Avishai Ziv’s Post

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Decentralized proactive retiree ⁝●⁝ Cybersecurity contrarian ⁝●⁝ Bamboo enthusiast ⁝●⁝ Seeker of great truth 👁 (prev.: product & biz prodigy on Decentralized Identity, Encryption, PET, Zero-Trust & Blockchain Security)

Can Generative AI break biometric authentication? Yes. Voice authentication is already busted. Fingerprint authentication: Not easy, but certainly feasible. Recently, Open AI has kinda released its synthetic voice engine. 15 seconds of a voice recording is enough to generate AI-generated output. While synthetic voice based on real voice isn't new, OpenAI's ubiquity makes this a perfect tool to hack voice authentication. But the real deal here is authentication based on fingerprint biometrics. My conclusion: It's coming. Here's why & how: Hacking fingerprint authentication software isn't hard. The main challenge so far has been extracting the stored fingerprint image, or providing a fake fingerprint using a captured one from the real person. Meaning, a plain brute-force attack is hard and requires physical access to the phone AND opening the phone to hack the HW (see more in the below links). But with the plethora of leaked/stolen databases of biometric data, and the power of Generative AI, I believe it's now becoming feasible to GENERATE a fingerprint and use it via "regular" SW hack against the stored valid image. A fingerprint can be thought of as a large vector image. Unlike the common belief, fingerprints aren't completely random. There are some repetitive and predictable patterns and logic. That, with some stolen biometric data, is enough to generate a small enough number of AI-generated fake fingerprints that can be used against the stored image. This DOES NOT require physical access to the phone. Attackers can do all of it remotely: Access the phone remotely, and authenticate using the fake AI-generated biometrics, without the user even noticing. It can be done even when the phone is locked. Think about it. It's not as far-fetched as it sounds. It's coming, spelling major disruption on the most common and most trusted form of authentication. --- Links to sources mentioned above: 1️⃣ {OpenAI] Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Synthetic Voices: openai[dot]com/blog/navigating-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-synthetic-voices 2️⃣ BrutePrint: bypassing smartphone fingerprint protection: usa.kaspersky[dot]com/blog/fingerprint-brute-force-android/28428/ 3️⃣ BRUTEPRINT: Expose Smartphone Fingerprint Authentication to Brute-force Attack: arxiv[dot]org/pdf/2305.10791.pdf --- #biometrics #authentication #generativeai OpenAI #databreach #identitytheft

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Christian Wentz

Founder & CEO at Gradient

3mo

I agree that if we don't have sufficient verification that the data has legitimately originated from the biometric sensor on the device, then it becomes feasible to spook these - but disagree with the mechanism you describe. Biometric sensors like fingerprint readers don't as far as I know actually store the raw fingerprint - instead they rely on a template matching approach. So the best you could do is get the reference templates. These are not generally stored at scale, it's usually just the templates of the users who have access to a given device, and again this is local, so I think the threat here is minimal. The bigger point if I infer correctly is one I agree with: we need to rigorously verify that the sensor data originates from the users legitimate device, and that the device is malware free. We built that at Gradient !

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Yael Reinhardt-Matsliah 🎗️

Handcrafted Websites for holistic practitioners 🧘 & service-based solopreneurs. Transform Casual Visitors into Loyal Clients ✨ Branding Consultant and WordPress Web Designer

3mo

Wonder what will replace voice / biometric authentication when they are no longer secure.

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Kevin O.

Securing your most sensitive discussions and documents

3mo

Well you are a bundle of joy and comfort! 😀

John Gunn

CEO & Next-Generation MFA Evangelist

3mo

Well said and very insightful. Anything stored on a mobile phone, server, or in the cloud is fair game and absolutely at risk.

Walter Peterscheck

Tech Program and Product Manager | PMP, CSM | MBA, MSIA | AWS Certified

3mo

Thanks for posting.

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Igor Ilyinsky

Superintelligence Architect @ ListenUp Ai/Ar/Az/Ao/n/a, tknmcs.com, Inventor, Coder, Father, Speaker, Investor, Hacker, Builder, Husband, Musician

3mo

How is Voice authentication is already busted?

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Walter Peterscheck

Tech Program and Product Manager | PMP, CSM | MBA, MSIA | AWS Certified

3mo

Timothy Collinson, Scott Peterson

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Amir Tsrouya

Business Development | Marketing | Product | Innovation | Leadership

3mo

Thought provoking, as always!

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