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TouchID isn't that great at identifying a real finger vs a fake. Someone was able to bypass it using only items that you could buy at a local radioshack and a laser printer within 48 hours after it was released.

http://www.heise.de/video/artikel/iPhone-5s-Touch-ID-hack-in...

I can't find it now but not long after that another group found an even simpler method of printing out a fake print, I did find a much more recent attack based on just using a special conductive ink cartridge in a regular inkjet to directly print something on paper that would work. Bottom line is that it doesn't take a lot of fancy equipment, supplies, or skills to print a fake fingerprint that will fool TouchID.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZJI_BrMZXU

As for "a photo derived from someones hands", I'm not sure what they meant but if you had a photo that could make out the ridges of someone's fingerprint then yeah absolutely.



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