Security researcher fakes fingerprint scanner Galaxy S5 with wood glue

A German security researcher has managed to trick the Galaxy S5’s fingerprint scanner by using a wood glue dummy of his own fingerprint. He used the same dummy as the one used to bypass Touch ID on the iPhone 5s.

The method works by taking a fingerprint from, for example, the back of a telephone on the photo and making a mold of that photo. With that mold, a malicious person can reproduce the fingerprint on, for example, wood glue. By placing the wood glue dummy on his own finger, the researcher can fool the fingerprint scanner of the Galaxy S5, Heise reports.

The same method also worked on the iPhone 5s and is presumably applicable to all other fingerprint scanners in use. Current fingerprint scanners capture the pattern with high precision, but have no way of checking whether a finger is actually on the scanner.

The method seems easy, but it does require access to the necessary materials and, above all, time. In addition, it will be difficult to capture a fingerprint on the back of the Galaxy S5, as the researcher did with the iPhone 5s. The back shows fingerprints less well. The risk with a Galaxy S5 is potentially great, because users can also use the fingerprint for transactions with PayPal. It is unknown to this day how many people use the fingerprint as a method of authentication for PayPal on the Galaxy S5; the phone went on sale last week.