• stom@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    This is why I use Linux, the fingerprint device wouldn’t be supported so this wouldn’t be an issue /s

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    It stopped working when I uninstalled Edge, and so did the face recognition. So it depends on WebView or some shit. Pretty sure it’s Microsoft’s way of getting around the new EU regulations and hastily integrating the browser into everything, regardless of it making sense or improving security. like they did with 98 after the browser anti-competitiveness lawsuit.

    • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      Wtf. It shouldn’t even need those permissions. All it needs to do is scan if the fingerprint it stores matches you.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It uses web view for web authentication for registering your Hello PIN to your Microsoft account. So it’s by design on Microsoft’s end. You can then use the Windows Hello credential as a passkey but if you don’t want that, you’d need another solution for biometric auth.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

          Still, that does not explain the Edge dependency. Lots of programs can communicate with their respective servers without browser technology.

          • Unaware7013@kbin.social
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            2 years ago

            It kinda does though, if you look at it from a speed/competency aspect. I’m more and more convinced that the people who build out features only have tangential ideas on how it integrates into the overall system, so just throwing a browser at every problem gets you a cookie cutter backend with APIs and let’s you shove half baked features out the door without having to figure out how to wrap data in protocols since you just hand your payload so the browser and wait for a response.

      • Wooki@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Oh sweet summer child. No. That would have been the intelligent approach. It could have been fast and secure but it wouldn’t have had all that delicious telemetry nor taken another step towards charging you rent just to use your computer.

        They locked it behind two online services. Welcome to the new Microsoft. If it doesn’t include charging you rent or using you & your private information to train a large ai model. They don’t care.

    • pycorax@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      hastily integrating the browser into everything, regardless of it making sense

      So software development in general in the last couple of years?

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    Reading the article it doesn’t sound like it’s Microsoft’s issue but the vendor’s implementation and lack of using the secure communication protocol.

  • Luci@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    Stop using biometrics for authentication!!!

    Edit: lots of opinions below. Biometrics are a username, a thing you are. Finger printed can be taken from your laptop with a little powder and masking tape.

    Use an authentacator app or security key kids!!

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Better put would be stop using biometrics for single factor authentication. A token can be stolen, or a passcode/push notification can be phished/bypassed as easy as biometrics can.

    • Name is Optional@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      In Doom I had to rip off a dudes arm to gain access to the security controls on core cooling shutdown. If you don’t want to lose an arm to stop a demon horde, you’re better off just using your girlfriend’s fingerprints

        • Name is Optional@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          No… I get it totally. That why I know my girl’s worth my time, she’s willing to potentially give up her arm for me to still play DOOM 8 days a week

    • 0xD
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      2 years ago

      A username is not something “you are”, it’s something “you know”. Biometrics are not nearly the same as usernames.

      • Luci@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        A username is something you are. It’s you! You are 0xD.
        A password is something you know. A security key is something you have.

        When we interview security analysts you don’t get past the first round if you disagree.

        • feddylemmy@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          If your interview involves telling me a username is “something you are” rather than “something you know”, I’m running away from that job as fast as I can.

          • Luci@lemmy.ca
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            2 years ago

            Other people know your username.

            How hard is this?

            • Blueteamsecguy
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              2 years ago

              I guarantee you I know thousands of people’s passwords as well, I just don’t know the username associated.

            • sirfancy@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              By this same logic, other people could know your fingerprint since it’s “something you are”. No, other people cannot know your fingerprint. It’s a complex mathematical equation to a computer. This is such a terrible take.

              Source: CASP+ certified.

        • 0xD
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          2 years ago

          No, this username is one of the names I’ve chosen for the accounts I use on lemmy. It does not identify me, it identifies the lemmy accounts that I just so happen to know the password for. I was just about to create an account with your username on another instance but meh, that’s too much work. Just imagine me having done that and think about what you just wrote.

          I would be vary of the people agreeing with you on something so basic yet so wrong.

          An authentication factor is a unique identifier that shows that you possess something that others don’t. Biometrics are something you are because your fingerprints, your retinas, or your DNA are (mostly) unique to you. A security key is something you have because unique cryptographic material is saved on the hardware device that cannot be replicated somewhere else (which is why many mobile authenticators really aren’t). And a password is something you know because… Bla bla bla.

          To be pedantic, a username is not a factor in this sense at all; It is an identifier for an account that you have to prove authorization for by presenting some kind of factor, sometimes multiple.

      • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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        2 years ago

        As with all things security, it depends entirely on your thread model and the value of what you’re trying to protect.

        Biometrics can be a much more secure option than using a PIN or password, depending in circumstances.

        For example: when I’m working on my laptop on the train or in a coffee shop and I need to log into some website I’d rather use my fingerprint to unlock the passkey than type in a password in a public place where I have no idea who is observing me entering my password.

        Same goes for paying with your phone, you can either enter your phone PIN in a crowded supermarket or you unlock with FaceID.

