About iPhone X Face ID Hacked

There have been a number of stories appearing claiming that people have been able to fool Face ID so that it will unlock someone else's iPhone X.

There were a number of videos where identical twins were able to unlock each others phones. Apple has already confirmed here that someone who looked like you might be able to unlock your iPhone (a twin or just another family member.)

However, the most likely scenario in cases where a twin or family member unlocks an iPhone X is that at some point in the process the passcode had been entered, telling Face ID to start to learn that the new face was in fact the old face.

We tested this theory with some identical twin friends and found that twin two couldn't open the phone when it was set up with twin one's Face ID. However, all twin two needed to do was enter the passcode and then Face ID updated itself to recognise them as well as their twin. From then on Face ID could be unlocked by both twins.

There is one case where a 10-year-old boy was able to unlock his mother's iPhone X. Apparently within seconds of the boy looking at his mother's new iPhone X it unlocked. In the statement on Face ID Security linked to above Apple said that it doesn't recommend that children use Face ID as their facial features are still developing, and the company has also warned that people with similar features may be able to unlock your iPhone X, but it seems strange that the boy, who's face is so much smaller than his mother's would be able to unlock the iPhone.

Apple claimed that it had thoroughly tested Face ID and found that it was impossible to fool it with the use of a mask. However, a Vietnamese security firm is claiming it has bypassed Face ID using a silicone mask, a 3-D printed frame, and 2-D images of the eyes and mouth.

While it's unlikely that anyone would go to such lengths to hack into your iPhone X, it could be a threat to the privacy of a celebrity, or anyone whose iPhone would be in demand (someone who ran a company or a country, for example).

As for whether it would work the other way round, someone has tested that theory by making themselves up to look like celebrities.

Makeup artist Promise Tamang is already famous for using makeup to make herself look like celebrities, so she put the iPhone X to the test by making herself look like Kylie Jenner and Mariah Carey. Obviously she didn't have their iPhones to find out if she was able to fool them, but she wasn't able to fool her own iPhone X which unlocked straight away as it recognised it was really her all along.