MaskPrint: Take the Initiative in Fingerprint Protection to Mitigate the Harm of Data Breach

The privacy of fingerprints is a growing concern due to the risk of data breaches and subsequent attacks. A key issue is that the information of the same fingerprint may exist on multiple devices, and device-level protection mechanisms are fundamentally limited in their coverage. Consequently, information leakage from any device potentially affects all enrolled fingerprint recognition devices. In this paper, we introduce a novel fingerprint enrollment method called MaskPrint, which allows users to enroll in various fingerprint recognition systems using distinct information. This approach can largely mitigate the risk of data breaches, providing a user-transparent, device-agnostic fingerprint protection measure. Our method involves collecting the original fingerprint information, selecting a minimum feature set, synthesizing protective fingerprints, and fabricating physical ones for enrollment. Users can complete these procedures on their own. We validate the effectiveness and usability of MaskPrint on commercial fingerprint recognition systems. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy → Biometrics; Privacy protections; Spoofing attacks; Usability in security and privacy.