“Super Secure”, Not any more : Facial Recognition
Darkreading reports that Researchers Hack Faces In Biometric Facial Authentication Systems.
The article is interesting, to say the least. It writes about how the hackers have managed to hack the facial recognition software used to logon onto laptops from ASUS, Toshiba and Lenovo.
A team led by Nguyen Minh Duc, manager of the application security department at the Bach Khoa Internetwork Security Center at Hanoi University of Technology, managed to hack Lenovo’s Veriface III, ASUS’ SmartLogon V1.0.0005, and Toshiba’s Face Recognition 2.0.2.32 systems, which come on the companies’ webcam equipped laptops. Nguyen Minh Duc is scheduled to demonstrate at Black Hat DC this week how he and his colleagues used multiple methods to hack top biometric facial recognition products and gain easy access to systems.
It is interesting to read the tricks they used to hack the software. The simplest way was to simply use a picture of the person to spoof the webcam into thinking it was the user. This is the easiest route if you are trying to hack your friends computer, as you can easily find their images on social networking websites like Facebook, Myspace etc.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc said, “There is no way to fix this vulnerability. ASUS, Lenovo, and Toshiba have to remove this function from all the models of their laptops … [they] must give an advisory to users all over the world: Stop using this [biometric] function.”
They are going to be releasing a set of hacking tools at Black Hat DC conference.
Perhaps this will make ASUS, Lenovo and Toshiba and other companies come up with some better means to secure the laptops.
Read the full article here
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