Someone really cracked Face ID, and the method through which it was breached is surprising. A team of researchers discovered that Apple's ultra-secure Face ID biometric security can be bypassed using a pair of glasses with tape attached to them.
The method, according to Tencent researchers, is able to trick Face ID into thinking someone's eyes are open, which means it could potentially allow hackers to unlock an iPhone while the owner is asleep.
Researchers Discover Simple Face ID Hack
As Threatpost reports, the researchers only needed glasses with black tape on the lenses and smaller pieces of white tape on the black tape. Apparently, this little jerry-rigged paraphernalia is enough to fool Apple's highly secure Face ID. The researchers were attempting to hack the system's "liveness" detection as part of the biometric process that tells "fake" and "real" human characteristics apart. Face ID usually doesn't open when a person is unconscious, but this technique tricks this attention-awareness feature.
"With the leakage of biometric data and the enhancement of AI fraud ability, liveness detection has become the Achilles' heel of biometric authentication security as it is to verify if the biometric being captured is an actual measurement from the authorized live person who is present at the time of capture," said the researchers during their demonstration.
Face ID And Glasses
They found "weak points" in Apple's facial recognition system related to detection of glasses. Apparently, Face ID works a bit differently if it detects the person is wearing glasses. When the system recognizes the user has them on, it doesn't pull information from the eye region of the face as it usually would without the specs.
Apple has yet to comment on this development. In any case, make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more.
Should You Be Worried?
Yes and no. Yes, because this vulnerability calls to question the robustness of Apple's Face ID system. Now, Apple didn't outright claim Face ID was impenetrable, but it did boast about it being super secure. This trick is really simple too. Who knows what shortcomings Face ID has that remain undiscovered?
Also, no — because for this trick to work, the victim would have to be in such a deep sleep that they don't wake up even as someone tries to put glasses on their face.
Do you think this new vulnerability is a big deal? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
