Apple patrons may want to wait before they purchase the iPhone X given the recent news that there is a looming security issue that allows anyone to easily access the phone.
Vietnamese security firm Bkav has stated in a blog post and video the method they used in order to fool the device's Face identification (ID) technology. The group went on and claimed that Apple's security system for its new flagship phone is not as invincible as marketed and actually has an apparent flaw.
The procedure the Bkav used is actually quite simple. They created a 3D printed mask of a person and pasted 2D facial features such as the eyes, the nose, and the mouth on it and then introduced it to the iPhone X, which then considered the mask as a legitimate person. Additionally, the security experts at Bkav have also claimed that they can also easily break into Apple's other security mechanisms.
Due to this, Bkav's researchers have expressed that Apple's security features used on the iPhone X and its facial recognition technology, in general, is "not mature enough after nearly 10 years of development." Bkav has also shown several demonstrations to Reuters about the do-it-yourself (DIY) method used in fooling the Face ID of iPhone X. There, the facial recognition was bypassed every time.
Users and potential buyers, however, should take these results with a grain of salt, as Bkav has declined the requests of other users asking for their own 3D printed mask from scratch. Apparently, the mask takes about nine hours to be refined and processed and has to be introduced to the iPhone at very specific angles.
This could mean that the Bkav researchers are currently the only ones able to bypass the Face ID of iPhone X since the 3D printer or face-scanning software they used might also be specialized or have different specifications than others. Apple, on the other hand, has not yet commented on the issue.
