Smartphone Security Shattered: BrutePrint Attack Unleashes Fingerprint Brute-Force to Unlock Devices
Researchers have uncovered an inexpensive method that enables the forceful cracking of smartphone fingerprints, enabling unauthorized access and control of the devices. This technique, known as BrutePrint, exploits two previously unknown vulnerabilities in the smartphone fingerprint authentication (SFA) framework to circumvent safeguards against failed biometric authentication attempts.
The vulnerabilities, called Cancel-After-Match-Fail (CAMF) and Match-After-Lock (MAL), exploit logical flaws in the authentication framework. These flaws arise due to inadequate protection of fingerprint data on the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) of fingerprint sensors.
According to the researchers, BrutePrint functions as an intermediary between the fingerprint sensor and the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), effectively executing a hardware-based man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack for hijacking fingerprint images.
The primary objective of BrutePrint is to enable an unlimited number of fingerprint image submissions until a match is found. However, it assumes that the threat actor already possesses the targeted device.
In addition, the attacker needs access to a fingerprint database and a setup comprising a microcontroller board and an auto-clicker. This setup, which costs as little as $15, intercepts the data transmitted by the fingerprint sensor to execute the attack.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/new-bruteprint-attack-lets-attackers.html