A hacker managed to replicate the fingerprint of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen simply by scanning a photo of her thumb. The photos had been made public by the media.
Until now, we knew that with enough care, fingerprints can be copied from objects with polished surfaces that have been touched by a person. This method is also used by the police, but security researchers have managed to prove that it can be done by anyone.
Fingerprints can be reproduced from images
At the Chaos Computer Club hacker conference in Hamburg this year, Jan Krissler , also known as Starbug, presented how the biometric feature can be reproduced from photographs of a finger.
Krissler he examines the weaknesses of biometric security systems.
The fingerprint he managed to replicate was found in a photo of von der Leyen's thumb, taken at a press conference in October. He then used additional close-up photos to fill in the missing parts of the fingerprint.
The tool used by the researcher was VeriFinger, which incorporates fingerprint recognition technology. The software is designed for biometric system integrators and is based on a robust algorithm that complies with the standard fingerprint recognition system.
Fingerprint Extractor is an application that is available to consumers for €20 if nine licenses are purchased.
This particular vulnerability is probably something that should worry device manufacturers as more and more of them use the fingerprint recognition feature.
Acquiring a fingerprint through the Krissler method can bypass all biometric systems that secure access to many different places, because physical access is no longer necessary.
Watch the presentation video (German)
