[ltp] Fingerprint reader and the Bios

[Aaron Mulder]

This whole conversation seems kind of surreal to me.  If anyone wants
to log in to my machine so much that they'll capture my fingerprint
and make a mold of my finger to fool the fingerprint sensor, then
surely they could equivalently mount a camera to capture my password.=20
Or hell, spend 5 minutes at the machine and install a compact
keystroke logger between the keyboard and motherboard socket.

When I reported the fingerprint module to SuSE, the response I got was
that integrating the driver was out of the question because it was
proprietary code that required root privs and thus was inherently
insecure.

I don't get this either.  To me, the fingerprint reader is way more
secure because the only meaningful risk I feel I run is typing in my
password when unsuspending the machine or deactivating the screen
saver.  Which I have to do in front of clients, on airplanes, in
meetings, etc.  In other words, there are hundreds of opportunities
for someone to shoulder surf my password.  But with the fingerprint
reader, I eliminate all of those in an instant.  How could this be
considered less secure?

Finally, raise your hand if you're participating in this thread and
you've used a wireless or bluetooth keyboard.  I had to talk myself
out of that one, though granted, not for my ThinkPad.  :)

Thanks,
    Aaron

On 1/26/06, Rolf Kutz <kutz@netcologne.de> wrote:
> * Quoting Michele Campeotto (micampe@micampe.it):
>
> > On 12/15/05, Sean Dague <sean@dague.net> wrote:
> > > Doesn't really matter though.  With an egg of Play-Doh you can fool t=
he
> > > thing: http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_28878.shtml
> >
> >   Not really, the ThinkPad fingerprint reader is a swipe sensor just
> > to prevent that. Imagine what happens when you sweep a ball of
> > Play-Doh on something.
>
> Play-Doh is just an example.
>
> http://www.ccc.de/biometrie/fingerabdruck_kopieren.xml
>
> - Rolf
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