Face unlock on bitcoin wallet devices

Smartvirus

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

I consider finger print or biometric unlocking of devices a dangerous means to privacy and even worst still, face unlock. I mean, why would anyone have that on their wallet even?

In the case of finger print, there are means to get your finger print but the next thing would be your device. While some means might require someone accessing your device by targeting your subconscious moment to get your prints on your device, it poses a challenge of you having to wake up and note what’s being done.

In the case of face unlock, you better be conscious of shadow cast or lights in your face otherwise, your privacy is very much a goner and that makes it even the more risky.

Alphanumeric passwords remains the best means towards protecting your wallet privacy when compared with the other two options.

Jon_Hodl

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Biometrics are imperfect by design. Sometimes the light will be low or you will have facial hair or makeup on etc. To account for this, all biometrics are designed to unlock your device with less than 100% accuracy.

Using biometrics to unlock a bitcoin wallet is probably not that big of a deal for small amounts of bitcoin that you are not worried about losing but biometrics are best used for usernames and not for passwords or pin codes.

For any serious amounts of bitcoin, a hardware wallet is the best option. If you're super paranoid, then an air-gapped hardware wallet with either a passphrase or multisig provides the absolute highest level of security.

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Quote from: _act_ on September 04, 2023, 08:56:01 AM

Quote from: Saint-loup on September 02, 2023, 05:51:14 PM

Quote from: ultrloa on September 02, 2023, 08:21:53 AM

Maybe he find it hassle since he will not say that if he think its good for him. I also didn't use that feature but not the same with his reason since I just don't like to use it as we can't avoid to get wound on our hands and I'm worried about if we can't use our finger print to open up our wallet. But for other its still good since this is additional security measure added for protection so if a user feel to use it then its really a good decision to do. For face unlock well I don't also use that and still doubting to try this feature.

Usually you can always use a pin code to unlock your wallet instead and you can add several fingers from both hands for the fingerprint, so even if you are wounded at several fingers or at a whole hand you will still be able to use the feature with the fingers remaining if you have registered all your fingers, and if you really can't use any of them for some reasons you can use the pin code as an alternative.

I am quoting you both.

@ultrloa. For face unlock, it is not a better security, it will only depreciate the security. It is not advisable at all. I have not seen a wallet that has that feature yet, but on phone, I will not advice people to use it because it is not secure at all.

@Saint-loup. All wallets that have fingerprint also have pin or password, you can enable both if you want. But the secure and safe way is to use only pin or password.

According to who precisely? Pin code or password are not safer, because you can easily lost or forget them, and they can also easily be stolen by someone next to you when you are typing them, or by anyone finding the sheet of paper where you've archived them. Stealing fingerprints is way more difficult, and you are very unlikely to lose them, if you have register all your fingers. But you can try to register some of your toes too, if you are afraid of losing all your fingers.

yazher

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Basically, my brother can easily open my phone because it recognizes him as me, maybe we have almost identical head shapes and eyes though we're not even twins. If it's only a small amount of bitcoins then it should have been no problem at all even if he wants to get it. But face lock is not always guaranteed to be safe since I can tell you right now that it can be opened by someone else other than you.

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Quote from: Bureau on August 30, 2023, 02:59:23 AM

Security features on a mobile Bitcoin wallet are integrated using the mobile device security features. IMO if you are using a good device like iPhone or Samsung Galaxy then face unlock or fingerprint scanner should not be an issue. As we know those two brands have the best security & safety feature. You still can add pin code with the finger print scanner to add an extra layer of security. I haven't seen any mobile wallet integrating face unlock feature yet. If you know such a mobile wallet then do share here.

The bigger question is, would you use a face recognition security feature with you Bitcoin wallet if the ops share any mobile wallet that offer such security, i have face lock set on my local banks apps but i still have extra layer of security like pin, and since i already know the security vulnerability that comes with the face lock security i won't have it on my Bitcoin wallet no matter how convincing it looks or sound to me.
I better set a very strong password to protect my wallet since it is not what I use at frequently time but for storage of my coins.

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

It is on this forum that I knew using fingerprint to unlock wallet device is not good, specifically mobile phones. We know already that we should not have too much bitcoin on a mobile wallet. Let us assume that you have little amount of bitcoin on a mobile bitcoin wallet like Electrum or Bluewallet but you still want security.

