Mobile Threat Catalogue

Biometric Spoofing

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Threat Category: Authentication: User to Device

ID: AUT-7

Threat Description: Older biometric systems were subject to spoofing, through methods such as printed pictures of faces and fingerprints lifted from other places.

Threat Origin

Liveness Detection to Fight Biometric Spoofing 1

iPhone 5S Touch ID susceptible to fingerprint spoofs 2

Exploit Examples

Why I hacked TouchID (again) and still think it’s awesome 3

CVE Examples

Not Applicable

Possible Countermeasures

Mobile Device User

To reduce the opportunity for an attacker to conduct a biometric spoofing attack, physically secure the device (e.g., lock it in a secure container) when leaving it directly unattended.

To prevent an attacker able to successfully conduct a biometric spoofing attack against the device from automatically gaining access to sensitive data, implement multi-factor authentication mechanisms for sensitive apps or services.

Mobile Device user

Consider devices in which multi-factor biometric authentication mechanisms transform the biometric data using an additional factor (e.g., password or cryptographic token).

Enterprise

Consider devices in which multi-factor biometric authentication mechanisms transform the biometric data using an additional factor (e.g., password or cryptographic token).

To prevent an attacker able to successfully conduct a biometric spoofing attack against the device from automatically gaining access to sensitive data, implement multi-factor authentication mechanisms for sensitive apps or services.

References

  1. J. Trader, “Liveness Detection to Fight Biometric Spoofing”, blog, 22 July 2014; http://blog.m2sys.com/scanning-and-efficiency/liveness-detection-fight-biometric-spoofing/ [accessed 8/25/2016] 

  2. SRLabs, “iPhone 5S Touch ID susceptible to fingerprint spoofs”, YouTube video, 25 Sept. 2013; www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1n_tS9zxMc [accessed 8/25/2016] 

  3. M. Rogers “Why I hacked TouchID (again) and still think it’s awesome”, blog, 23 Sept. 2016; https://blog.lookout.com/blog/2014/09/23/iphone-6-touchid-hack; [accessed 8/25/2016]