Hackers offer reward for first iPhone 5s fingerprint hack
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 09/19/2013 01:20 PM
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Hackers are offering about $2500, at last look, to hack the iPhone 5s fingerprint reader. The reward will go to the first person to successfully and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5s by lifting prints (like from a beer mug).
According to the article from Forbes, Nick Depetrillo and Robert David Graham launched IsTouchIDHackedYet.com, a website designed to crowdfund a reward for the first person to demonstrate in a video that he or she can lift a fingerprint from any surface, reproduce the print, and use it to unlock the owner of that fingerprint’s iPhone 5s.
As of Wednesday night, the total bounty had already risen to close to $2,500, along with nearly $500 worth of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and sundry extras including a bottle of tequila, a lockpicking tool, and a “dirty sex book.”
Depetrillo says he decided to start collecting the bounty not because he wants to see Apple’s new fingerprint reader hacked, but because he hopes to show how difficult spoofing TouchID may turn out to be. “Basically people criticized the TouchId sensor as being insecure, thinking it was a typical fingerprint sensor from five years ago,” he writes to me. “In reality it’s a lot harder, and I was part of a vocal minority of security researchers who argued Apple did a good job.
Given what Depetrillo describes as Apple’s thoughtful implementation of its fingerprint reader, he says he’s not sure whether IsTouchIDHackedYet.com’s bounty will ever grow large enough to incentivize a hacker to find and reveal a successful attack against it.
“Nothing is hack proof,” admits Depetrillo. “I honestly don’t know if someone will claim it…If they do I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
According to the article from Forbes, Nick Depetrillo and Robert David Graham launched IsTouchIDHackedYet.com, a website designed to crowdfund a reward for the first person to demonstrate in a video that he or she can lift a fingerprint from any surface, reproduce the print, and use it to unlock the owner of that fingerprint’s iPhone 5s. As of Wednesday night, the total bounty had already risen to close to $2,500, along with nearly $500 worth of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and sundry extras including a bottle of tequila, a lockpicking tool, and a “dirty sex book.”
Depetrillo says he decided to start collecting the bounty not because he wants to see Apple’s new fingerprint reader hacked, but because he hopes to show how difficult spoofing TouchID may turn out to be. “Basically people criticized the TouchId sensor as being insecure, thinking it was a typical fingerprint sensor from five years ago,” he writes to me. “In reality it’s a lot harder, and I was part of a vocal minority of security researchers who argued Apple did a good job.
Given what Depetrillo describes as Apple’s thoughtful implementation of its fingerprint reader, he says he’s not sure whether IsTouchIDHackedYet.com’s bounty will ever grow large enough to incentivize a hacker to find and reveal a successful attack against it.
“Nothing is hack proof,” admits Depetrillo. “I honestly don’t know if someone will claim it…If they do I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
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