Recently, reports surfaced that the in-display fingerprint scanners on the Samsung Galaxy S10, as well as the Note 10, were vulnerable if users had certain types of 3rd party screen protectors applied. Basically, when fingerprints were registered with these screen protectors applied, a problem would occur where any unregistered fingerprint could then be capable of unlocking the device.
To their credit, Samsung has acknowledged the “issue”, explaining that malfunction stems from “ultrasonic fingerprint sensors unlocking devices after recognising 3-dimensional patterns appearing on certain silicone screen protecting cases”.
After earlier promising to roll out an update to affected devices (as early as this week) to rectify the issue, Samsung has now reportedly released a fix. But Android Central reports that this is only limited to Korea for now, although Samsung should also be pushing the update to the rest of the world soon.
The fix can’t come soon enough, however. Banks in the U.K. have reportedly been blacklisting S10 and Note 10 smartphones from their mobile apps, while Alipay’s fingerprint-based verification for payment has been temporarily suspended on affected Galaxy phones. This follows reports that the Bank of China has removed fingerprint payments from these devices as well.
For the time being, Samsung advises users who haven’t received the fix yet to remove screen protective covers that may cause any issues, and to re-register their fingerprints. Or, y’know, just use a regular old password instead.
