Android 4.0 Face Unlock Feature Fooled with Photo in Samsung Galaxy Note
During the Samsung Galaxy Note regional launch in Jakarta, Google Android 4.0's Face Unlock feature was fooled by a photo when the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was shown a photo using the Galaxy Note.
Source: SoyaCincau
Looks like Google has their work cut out for them. During the Samsung Galaxy Note regional launch in Jakarta, where we also got some hands-on time with the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy Nexus, the folks from SoyaCincau made a startling discovery - the Face Unlock feature on Google Android 4.0 can be fooled into unlocking with a photo.
SoyaCincau reiterates that the Galaxy Nexus in the video was set up to recognize a face and not a picture of a face. All doubts about the authenticity of the video could have been dismissed with a single video footage showing the Galaxy Nexus being programmed to recognize a face, followed by the unlocking with a picture of the face in the same video. Unfortunately, this wasn't done during the event.
This discovery is contrary to what we've heard from Google's Android-focused Developer Tim Bray saying on Twitter that it can't be done and to give the company some credit. This was a direct response to CyanogenMod's lead developer Koushik Dutta and his comment on the face recognition feature being easily hackable with a photo.
As with all pre-release software, the Face Unlock feature might get further tweaks to enhance its security, and Google did put a note on the setting that states Face Unlock is low-security and experimental. Once the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 hits our labs, we'll be doing our own tests to ascertain this issue.
Source: SoyaCincau via The Verge
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