Users report that the Google smartphone can be unlocked with any finger

After the Pixel 6a's wide release in 13 countries, a few individual users are reporting that the fingerprint sensor unlocks the device with any fingerprint

Lilian dialect

01/08/2022

Monday, August 01, 2022, 14:11 Updated: 14:17

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Google Pixel 6a (Photo: Google)

After the worldwide launch of the Pixel 6a, some individual buyers are reporting a significant security flaw, where any fingerprint, not just the owner's, unlocks the device.

So far, eight people are reporting various malfunctions of the fingerprint sensor, ranging from unlocking with the user's finger that was not registered on the device at all, to cases where the fingerprints of strangers managed to unlock the device.

One of the users reported that the problem did not recur after deleting the registered fingerprints and re-entering them.

Google Pixel 6a (Photo: Google)

However, it seems that most users do not suffer from the problem.

The website 9to5Google, which reported the story, tried to reproduce the fault on four Pixel 6a devices and it did not repeat itself.

The hypothesis is that Google replaced the sensor during production, so that only a minority of devices were affected by the malfunction.

On the other hand, the fact that it has trickled down to consumer-level devices is worrying.

It is not clear if the latest security update released by Google is related to the problem, or if it is a hardware failure in a handful of the phones.

If it is a problematic series of fingerprint sensors, some of the devices will likely be replaced after Google proactively identifies which devices are involved.

As an immediate solution to the problem, you can simply deactivate the fingerprint identification, and replace it with unlocking by a numerical code or password.

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