One of the highlights of the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 and S10+ is that it is more secure than the optical fingerprint sensor seen on the likes of the OnePlus 6T, Vivo V15 Pro etc. Or at least that’s what we were led to be believed. Despite the use of superior underlying technology, the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 can be fooled by one’s 3D printed fingerprint.

A Galaxy S10 owner managed to create a 3D image of his own fingerprint and was able to use it to unlock his phone. This poses a serious security risk as with a stolen Galaxy S10 unit, one can easily unlock the device and access the banking apps, secure folder, and other hidden apps.

I attempted to fool the new Samsung Galaxy S10’s ultrasonic fingerprint scanner by using 3d printing. I succeeded.

The process of 3D printing one’s fingerprint is easy as well and does not require any kind of advanced data. The Galaxy S10 owner in question took a photo of his fingerprint using a DSLR which was then imported into Photoshop. After a bit of modification, the data was used to 3D print the fingerprint which was then used to fool the Galaxy S10’s ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.

Our Take

Given the Galaxy S10 misses out on an iris scanner, the insecure in-display fingerprint scanner really poses a major security risk. Samsung uses the fingerprint scanner for authorizing Samsung Pay transactions as well as to access the Secure Folder. The whole promise of the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 was that it was going to be more secure than other traditional in-display fingerprint scanners. The reality, however, seems to be far different from that.

I am guessing given the negative publicity that Samsung is now going to get over this, Samsung is likely to work on a software update to help make the fingerprint sensor more secure.