Apple’s tenth anniversary iPhone X has received a very warm welcome from consumers but the phone is not without its controversies. The biggest talking point with Apple’s all screen phone is undoubtedly Face ID. Now, a security firm, Bkav, has finally broken into the iPhone X using a mask. Ever since launch, people have been trying tricks to breach Face ID. We’ve seen people using twins, paper photos, and some other ways to trick the AI on the phone. These attempts only had minimal success till now.
Bkav’s attempt at using a mask is not the first one as a number of publications like Wired magazine have tried it too. Those attempts did not work. The security firm was asked the same question and they replied:
“Because… we are the leading cyber security firm 😉 It is quite hard to make the “correct” mask without certain knowledge of security. We were able to trick Apple’s AI, as mentioned in the writing, because we understood how their AI worked and how to bypass it. As in 2008, we were the first to show that face recognition was not an effective security measure for laptops.”
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The firm has also posted a video in which they have demonstrated the bypass. However, the demonstrator attempted the unlock with the mask just once. And it worked on the very first try. There was just a single successful attempt shown. It would be interesting to see more attempts since the AI actively captures more data over time to augment its enrolled database.
The face mask itself wasn’t very expensive to make. It was 3D printed and the nose was made by an artist while other parts were 2D printed to make it look real. The whole thing cost just $150.
The Vietnamese firm believes this vulnerability can be exploited to break into phones belonging to influential personalities like politicians, billionaires, and business executives. At the moment, the only better security option is a fingerprint, concludes the firm.
Apple went against the tide to completely replace the trusty Touch ID with a 3D facial recognition scanner on the iPhone X. They even claimed that there is only 1 in a million chance face ID can be breached. Apple has not yet commented on this latest development. To know more regarding the test, hit up the source link below.