Samsung To Fix Galaxy S10 Fingerprint Recognition Flaw

To fix problems with the Galaxy S10 smartphone’s fingerprint recognition, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it will soon put out a software patch. Galaxy S10 phones have a sensor in the display that finds the ridges of fingerprints through ultrasound, and the electronics maker has promoted the biometric authentication feature as “revolutionary,” Reuters reported.

One user had told a newspaper that a flaw on her device allowed it to be unlocked regardless of the biometric information that the device had registered. After she had purchased a third-party screen protector, her husband was able to unlock her phone with his fingerprint despite the fact that his print wasn’t registered.

The South Korean tech company said in a posting on its customer support app that the issue can occur when the patterns of silicone phone case protectors are detected. KaKaobank told consumers to halt their use of the Galaxy 10 fingerprint recognition function for logging onto its services until the problem is corrected.

In separate news, reports surfaced in April that a Samsung Galaxy S10 user was able to show how he could confuse the in-display fingerprint sensor with a 3D printer. The user was reportedly able to fool the Galaxy by taking a picture of his fingerprint through a wineglass, uploading it to Photoshop and making a model with 3D-printing software. Using a 3D-printed version of his fingerprint, he was able to get into the phone 13 minutes later. According to reports, the Galaxy S10’s fingerprint scanner is hard to trick because as it uses an ultrasonic sensor, but that particular user was able to bypass it.

While the report may raise security concerns, the use of fingerprint scanning technology to validate users is forecasted to explode this year. In the fall, research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that the use of fingerprint sensors on display technology will see 500 percent growth this year.