Attacks Against Biometrics
Roger A. Grimes · 2020
This chapter covers attacks against multifactor authentication solutions that use biometrics as part of their authentication factors and explores the various ways to hack them. In computer security, biometrics are personal authenticators linked to physical human body composition (i.e., physiological) or behaviors that can uniquely identify a person. Biometric authentication has become popular because our biometric traits are likely unique in the world. The chapter describes the various steps in the biometric authentication process, including acquisition, normalization, data points selection, storage, comparison, and authentication. It discusses problems associated with biometric authentication, including high false error rates, privacy issues, and disease transmission. The chapter presents some example attacks against biometric authentication, including fingerprint attacks, hand vein attack, eye biometric spoof attacks, and facial recognition attacks. It also explores developer and user defenses to mitigate attacks against biometrics.