        Also, for phones, for a lot of people the alternative to biometrics wouldn’t be a PIN, it would be no authentication whatsoever. Biometrics lowers the barrier to having a form of authentication at all.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          2 years ago

          for a lot of people the alternative to biometrics

          Full password Android user representing here… It’s surprising how few people bother to even stop any amount of snooping on their phones. but I guess it’s only surprising in that I wished more from society in general.

        • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Biometrics can be spoofed, or the body part stolen in extreme cases.

          Also, in the US at least, biometrics aren’t protected by the same rights that allow you to not incriminate yourself. IIRC they’re considered a thing you have, which you can be compelled to surrender or use to unlock a device, vs something you know (like a password or pattern) which you can withhold if it would be incriminating. Check with a lawyer on this one, I haven’t paid attention to the case law here for a bit.

          • Squeak@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            If someone is stealing my body parts, what they access on my devices is the least of my worries!

            • wmassingham@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              They don’t have to be stolen. Imagine some clever thief drugging your drink, then when you’re incapacitated they take your phone and press your finger to it or hold it up to your face to unlock it, then transfer all your money out of Venmo or whatever money transfer app you have on your phone.

              • Squeak@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                The comment I replied to said stolen, which is what I was getting at.

                There’s also nothing to stop someone watching over your shoulder to see your PIN for your phone/laptop. Nothing is infallible.

              • jimbo@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                God, the shit people dream up to worry themselves about. Nobody is drugging you to unlock your phone.

        • snooggums@kbin.social
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          2 years ago

          If it is low detail enough to consistently ‘work’, it isn’t complex enough to be better than something like a chip and pin approach.

          They are repeatedly bypassed with easy hacks like silly putty and photographs. People’s biometrics are not unchanging. Burned fingers, swollen eyes, and sore throats are things that can change enough to make biosecurity unreliable. That is before cold and heat and how they effect biological things!

          That is all before you take into account the fact that some people don’t have whatever is being used. Have fun using eye based biosecurity on someone with cataracts or is missing their eyes entirely due to injury or just being born without them fully developed. Or they have a physical issue that makes it hard for them to interact with the bio reader. Stephen Hawking needing to lean towards a mounted eye scanner would be impossible for example.

          So either you have mediocre security that allows for a lot of false positives to get through or you end up having to add a bypass system for when it fails, and now you have two ways that security can be defeated! A non-biological solution with two factor authentication of an item and a PIN or other knowledge piece is far more secure than biosecurity can ever be.

          So already insecure, but in addition to that anyone with physical access to the person can force them to do the biosecurity. Police are able to force someone to put their finger on their phone, or look at the screen for a face unlock. Maybe they aren’t legally able to, but it is a good example of not being secure.

        • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          They aren’t 100% reliable and it has its’ challenges based on its implementation but I wouldn’t consider it fundamentally insecure. It’s as secure as a NFC token, TOTP, or a push notification as a form of authentication. It’s like birth control, no method is 100% safe and effective, but plain username and password auth is like pulling out, anything is better than that.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      Not on my Lenovo. Fingerprint reader requires a swipe, no print left behind.

      • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I have a lot of questions about what this guy thinks the rest of your device is covered in. Because spoiler, it’s fingerprints.

      • Derpgon@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        Mine does not work at all. I’d like to see the guy trying to take fingerprints for a few hours and realizing it won’t do shit lol.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Microsoft’s Offensive Research and Security Engineering (MORSE) asked Blackwing Intelligence to evaluate the security of fingerprint sensors, and the researchers provided their findings in a presentation at Microsoft’s BlueHat conference in October.

    The team identified popular fingerprint sensors from Goodix, Synaptics, and ELAN as targets for their research, with a newly-published blog post detailing the in-depth process of building a USB device that can perform a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack.

    Blackwing Intelligence researchers reverse engineered both software and hardware, and discovered cryptographic implementation flaws in a custom TLS on the Synaptics sensor.

    The complicated process to bypass Windows Hello also involved decoding and reimplementing proprietary protocols.

    The researchers found that Microsoft’s SDCP protection wasn’t enabled on two of the three devices they targeted.

    Blackwing Intelligence now recommends that OEMs make sure SDCP is enabled and ensure the fingerprint sensor implementation is audited by a qualified expert.


    The original article contains 474 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      2 years ago

      … Did that say “custom implementation of TLS”?

      That’s like… The first rule of security. You don’t roll your own cryptographic implementation. Like, first you’re told that, then they tell you the difference between security and obscurity, say both those things in bold, and continue with whatever beginner topic

  • psudojo
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    2 years ago

    im all for the something you have + something you are , pb&j relationship, but i dont think lathering biometrics on top is a good idea,far too many spy movies have shown Tom Cruise doing the MOST for pictures of eyeballs and fingerprints for me to ever trust this type of auth

    • Herowyn@jlai.lu
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      2 years ago

      The main issue with biometrics is that you can’t change them. If your fingerprints or retina are compromised you’re fucked.

  • atocci@kbin.social
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    2 years ago

    The Surface Pro X has a fingerprint reader? Is it on the keyboard or something? Mine sure doesn’t have one.