Vulnerability found in the fingerprint storage on your smartphone

Security experts from the Ruhr Institute for Software Technology at the University of Duisburg-Essen

(UDE), have developed a new method for fuzzing protected memory areas in modern processors. It made it possible to identify critical vulnerabilities when working with biometric data. Discuss

Intel "Software Guard" extensionExtension" (SGX) – a widely used technology to protect sensitive data from misuse. It helps developers isolate a specific area of ​​memory from the rest of the computer. For example, a password manager can run securely in such an enclave even if the rest of the system is corrupted by malware.

However, there are cases when, when programmingenclaves, errors creep in. Thanks to new fuzzing technology, researchers have been able to discover many previously unknown security issues in fingerprint drivers as well as cryptocurrency storage wallets. Hackers can use these vulnerabilities to read biometric data or steal the entire balance of the stored cryptocurrency. It is reported that companies developing biometrics and crypto wallet-related software have been informed.