However, it looks like these sensors are susceptible to hacking leaving the users’ fingerprints vulnerable to being compromised.
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Researchers from Security firm FireEye have found major security vulnerabilities in the Android smartphones that come with fingerprint scanners. This threat is limited mostly to Android devices with fingerprint sensors, such as Samsung, HTC, and Huawei devices, with Zhang affirming that the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 plus are “quite secure”, as the Apple devices encrypt fingerprint data from the scanner.
“In this attack, victims’ fingerprint data directly fall into attacker’s hand”.
The researchers disclosed about the malware attack that might hack fingerprint-authenticated payment systems. This was discovered to be possible because HTC and Samsung failed to fully lock down the sensor.
However, the worst type of attack that could be executed is the ‘fingerprint sensor spying attack, ‘ Engadget reports.
However, analysts believe by 2019, where it’s believed that at least half of all smartphone shipments will have a fingerprint sensor. “He added that even if the attacker can directly read the sensor, without obtaining the crypto key, [the attacker] still cannot get the fingerprint image”. It would be easy (presumably) for the Android framework to carry similar protocols, and OEM?s are certainly aware of this and many are updating their devices to solve the issues, and some devices have already been fixed.
The affected vendors such as Samsung, HTC and Huawei have released patches after being alerted to the threat, bu researchers have still warned users to keep devices software regularly updated, and only install apps from reliable sources.
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The attacks are critical as the victim’s fingerprint can be used by attackers at other places including immigration, health records and criminal records.
