Fingerprint “Master Keys” Generated with Neural Network Could Break Your Phone’s Password
Running the work with biometrics is always a balancing act. By using passwords, authentication is simple — either it matches, or it fails if not correct. But when that "password" is part of a part someone’s body, whether an iris match, face scan, or just a usual old fingerprint, mobile systems have to anticipate and account for a hint of wiggle room. In spite of everything, one would never want that face scan failing because he got a pimple on his face, or his fingerprint got rejected just because of touching the sensor at a slightly different angle each time. However, now a new attack is taking advantage of the flexibility programmed into user’s mobile phone systems by creating fake "universal" fingerprints. These fake (synthetic) fingerprints, which are generally called “DeepMasterPrints” mostly by the researchers, were created by feeding a neural network image of the original fingerprints until it could generate its own. Most of these prints...