks of Linux. In fact even 2 weeks ago I became highly critical of Microsoft’s parental controls which can be easily bypassed by any 12 year old, as proven by my son without any help from me.
However I simply don’t buy into the i-Crap sales pitch, never have & never will. Any way how are the Apple, (does that meet with your approval?), shares doing since Steve passed over? A bit like they did the first time he left the organisation I notice. Maybe the stock market no longer buys into the message after the organisations master salesman has left?
Finally before I go which operating system do the servers in the Fruit of Satan & the world’s fastest super computer use?
How did anyone ever learn without interactive quizzes and 3d models? If we allow our children to learn from these dreaded cheap android devices we will have a nation of imbeciles on our hands in no time. Somebody think of the children!!
Jordan
I guess my wife & myself must be bad parents as we took the option of the €90 odd for book rental for our oldest starting 2nd level alright. So can you please call child services on us.
Or would it have been better if we spent €500 + for hardware & €400 + on top for software licensing locked to the individual piece of i-Crap.
Irrelevant. Grow up..
Yes Adian
I agree make those the last words on the 5S.
Carcu
I really did not think my sarcasm would be lost in that comment. I was obviously very wrong.
Your mans so afraid of what Apple will do to him he shaking !!!!
It hasn’t been ‘hacked’. This was always going to be possible, like it is with most other biometric security measures. With a passcode also, two-factor authentication will stop the average person/thief from accessing a device, and if you have top secret data on your device that someone will go to this trouble to access then your an idiot.
This was on myth busters a couple of years ago, you could lift a fingerprint from the phone itself easily enough with some carbon and tape. The fingerprint scanner will work well enough to stop nosey friends and work colleagues.
As would a PIN unlock….
Biometrics is an Orwellian nightmare
From thumb scanning to face recognition.
So in order to hack the phone, I must first obtain the phone from this person while it is unlocked?
This is not a hack. This is stepping outside an unlocked cell to get the keys.
Bit of a sensationalist non-story. But……it will doubtless become an irrefutable urban myth. Now, if only I could borrow my neighbour’s bank debit card and his PIN I could clear out his bank account.
I could email you the password for my email account and you could “hack” it if you like.
It appears from the video above that they also needed to know a 4-digit pin which was 0000
Cellotape and a dusty finger would have done the trick…
They did that on mythbusters years ago
The bit that people should be concerned about is what Apple are go to do with the fingerprints once they are uploaded. They have plans for using them for purchases etc etc. Then it’s a given that the NSA and GCHQ will get all the details, and probably anyone else who wants to buy it from Apple.. It seems like real progress on the way for a complete ID to be stolen. This technology is old, I have in on old IBM laptops and it was broken a decade ago. They haven’t reported that Russian hackers broke this a few days ago too from fingerprints left on the phone itself. Those guys will find ways of making money from it if anyone can. I’ll stick with Android CyanogenMod on a Samsung and a password in my head.
Personally I don’t care. I’ve a 5 and will be getting a 5S simply for the better camera and the fingerprint reader so I don’t have to type passwords again, that’ll be sweet.
Plus I hold nothing on my phone of real consequence and don’t leave it in places where it can be stolen so this “hack” is of no consequence to me and I’d say 99% of users.
Aidan
Or you could buy any Nokia or Samsung phone which work better as phones & a Canon, Nikon or Sony camera, which work better as cameras.
Nothing to do with the fact his other finger was already scanned into the phone?
This article failed to mention a few things.
1. Apple promised that it can sense beyond the top layer of a user’s skin, and includes a “liveness” test that prevents even a severed finger from being used to access a stolen iphone.
2. Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all shell out money to hackers who report security flaws in their products, Apple however dosent give any money to hackers who report flaws in their products.
3. One episode of Mythbusters, they printed a fingerprint on a sheet of paper, to defeat an allegedly undefeatable lock that uses electronic fingerprint identification. All of their methods work.
4. A website called IsTouchIDHackedYet.com, designed to crowdfund a reward for the first person to demonstrate in a video that he or she can lift a fingerpint from any surface, reproduce the print, and use it to unlock an iphone. the total bounty had already risen to close to $2,500.
Another point that really should be addressed is: does the scanner in ip5 use one or several fingers for verification/storing information..? If only one, does that mean the ip5 can only be unlocked by Apple technicians for a “small” fee..? Frankly, selling an IP just for the sake a saving a couple of seconds seems stupid to me – but then again, some people like it – people have indeed different tastes… :-) – BTW, did anyone watch The Wall last Wednesday..? Food for thought…
I had a Sony laptop with a finger print scanner about seven years ago. It was a pain in the neck because the finger had to be aligned perfectly so I stopped using it and just use a password. Innovative for Apple perhaps. Wasn’t impressed with the hacking. That was his own finger print! And 0000 for the back up. Please!
How are allowed to do this, when did ‘hacking’ become legal?
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