Although the issue has been patched through Microsoft's Fall Creators Update, outdated versions of Windows 10's Hello facial recognition can be spoofed with a photo, a German security firm said this week.
With some extra work as little as a low-resolution, laser-printed photo taken with a near infrared camera can be used to trick a Hello-capable PC, SySS explained. It demonstrated the problem in a series of YouTube videos.
People with the Fall Creators Update installed should still reconfigure Hello in order to block hackers. Anyone trying to break into a computer via the flaw must, of course, have physical access.
Apple uses its own facial recognition system, Face ID, on the iPhone X. To prevent it from being tricked by photos, the company uses technologies such as a 3D-mapping dot projector and optional attention detection.
It can be fooled, whether by some relatives or highly elaborate masks, but Apple claims that the odds are one in a million, at least among random faces.