When Apple released its brand new iPhone X on November 3, right after a week team of hackers has declared to effectively hack Apple’s Face ID facial identification technology with a just mask which costs less than $150.
Yes, you heard right. Apple’s “ultra-secure” Face ID security for the iPhone X is not as safe as the company claimed throughout its launch event in September this year.
Apple’s senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said about Face ID system at some point in the event,
“Apple engineering teams have even gone and worked with professional mask makers and makeup artists in Hollywood to protect against these attempts to beat Face ID.
“These are actual masks used by the engineering team to train the neural network to protect against them in Face ID.” He added.
On the other hand, the irony is that researchers from Vietnamese cyber security firm Bkav were proficient to unlock the iPhone X by means of a mask.
Bkav researchers have a better alternative than holding it up to your face while you sleep.
The procedure was done through by the creation of owner’s face by a combination of 3D printed mask, makeup, and 2D images by means of some “special processing done on the cheeks and in the region of the face, where there are large skin areas” and the nose is shaped from silicone.
For the proof and to clear the concept to spectators, researchers have also published a video, in which they showed brand-new iPhone X first being unlocked using the particularly constructed mask, and then using the Bkav researcher’s face, in just one go.
“Many people in the world have tried different kinds of masks but all failed. It is because we understand how AI of Face ID works and how to bypass it,” an FAQ on the Bkav website said.
“You can try it out with your own iPhone X, the phone shall recognize you even when you cover a half of your face. It means the recognition mechanism is not as strict as you think, Apple seems to rely too much on Face ID’s AI. We just need a half face to create the mask. It was even simpler than we ourselves had thought.”
According to researchers it took five days after they got iPhone X on November 5th to complete their “proof-of-concept” demo and make the video. The demo was performed against one of their team member’s face devoid of instructing iPhone X to identify any components of the mask.
The firm said that “We used a popular 3D printer. The nose was made by a handmade artist. We use 2D printing for other parts (similar to how we tricked Face Recognition 9 years ago). The skin was also hand-made to trick Apple’s AI,”
Although they didn’t mention the time period took them to attempt the security of Apple’s Face ID but they told the cost the company had to bear to do all this which is around $150 for parts (which did not include a 3D printer).
Well there is not much to worry about your iPhone X creating such a mask to unlock someone’s iPhone is a lengthy process and it is not achievable to hack into a random person’s iPhone. So take a chill pill.
However, if you have a preference privacy and security over convenience then we highly advise you to use a pass code as an alternative of fingerprint or Face ID to unlock your phone. It will save you from some unwanted situations.
