OnePlus 6 Face Unlock Fooled By Printed Photo

Face unlock isn’t really a new feature on the OnePlus 6 given that the company already allowed the OnePlus 5T to do this. However, since that device didn’t have depth sensing or 3D face mapping, it was simply using the front camera to recognize the user’s face. OnePlus didn’t add those components to the OnePlus 6 as well and it too relies on the front camera. This means that the system isn’t as secure as what you’d find on other devices and someone has demonstrated that by unlocking a OnePlus 6 with a printed photo of the owner’s face.

Twitter user @rikvduijn wanted to try and see what it would take to fool the facial recognition system on the OnePlus 6. So he handed the locked device to a friend who had a printed paper cutout of his face. The handset took a few seconds before recognizing the face and unlocking the device. The method is said to work with a black and white print out as well.

One would think that it wouldn’t be this easy to fool the facial recognition system but the video tells a different story. It would have been a different story altogether if the device had the required components for depth sensing and 3D face mapping.

That being said, it would be in the best interest of OnePlus 6 owners to rely on more safer methods such as PIN, pattern or the fingerprint sensor if they want to absolutely make sure that nobody gets into their device.

OnePlus says in a statement that it has designed face unlock for convenience and has always recommended that people use the other methods for security. “For this reason Face Unlock is not enabled for any secure apps such as banking or payments. We’re constantly working to improve all of our technology, including Face Unlock,” the company added.

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I printed my face to unlock my OnePlus 6 for the lulz… it worked ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/rAVMq8JKBr

— rik van duijn (@rikvduijn) May 29, 2018

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Face Unlock, OnePlus 6