Apple’s Face ID biometric security can be misled using a pair of glasses with tape attached to them, security researchers from Tencent have discovered.
ThreatPost reports that the method is able to fool Face ID into thinking someone’s eyes are open, meaning it could allow hackers to gain access to a locked iPhone while its owner is asleep.
The reality of the hack, however, means that it’s unlikely to be of much practical use in a real-world context.
A hacker would need to literally place a pair of glasses onto their target without them noticing, and then hold their phone up in front of them.
It would be much easier for someone to simply force a target to look at their device, like one FBI agent did last year.
Tencent’s discovery sheds an interesting light on how Apple’s latest biometric security process works, however.