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Hackers claim to crack iPhone’s Touch ID
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A GROUP of German hackers claimed to have cracked the iPhone fingerprint scanner on Sunday, just two days after Apple Inc launched the technology that it promises will better protect devices from criminals and snoopers seeking access.
If the claim is verified, it will be embarrassing for Apple which is betting on the scanner to set its smartphone apart from new models of Samsung Electronics and others running the Android operating system of Google.
Two prominent iPhone security experts said they believed the German group, known as the Chaos Computing Club, or CCC, had succeeded in defeating Apple’s Touch ID, though they had not personally replicated the work.
One of them, Charlie Miller, co-author of the iOS Hacker’s Handbook, described the work as “a complete break” of Touch ID security. “It certainly opens up a new possibility for attackers.”
Apple representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
CCC, one the world’s largest and most respected hacking groups, posted a video on its website that appeared to show somebody accessing an iPhone 5S with a fabricated print. The site described how members of its biometrics team had cracked the new fingerprint reader, one of the few major high-tech features added to the latest version of the iPhone.
The group said they targeted Touch ID to dent reports which said it would be hard to crack.
“Fingerprints should not be used to secure anything. You leave them everywhere, and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints,” a hacker named Starbug was quoted as saying on the site.
CCC said it defeated Touch ID by photographing the fingerprint of an iPhone’s user, then printing it on to a transparent sheet, which it used to create a mold for a “fake finger.”
CCC said similar processes have been used to crack “the vast majority” of fingerprint sensors on the market.
“I think it’s legit,” said Dino Dai Zovi, another co-author of the iOS Hacker’s Handbook. “The CCC doesn’t fool around or over-hype, especially when they are trying to make a political point.”
Touch ID, only introduced on the iPhone 5S, lets users unlock their devices or make purchases on iTunes by pressing their finger on the home button.
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