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

I currently use an iPhone 11 and to open the screen and even some of my important applications, I use a facial recognition system or what is commonly called face unlock, in my opinion this is much safer than fingerprints because my bitcoin wallet was once locked because my fingerprints had a little problem so I have set all the important applications on my iPhone to use face unlock (I use safepal and trustwallet to store my bitcoin and some altcoin assets and I activate face unlock from my iphone settings)

Sexylizzy2813

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

If fingerprint (which I see is more secured) is not secured is it face unlock that's more secured?
I can't really say but depending on who's using the device, someone who's kind of careless. If there should be a vote on which is preferable I believe 95% of users here would go for fingerprint.
The only way I think someone can access your wallet is either when you're fast asleep, someone can use your print to access it without you knowing and you can't access it if you accidentally lost your arms, in such case what would you do?🤔

_act_

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Quote from: un_rank on September 04, 2023, 11:23:33 AM

Quote from: EarnOnVictor on September 04, 2023, 11:09:12 AM

Your security could be compromised at any time unknowingly, especially while you sleep.

This is the least of the security challenges you face and many companies have customized their system to only allow the face to be scanned if the eyes are open, but it cannot tell between a real person and a picture of the person.

It also relies on facial features so a lookalike can unlock the device using their own face.

Quote from: EarnOnVictor on September 04, 2023, 11:09:12 AM

It would have made sense if gadgets hid the name of security to be required, but unfortunately, all gadgets will let you and external people know the exact type of security needed at that time.

I have tried face unlock before with eyes closed, but it did not work. I have used my picture and it did not work, but the picture was directly on a phone. I can not try it now with my hardcopy picture because it will not work. Why? Because simple change in your look like cutting your full bears and full hair may not let it work and my look has really changed from the hardcopy pictures that I have right now. Only what I know that has work that people talked about is if you have twins or a brother or sister that resembles you, he or she may be able to use their own face to unlock your device. Generally, face unlock is neither secure and nor safe, fingerprint is even better but still considered unsafe either.

Two safe ones is pin or password.

un_rank

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Quote from: EarnOnVictor on September 04, 2023, 11:09:12 AM

Your security could be compromised at any time unknowingly, especially while you sleep.

This is the least of the security challenges you face and many companies have customized their system to only allow the face to be scanned if the eyes are open, but it cannot tell between a real person and a picture of the person.

It also relies on facial features so a lookalike can unlock the device using their own face.

Quote from: EarnOnVictor on September 04, 2023, 11:09:12 AM

It would have made sense if gadgets hid the name of security to be required, but unfortunately, all gadgets will let you and external people know the exact type of security needed at that time.

They cannot hide this. If you chose password or pin, then there has to be the keyboard made available for you to type on and if it is not there, one can assume that its either finger print or face ID.

- Jay -

qwertyup23

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

It is on this forum that I knew using fingerprint to unlock wallet device is not good, specifically mobile phones. We know already that we should not have too much bitcoin on a mobile wallet. Let us assume that you have little amount of bitcoin on a mobile bitcoin wallet like Electrum or Bluewallet but you still want security.

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

It is the same as a fingerprint lock- one mistake can cost a person hundreds of thousands in damages due to theft.

Currently, Bitpay offers a Face ID lock together with your wallet password before you can transfer your funds from one wallet to another. In this case, at least, there is an additional layer of security when Face ID was used in conjunction with providing your wallet password for transfer.

In contrast, if you use Face ID as the sole measure for your security, then you are putting your funds at extreme risk. Better, disable all kinds of fingerprint/face ID scans and only use your wallet password/key as the gateway to your funds and secure them in a safety deposit box for extreme security.

EarnOnVictor

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Quote from: Taskford on September 02, 2023, 07:27:25 PM

Quote from: Cryptomultiplier on September 02, 2023, 06:56:35 PM

Quote from: letteredhub on September 02, 2023, 06:05:14 PM

Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

It is on this forum that I knew using fingerprint to unlock wallet device is not good, specifically mobile phones. We know already that we should not have too much bitcoin on a mobile wallet. Let us assume that you have little amount of bitcoin on a mobile bitcoin wallet like Electrum or Bluewallet but you still want security.

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

If a fingerprint isn't advisable to use in unlocking a wallet device then face unlock is as well not advisable as the two are just with same risk, while you can be deep asleep someone might take advantage of the moment easily in your unconscious state of sleep. Creating a unique password for the device will be much secure bad perfect in that case.

