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Fingerprint Recognition with Linux & IBM's T42

Posted by timothy on from the nobody-said-*which*-finger dept.

Michael R. Crusoe writes "UPEK, provider of popular fingerprint sensors to IBM's T42 notebooks and others, has announced that they will be providing a BioAPI compliant library to perform biometric authentication under GNU/Linux. Will Linux be the first operating system to have integrated biometric user authentication 'out of the box'?"

4 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ahem, PAM by /ASCII · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The reason why making a general purpose API is better than hardcoding for a single use authentication algorithm is that you get:
    • Less lock in, since when the next generation of PAM killer comes along, the switch will be much easier.
    • Better portability to systems that don't use PAM. QNx, ReactOS, Windows, MacOS the world is a big place...
    • More uses for the software. Maybe you can use this fingerprinter together with a Firefox plugin to slightly increse the security of your bank transactions?

    If the above reasons are enough to warrant the extra layer of indirection, I do not know. But saying that there are _no_ advantages to making a general purpose API is plainly false. It's a simple tradeoff.
    --
    Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
  2. Re:Ahem, PAM by nokilli · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, you know, you can even have plaintext passwords stored in world-readable text files you keep in /hack/me/now but why would you use PAM for this?

    The whole point I thought was to create a framework through which it would be impossible to recreate the user's authentication info.

    We do what you're saying and the next thing you know, I have your fingerprint, or even better, I've replaced your fingerprint with mine.

  3. Finally... by Ranma-sensei · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it's great - and time! I really don't like having to remember 20 or so passwords just so because if one of them gets hacked my other data is secure. :(

    --
    Non-supporter of Online Activation and any other draconian DRM
  4. *Bah*, fingerprint scanning is yesterdays news... by de+Bois-Guilbert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...what I want is retinal scanning!

    I'd imagine the patterns in our eyes are more difficult to duplicate for nefarious purposes than our fingerprints, which (besides the cool factor) would mean increased security... On the other hand, I'd rather have the arch-villain chop off my finger than carve out my eyeball.