Your finger smudge could be your downfall

by Chris Moor
tagged Android, pattern unlock, security flaw

According to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, your fingerprints may be your downfall when it comes to your lock screen password. They have found that when you use the Android pattern unlock (the one that requires you to swipe your fingers through dots) your finger leaves oil residue on the screen. The reason this is alarming is because if you take a photo of the screen, then increase the contrast of the photo, the patterns become visable. Android 2.2 solves this problem by allowing you to use passwords requiring numbers or letters, but for our friends on 2.1 and below, beware.
Are you concerned about this? Tell us what you think in the comments.
[via eSecurity Planet]

» See more articles by Chris Moor

Categorized as Android News

Comments

http://xcmeathead.com Rich

Meh, I wipe my6 screen all the time anyway… also I don’t use the lock…
curse

I only use the dot lock to stop the phone to activate in my pocket, it’s not like it’s rocket science security.
g

Seriously, it took ‘researchers’ to figure this out? Anyway, its much more convenient than a pin to use. Security shouldn’t be so annoying to use that people bypass it. The choice is good.
Twatter

Honestly they needed to do research into this. The idea of greasy screens giving away ur passlock has been around since Feb

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/02/17/this-is-when-lock-screen-gesture-passwords-dont-work/
jay

Nothing a little whipe dpwn cant fix.
nexus one owner

Umm.. duh.. I noticed this from day one. Its really not that big a deal unless you’re totally paranoid.
E

Yeah… what they said. Duuhhh.
vicky

If you’re going to leave residue after unlocking, you’re definitely going to leave more residue with anything you do on the phone AFTER unlocking. Swiping between home screens, through webpages, using Swype keyboard, and countless other touch screen actions will all leave the similar residue marks. Will a crook really be able to tell the difference between these marks and that specific one used to unlock the phone? I seriously doubt it.
http://www.scaine.net Scaine

I retrace my dots in my pattern, so knowing the residue pattern won’t be enough. Assuming the phone can be nicked without touching the screen. Assuming I unlocked the screen, didn’t use the phone, then locked it again.

Sheesh.
http://aenima.pl Robert

Right after you unlock your phone the pattern is visible, but after actually using it for a couple of seconds the trace gets lost.

Also, I’ve noticed this issue within first couple of days of my first Android phone, didn’t take much research…
http://www.youtube.com/afterthesmoke Jude Saintfleur

I just copped this sick group named After the Smoke. their video is crazy. Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTn1KeefPT4