Exactly. Why even think of using face lock in the first place, knowing that it is more open to be taken advantage of than a normal authentication would.
Barcode is good to use if you care so much about security of your BTC wallet on your device. A very good password with at least one capital letter, signs, number, punctuation, would give hackers or scammers or even AI tough time to dicipher the password.

This might be awkward to use by other people since many are worried about strange incidents might happen but if this is used by the user and properly handle in terms of security measures to avoid data leaking then this is really good added safety measures on everyone's account since no one can easily access your account unless if you say so. But for now to many skeptical about this feature so majority prefer to use finger print or pincode since they think its more convenient.

Bro, I would like you to prove me wrong here constructively, face unlock is as useless as anything, there is no value it added to security. It's very good for users to have layers of security, at least two, but if one layer is not a means that is secure itself, why then use it? I simply don't know how face unlock could be useful because it doesn't have to touch your body before it will open, it's just about positioning the face well and it will do its thing. Your security could be compromised at any time unknowingly, especially while you sleep.

It would have made sense if gadgets hid the name of security to be required, but unfortunately, all gadgets will let you and external people know the exact type of security needed at that time.

_act_

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Quote from: Saint-loup on September 02, 2023, 05:51:14 PM

Quote from: ultrloa on September 02, 2023, 08:21:53 AM

Maybe he find it hassle since he will not say that if he think its good for him. I also didn't use that feature but not the same with his reason since I just don't like to use it as we can't avoid to get wound on our hands and I'm worried about if we can't use our finger print to open up our wallet. But for other its still good since this is additional security measure added for protection so if a user feel to use it then its really a good decision to do. For face unlock well I don't also use that and still doubting to try this feature.

Usually you can always use a pin code to unlock your wallet instead and you can add several fingers from both hands for the fingerprint, so even if you are wounded at several fingers or at a whole hand you will still be able to use the feature with the fingers remaining if you have registered all your fingers, and if you really can't use any of them for some reasons you can use the pin code as an alternative.

I am quoting you both.

@ultrloa. For face unlock, it is not a better security, it will only depreciate the security. It is not advisable at all. I have not seen a wallet that has that feature yet, but on phone, I will not advice people to use it because it is not secure at all.

@Saint-loup. All wallets that have fingerprint also have pin or password, you can enable both if you want. But the secure and safe way is to use only pin or password.

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

If finger print is not secured face unlock is probably going to be the worst this is because
1. The finger print reader can sometimes be more effective than that of the face unlock, as the thumbs are always different and can easily be detected when the wrong hand is being placed on it, but it’s not completely inaccessible as it can still be compromised.

2; Face unlock sometimes can just detect anyone’s face which looks a little bit like that of the original owner, most time they can just use the originals owners photo to manipulate and open the security.

The best way to stay safe is to use those two settings on our phone personal lock, don’t allow it to do anything with our bitcoin wallet, as it’s easily for criminals to forcefully use our face or our finger and open our wallet without us even granting them the permission to, if they know your finger or face can open it then they will just have to forcefully do it.

So to stay safe in this crypto environment that is filled with so much stealing we should avoid using any of those as a mess of security measures as they are not enough to protect our funds rather they might expose us to more vulnerabilities.

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All I can see here are just a repetition of what have already been said before, because of all the answers "Findingnemo" did actually elaborate more on all we need to know about the best Bitcoin wallet security, which Pin password happens to stand out the most of the other two which include facial unlock and fingerprints, as both are easily vulnerable to attack just as explained by "Findingnemo"

Quote from: Findingnemo on August 30, 2023, 03:10:31 AM

Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

The fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

Face lock is even less secure than the fingerprint, There are instances about facial recognition already proven that face ID can be fooled by pictures and even someone with facial similarities can access your device which is unlikely to happen with a fingerprint scanner because it's more complicated to tamper but still possible to replicate.

But I would say none of them are secure when it comes versus good a password like a combination of uppercase, lowercase, and special characters but definitely not a pin which is either four or 6 digits in most of the wallets.

In the worst-case scenario if someone tries to rob your Bitcoin wallet and they catch you so imagine accessing the wallet with biometrics is just simple they can touch your thumb or show it towards your face but if its a password they can't access it unless you spill.

