Security News > 2022 > November > Android phone owner accidentally finds a way to bypass lock screen
Cybersecurity researcher David Schütz accidentally found a way to bypass the lock screen on his fully patched Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 5 smartphones, enabling anyone with physical access to the device to unlock it.
Exploiting the vulnerability to bypass the lock screen on Android phones is a simple five-step process that wouldn't take more than a few minutes.
To his surprise, after unlocking the SIM and selecting a new PIN, the device didn't ask for the lock screen password but only requested a fingerprint scan.
Roid devices always request a lock screen password or pattern upon reboot for security reasons, so going straight to fingerprint unlock wasn't normal.
The researcher continued experimenting, and when he tried reproducing the flaw without rebooting the device and starting from an unlocked state, he figured it was possible to bypass the fingerprint prompt, too, going straight to the home screen.
This caused not only the PUK security screen to be dismissed but also the next security screen in the stack, which is the keyguard, followed by whatever screen was next queued in the stack.