The popular Android devices Samsung, HTC and Huawei are now aware this mistake and have already started to update their software to hit it. The researchers also advised about the various attacks they note and applied it on high-end laptops with fingerprint sensors. Attackers will not be able to get any fingerprint data from an iPhone even if they’re able to directly read the Touch ID sensor.
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Hackers demonstrated four different attacks at a Las Vegas conference showing how the data could be stolen and used for fraud.
By 2019, industry watchers predict that more than half of smartphones will have fingerprint sensors-which means phone makers must improve their device security.
Fingerprint scanners are slowly becoming a very important feature of a mobile specs sheet.
“To avoid being attacked by malware or being exploited for remote code execution, we suggest normal users to choose mobile device vendors with timely patching/upgrading to the latest version, and always keep your device up to date”, read the paper.
A research has been conducted by FireEye researchers, Tao Wei and Yulong Zhang, that illustrates exactly how hackers can extract your fingerprints off your Android devices.
The attacks are critical as the victim’s fingerprint can be used by attackers at other places including immigration, health records and criminal records.
Several Android smartphones with integrated fingerprint scanner, including the HTC One Max and Samsung’s Galaxy S5, fail to completely lock down the sensor, the researchers said.
The researchers notified the impacted smartphone vendors, which have since provided security patches to resolve the issue.
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Although there exists a direct access to the fingerprint sensor of Apple device, yet data is still secured with a crypto key in the device. It has now been found that Android fingerprint scanners allow hackers to take a user?s print, while Apple’s TouchID does not.
