Critical fingerprint flaw on Galaxy S10 and Note 10 fixed by Samsung

The fingerprint security flaw on the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 phones was a headache for Samsung recently. Now a fix is finally out.

The company said on Wednesday it has updated software to fix the problems with fingerprint recognition features on the smartphones.

In an apology issued via its customer support app Samsung Members, it told its Galaxy phone users to update their biometric authentication to the latest software version.

“Samsung Electronics takes the security of products very seriously and will make sure to strengthen security through continuing improvement and updates to enhance biometric authentication functions,” the company said.

Once touted as a revolutionary feature by Samsung, its ultrasonic fingerprint sensors showed a critical flaw that prompted banks around the world to ban the feature on their apps.

As cnTechPost reported previously, a 34 year-old woman was shocked to discover one of those dirt-cheap screen protectors you can buy on eBay somehow totally broke the fingerprint authentication security on her state-of-the-art Galaxy S10.

Galaxy S10 bug lets any fingerprint unlock it, a South Korean bank issues warning

The issue is serious enough to prompt South Korean bank KaKaobank to tell its customers to stop using the Galaxy S10's fingerprint scanner for logging into its services until the bug is fixed.

Soon Chinese banks followed suit with Bank of China, one of China’s biggest commercial banks, suspending features that allow user to log into its app on the Galaxy S10 and Tab S6 devices before WeChat Pay and Alipay.

WeChat Pay and Alipay, the most popular payment methods in Chinese people's daily life, have also both banned payment authentication on Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and Note 10 phones, with users on online forums reporting that they are unable to use this feature.

Beside in China, Some Redditors are also reporting that certain banks in the UK are removing their apps from Galaxy S10 phones or are blocking the fingerprint authentication method on them.

NatWest and Nationwide Building Society banks in the UK have apparently taken action to prevent misuse of fingerprint logins on Galaxy S10 phones.

While NatWest has removed its banking app from the Play Store on Galaxy S10 devices, Nationwide Building Society has disabled fingerprint authentication.