This clip from Discovery’s Myth Busters programme shows the boys hacking a Fingerprint Recognition door lock They try numerous methods and eventually… well see for yourself :)

 

 
Mythbusters actually copied a technique formulated by a Japanese Cryptographer by the name of Tsutomu Matsumoto. A brief description of Tsutomu’s technique is quoted below….

‘He took latent fingerprints from a glass, which he enhanced with a cyanoacrylate adhesive (super-glue fumes) and photographed with a digital camera. Using PhotoShop, he improved the contrast of the image and printed the fingerprint onto a transparency sheet.
Matsumoto took a photo-sensitive printed-circuit board (which can be found in many electronic hobby shops) and used the fingerprint transparency to etch the fingerprint into the copper. From this he made a gelatine finger using the print on the PCB, using the same process as before. Again this fooled fingerprint detectors about 80 per cent of the time.’

His work was so groundbreaking that the founder of Counterpane Internet Security and noted Cryptographer Bruce Schneier announced…

‘The results are enough to scrap the systems completely, and to send the various fingerprint biometric companies packing’

It just goes to show how insecure these locks actually are. If somebody stole your laptop with inbuilt fingerprint scanner, i’m sure they would be able to pull some prints off the laptop :) The team at hack247 have gotten their hands on a fingerprint scanner, so as soon as we get some time we’ll post up a step-by-step how-to guide on recreating fingerprints. Remember, there’s no such thing as secure :)

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