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Quote from: Smeet on September 02, 2023, 06:15:03 PM

Face unlock can enhance device security but should not be the sole measure for securing Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. The effectiveness of face unlock depends on the quality of the facial recognition technology, and even advanced systems can have vulnerabilities. Moreover, the overall security of the device, including a strong passcode or PIN, is crucial in preventing unauthorized access to cryptocurrency holdings.

For greater cryptocurrency security, you should try combining face unlock with additional protective measures such as strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and hardware wallets. The security of the cryptocurrency wallet itself is paramount, and a secure backup and recovery plan should always be in place. The choice of security measures should align with your risk tolerance and the value of the cryptocurrency you're safeguarding, with larger holdings warranting more robust security strategies. Relying solely on face unlock may leave your assets vulnerable to potential risks and threats.

Fingerprint or facial recognition feature are not made to enhance the security of your smartphone or your hot wallet into it, they're made to give you a more quick and convenient way to access them than to type a long PIN code every time you need to use your smartphone or your wallet. If you have large amounts of cryptos to hold it's better to just keep them into a cold wallet, but in 2023 if you are using web3 dapps you need to be able to approve quickly transactions, and fingerprint and facial recognition allow to do it safely.

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If using the fingerprint is not a good idea then using face to unlock the app will also not advisable because I have heard whereby someone open another person using phone with the owner's face when he was sleeping. And instead of using biometric to lock you wallet app, it is better you use sophisticated password that nobody will know. Or in other words, you can even set pin in the wallet apart from the login password, so that before anyone make a transaction from your wallet, they must enter the transaction pin to facilitate the process and whereby the person do not know the pin then they can't continue the transaction.

So it is either you use a very secure password with different characters and alphabets to secure your wallet than using biometric.

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

We know already that we should not have too much bitcoin on a mobile wallet.

Yes, it's not a good idea; especially if it's on a mobile phone you always hold everywhere you go. If you've two or more phones, convert one to a "stay at home phone" or delete the wallet app or make it an offline phone. Simple. It's the same way we should avoid having our bank app(s) on a phone we always carry around, unless it's a bank account used for miscellaneous expenses.

Quote

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

I use fingerprint biometrics on my TW app and a few other apps and that's because I often access them on the go and wouldn't want to be hiding to type in my password. It's very convenient for me. Facelock is a no-no for me. I could've acne that could give my face a little disfigure and not be able to log in, a typical example of that dude in the advert who extracted his tooth and couldn't be audible to his computerized home robot to gain entry when he needed to.

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Quote from: Peanutswar on September 03, 2023, 03:49:25 AM

Most of the wallets I've been using before in the mobile application do not have its security with the fingerprint instead the phone itself offers this kind of feature related to banks/payments/money transactions. For me its ideal to use this feature the fingerprint is unique to a person its hard to manipulate this unlike facial recognition, just a picture of the owner you can easily access the wallets. Lastly not ideal to store bitcoin with the mobile application instead hardware is the most suitable for the high level security.

These days smartphones have a feature to secure almost every app with a fingerprint to access the application.
Then comes mobile wallets which already have protection using pin and password.
So using fingerprint + alphanumeric password is a better protection than using facial recognition from my perspective.

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Quote from: _act_ on August 30, 2023, 02:52:20 AM

It is on this forum that I knew using fingerprint to unlock wallet device is not good, specifically mobile phones. We know already that we should not have too much bitcoin on a mobile wallet. Let us assume that you have little amount of bitcoin on a mobile bitcoin wallet like Electrum or Bluewallet but you still want security.

Fingerprint is not secure, what about face unlock?

I don't see all this security features as bad to use, only individual can tell which of them all can be use and okay to operate with. I may decide to use fingerprint as security because I feel it is the best security option I can maintain for keeping my wallet safe. It is how people take security option will determine for them if it is safe or not, if we are been very careful how to handle security operations I think it will be safe that no one will be able to take advantage of wallets security, I will say non of this security options is a bad one, it depends on individuals how risky it can be.

Peanutswar

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Most of the wallets I've been using before in the mobile application do not have its security with the fingerprint instead the phone itself offers this kind of feature related to banks/payments/money transactions. For me its ideal to use this feature the fingerprint is unique to a person its hard to manipulate this unlike facial recognition, just a picture of the owner you can easily access the wallets. Lastly not ideal to store bitcoin with the mobile application instead hardware is the most suitable for the high level security.

Topic: Face unlock on bitcoin wallet devices (Read 594 times)