Yahoo News Phone’s fingerprint scanner ‘is fooled by chewing gum’
Alarmed phone users have reported that fingerprint scanners on the new Nokia 9 can be fooled with other people’s fingerprints – or a chewing gum packet.
The problem on Nokia 9 PureView phones appeared after a software update, and affects the ‘in display’ fingerprint reader (built into the glass of the display).
Users reported being able to unlock their phones with someone else’s fingerprint – or even with gum.
Nokia 9 PureView buggy update lets anyone bypass fingerprint scanner with a pack of gumhttps://t.co/83udGouvpq pic.twitter.com/yxsmLJiMKn
— Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi) April 22, 2019
Tech site Phone Arena say that their test handset replicated the error, saying, ‘Unfortunately, we can confirm that it is possible to unlock it with an unregistered finger.
HMD has just gotten back to me about the Nokia 9 fingerprint reader. They are investigating it. pic.twitter.com/EbeqQ35422
— TechAltar (@TechAltar) April 23, 2019
‘The false positive appears to be somewhat random, it’s not just the phone mistaking another fingerprint for the real one consistently.’
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Security experts such as Naked Security advise using a PIN instead until Nokia issues a software update to deal with the problem, and disabling fingerprint access.
