Windows 10 Microsoft has implemented a facial recognition system called Windows Hello, which offers the possibility to unlock a laptop or tablet using your face. Microsoft implemented this system believing that it is safe to use, but in the video clip below you can see how the Hello system in Windows 10 is tricked using a simple color picture.
Windows 10 is fooled with a picture printed using the printer located under the Surface Pro tablet on which the Windows Hello facial recognition system has been configured. The German researchers are the ones who managed to fool the facial recognition system of Windows 10, and the method by which they managed to do this is so simple that anyone can do it at any time.
Windows 10 had a special anti-spoofing function activated that was supposed to detect the picture and prevent facial recognition using Windows Hello, but of course that didn't happen. This feature is useless in Windows 10 versions prior to the Fall Creators Update, but it seems that this new update could not be fooled if the anti-spoofing function is active, but disabling it allows the trick.
Windows 10. Facial recognition tricked with a picture
Windows 10, despite fixing this vulnerability in the Fall Creators Update, can still be tricked with a picture for facial recognition if it was configured before installing the October update. It seems that people who have not deleted that data and have not reconfigured the facial recognition system of Windows 10 after installing the Fall Creators Update, are still vulnerable.
Windows 10 has had this problem for a long time and it still has it for certain people who did not think to restore the settings for Windows Hello, that is, most of those who use it. The good part is that the picture with which Windows 10 can be fooled must be taken using an infrared camera, so it's not really that easy to do, but even so, the vulnerability is not completely solved by Microsoft.
Windows 10 does not, in fact, have a 100% safe facial recognition system, because if the anti-spoofing function is not activated by the people who set Windows Hello, the system can be fooled. Making a parallel with Face ID, Windows 10 is more vulnerable and easier to fool, but that's because it doesn't have laser and infrared sensors to detect the user's face for authentication.
Windows 10 is still superior to macOS from this point of view, and this is because in the Apple platform there is no facial recognition in one form or another, yet.
