Researcher bypasses iris scanner with photos

A German hacker has tricked an iris scanner with photos of an iris. A 75-pixel-diameter photo printed at 1200dpi on paper was enough to trick Panasonic’s iris scanner into thinking it was actually an iris to scan.

Security researcher Jan Krissler will present his findings at the CanSecWest security conference in Canada, but will reveal his findings to Forbes ahead of time. With photos of an iris, which can be found on the Internet, Krissler was able to gain approval for the iris scanner.

The iris scanner that Krissler was able to deceive is the Panasonic Authenticam BM-ET200. It is no longer sold, but according to Krissler it is widespread. For the trick to succeed, it had to be photos of well-lit irises.

In addition, the iris in the photos had to be at least 75 pixels in diameter and printed at a resolution of 1200dpi, which is relatively high for a printer; many consumer printers cannot print at that resolution. In addition, 75 percent of the iris had to be visible.

Krissler notes that high-quality images of irises, including world leaders, can be found via Google Images. Earlier, Krissler successfully hacked the TouchID fingerprint scanner in the iPhone.