Samsung to fix major flagship fingerprint flaw with imminent patch

It emerged earlier this week that the in-display fingerprint sensor on Samsung’s Galaxy S10 had a major security flaw. The bug, which has appeared on the Galaxy Note 10 series too, allows someone with an unregistered fingerprint to unlock the phone.

According to Reuters and The Sun, the flaw came about after a British user applied a third-party screen protector to her Galaxy S10. Her husband was then able to unlock her device, even though his fingerprints weren’t registered.

Now, Samsung has issued a statement, saying that the phones’ ultrasonic fingerprint scanners were recognizing three-dimensional patterns appearing on some “silicone screen protecting cases” as fingerprints belonging to the device owner.

“To prevent any further issues, we advise that Galaxy Note 10/10 Plus and S10/S10 Plus/S10 5G users who use such covers to remove the cover, delete all previous fingerprints and newly register their fingerprints,” the company noted in an official post.

Samsung has also called on people using screen protectors to refrain from using said protectors in conjunction with the fingerprint functionality until a software patch has been deployed. This presumably applies to third-party screen protectors, but we’ve contacted the company for clarification.

Speaking of the software patch, the Korean manufacturer says this patch is set to be released as soon as next week. It adds that users should fully scan their fingers after installing the update.

We’ve emailed Samsung to clarify the affected accessories and will update the article accordingly when they get back to us. Still, we’re glad to see the firm steaming ahead with a fix, so here’s hoping it’s pushed out to users as soon as possible.