<story><title>Samsung: Anyone&apos;s thumbprint can unlock Galaxy S10 phone</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50080586</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tompccs</author><text>A bit of background on this (I am involved in the ultrasound industry):&lt;p&gt;- The chip Samsung uses is by Qualcomm. Their big claim is that their ultrasound fingerprint scanner is the only US government approved non-optical way of electronically scanning a fingerprint (those sensors they have at airports use basically the same technology)&lt;p&gt;- It&amp;#x27;s supposed to be more secure than the capacitive technology Apple used to use since it grabs a true image of the fingerprint and not just a low-res representation&lt;p&gt;- Given this, it&amp;#x27;s probably a problem with the software on Samsung&amp;#x27;s part, not Qualcomm&lt;p&gt;- However, it&amp;#x27;s interesting that adding the screen protector is what broke it. It suggests that there could be any number of unintentional biometric security holes&lt;p&gt;- It demonstrates that consumer tech companies (with possible exception of Apple) don&amp;#x27;t really have the expertise or motivation to properly implement biometric authentication&lt;p&gt;(edit - newlines)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>theclaw</author><text>Yeah agreed. It&amp;#x27;s almost certainly some code that needs to change from this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  testResult = TestFingerprint(fingerprint);
  if(testResult)
    return UNLOCK_OK;
  else
    return UNLOCK_FAIL;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
to this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  testResult = TestFingerprint(fingerprint);
  if(testResult == RESULT_OK)
    return UNLOCK_OK;
  else
    return UNLOCK_FAIL;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Samsung: Anyone&apos;s thumbprint can unlock Galaxy S10 phone</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50080586</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tompccs</author><text>A bit of background on this (I am involved in the ultrasound industry):&lt;p&gt;- The chip Samsung uses is by Qualcomm. Their big claim is that their ultrasound fingerprint scanner is the only US government approved non-optical way of electronically scanning a fingerprint (those sensors they have at airports use basically the same technology)&lt;p&gt;- It&amp;#x27;s supposed to be more secure than the capacitive technology Apple used to use since it grabs a true image of the fingerprint and not just a low-res representation&lt;p&gt;- Given this, it&amp;#x27;s probably a problem with the software on Samsung&amp;#x27;s part, not Qualcomm&lt;p&gt;- However, it&amp;#x27;s interesting that adding the screen protector is what broke it. It suggests that there could be any number of unintentional biometric security holes&lt;p&gt;- It demonstrates that consumer tech companies (with possible exception of Apple) don&amp;#x27;t really have the expertise or motivation to properly implement biometric authentication&lt;p&gt;(edit - newlines)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>criddell</author><text>Is Samsung actually storing a hi res copy of a fingerprint, or just a hash?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure I want any tech company storing high resolution scans of my biometrics.</text></comment>