A new report by a Vietnamese security software firm says that Apple iPhone X Face ID technology is not as secure as the company claims.
Apple ditched the famous Touch ID on the revolutionary iPhone X and to justify this move, Cupertino has been touting the technology as more secure than what iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus users get with the fingerprint scanner. According to the updated Face ID security guide, the iPhone X has additional neural network trained to spot and resist spoofing. Well, this might not be the case, at least according to a discovery made by Vietnam’s BKAV, which is also trying to break into the phone industry.
The security firm has uploaded a video on YouTube showing how the iPhone X can be unlocked using a customized mask that costs a mere $150. The mask has cutouts of eyes, a mouth and a silicon nose on a 3D-printed frame, which proved to be sufficient to hoodwink Face ID. BKAV’s VP of cybersecurity, Ngo Tuan Anh, then went ahead and unlocked the phone using his own face to prove that it also works on his as well without resetting the feature to a new face.
Facial recognition isn’t a new feature in the smartphone industry. However, Apple claims that Face ID is the most secure version of the feature. Despite this assurance, some were quick to point out that the feature would at some point be fooled, just like it happened with the Galaxy Note 8’s facial recognition, although the latter only needed a 2D image to bypass. According to Apple, the scanning of 3D images using infrared sensors and mapping dots makes the feature unhackable.
This is a bold claim to make against what Apple has already sold to the masses. Unfortunately, what BKAV hasn’t done, though, is to provide a detailed methodology of how they found the security flaw as well as mention the vulnerable party. However, the company will be holding a one-hour press conference tomorrow from 9AM to 10AM (UTC+7) to answer any questions regarding the iPhone X Face ID and this bold claim. The event will be live in English via this link.
You can watch the video of how BKAV tricked iPhone X Face ID below.