Most of us store almost our entire lives on our phones, and for that reason we want them to be secure. There are many ways to protect our data, including mere unlock patterns, passwords, and of course biometrics. While many trust the latter to be particularly safe, they can still be fooled. Indeed, we already know the S10's face unlock isn't particularly trustworthy, we thought its in-display fingerprint scanner to be foolproof, thanks to its ability to sense blood flow. However, a recent experiment proved the phone can be unlocked using 3D printed fingerprints, just like other handsets mistook fake heads for actual ones.
Qualcomm proudly presented its 3D Sonic Sensor as being able to "detect blood flow within the finger and prevent hackers from spoofing the device with a photo or a mold." Despite this claim, Imgur user Darkshark has been able to unlock a Galaxy S10+ using a 3D-printed fingerprint. In order to achieve this, he took a picture of his actual fingerprint, processed it on his computer and then printed it on a slide. Although he used gloves to avoid the phone recognizing his prints, he had to put his finger on the slide to get the handset to unlock, which could mean the sensor managed to detect some blood flow through the protection.
https://imgur.com/gallery/8aGqsSu
In any case, you should only be worried about this if you're important enough for someone to replicate your fingerprints, physically gain access to your phone, and potentially find valuable data on it. Otherwise, your files are probably not important enough for anyone to spend time trying to fool your phone's fingerprint scanner — sorry.
Qualcomm's safety feature might not be that useless, though: Given the S10 might have detected the blood flow through the gloves, it's possible a full-size mold or even a severed finger won't get you through the lock screen.
Via: The Verge