Samsung Galaxy S8's facial recognition security can be bypassed with a photo

Samsung finally launched the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ earlier this week. While the main highlight is the Infinity display because of the lack of bezels, the phones also comes with unique security features as well. One of them is the facial recognition technology, which lets the user unlock the Galaxy S8 by scanning their face.

Now a YouTube video posted by iDeviceHelp reveals a vulnerability in the facial recognition technology, which makes it insecure. 

The video shows that the Galaxy S8 facial recognition can be fooled and bypassed using just the photo of the user. In the video, a phone is placed infront of Galaxy S8's facial scanner with an image of the owner, and the Galaxy S8 is unlocked quickly.

Samsung at the Galaxy S8 launch event touted that the facial recognition feature was one of the fast and secure way to unlock the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. However, the ease with which the phone was unlocked should be a major concern for the user despite there are other secure ways of unlocking the phone.

The facial recognition vulnerability could be due to the unfinished software, and now that it has come to Samsung's attention, it might fix the issue via a software update.

Apart from the facial recognition technology, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ also features Iris scanner and a rear-placed fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication option.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are priced at $724.99 (Rs. 47,000) and $824.99 (Rs. 53,000) and will be available in the US starting April 21. As of now there is no word on the pricing and availability for the Indian market.

Via