[HN Gopher] Sony Unlocks In-Camera Forgery-Proof Technology
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Sony Unlocks In-Camera Forgery-Proof Technology
        
       Author : night-rider
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2022-08-14 21:23 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sony.eu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sony.eu)
        
       | josephcsible wrote:
       | What's stopping me from sending fake data to the signing chip
       | along the same route that the image sensor uses to send real data
       | to it?
        
         | thaumasiotes wrote:
         | Because, it's forgery-proof. Didn't you read the headline?
        
         | karamanolev wrote:
         | They either built some smarts into the sensor, where it's
         | physically impossible to trick it or you can just pretend to be
         | a sensor capturing whatever you want. I assume with enough
         | desire, you can built a pixel-for-pixel matching LCD to
         | illuminate each sensor photocell as desired and capture
         | arbitrary light the physical way. But as another commenter
         | pointed out "it's forgery-proof" ;)
        
         | aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
         | You can't do that, because it's Not Allowed(tm).
        
       | Rackedup wrote:
       | What if you take a picture of a modified picture?
        
         | jack_pp wrote:
         | I like this, if we can fool humans with VR goggles then surely
         | we can fool the camera by using a sufficiently detailed print
         | or a high resolution display
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | A more effective version of this would capture a 3D depth map
           | with the 2D image.
        
         | ChrisLomont wrote:
         | You'll never remove aliasing artifacts.
        
           | TeeMassive wrote:
           | Not all fake images are images taken from cameras (e.g. CGI,
           | AI)
        
         | TeeMassive wrote:
         | Then you have a signed picture of a modified picture which
         | can't be altered further. Cryptographic signatures only ensures
         | data integrity and authenticity _after_ the cryptographic
         | signature was made.
        
       | dudeinjapan wrote:
       | > This technology is particularly applicable for passports and ID
       | verification
       | 
       | What if you take a picture of a fake passport?
        
         | karamanolev wrote:
         | The goal is to prove that you took an image of something that
         | existed in the state it was photographed in. If you take a
         | picture of a fake passport, you are "proving" this passport
         | existed and looked like it did on the picture. So ... mission
         | accomplished?
         | 
         | If they do it competently (or if it can be done) is a separate
         | matter.
        
           | rafale wrote:
           | Unless you take a picture of a picture.
        
             | karamanolev wrote:
             | Then you're proving the picture you just photographed
             | existed and looked like it did. Where are you going with
             | this?
             | 
             | The utility of knowing a photograph was captured as-is
             | should be know, as should be the ways to physically
             | manipulate things so you capture what you want. IMO the
             | question here should be if 1) this is the best solution for
             | those use cases and 2) if this is implemented in a
             | technically competent way.
        
         | Aaargh20318 wrote:
         | I think the use case would be to take a photograph of a person
         | to be used on a passport, not to take a photograph of a
         | passport.
         | 
         | Optical validation of a passport from a photograph is
         | impossible, and unnecessary. If you need to remotely validate a
         | passport there are already secure ways of doing that using the
         | NFC chip embedded in most passports.
        
         | q-big wrote:
         | > > This technology is particularly applicable for passports
         | and ID verification
         | 
         | > What if you take a picture of a fake passport?
         | 
         | This technology blocks 50 % of the possibilities of
         | counterfeiting (before or after taking the picture); this is an
         | infinite amount better than the 0 % that other camera vendors
         | deliver.
         | 
         | ;-)
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Does each camera have its own signing key? If not, "signed by
       | some camera" isn't that interesting.
       | 
       | Is there a public certificate registry?
        
         | karamanolev wrote:
         | Google-backed Android devices have a certificate chain where
         | each device has its own certificate, but there's also a root of
         | trust. So you can sign things identifying the specific device,
         | but you can also just verify it was signed by a Google-backed
         | Android device. They might have done something similar.
         | Otherwise, a Sony-wide secret key is still interesting, in some
         | sense, if done competently (which I doubt).
        
       | hengheng wrote:
       | Would be nice to see this on their xperia smartphones. They've
       | been copying the Alpha look and feel for a while, and I've been
       | wanting to see signed photos on phones for a while.
        
         | Retr0id wrote:
         | I've been looking forward to it too, extracting the signing
         | keys sounds like a lot of fun.
        
       | zxcvbn4038 wrote:
       | Marketing hype, if I have physical access to the camera then I
       | can get the key and sign anything. It might require specialized
       | tools or training but it is nowhere near impossible. If I am a
       | sovereign entity I can just compel someone to give me the key. I
       | wouldn't make any life changing decisions about anyone based
       | solely on the presence of a signature.
        
         | ChrisLomont wrote:
         | It would be extremely hard for almost anyone to do so, and they
         | can use signatures with per camera tokens as well as global
         | ones. That way compromising one camera doesn't compromise all.
         | 
         | And there is a lot more stuff they can do to prevent such naive
         | attacks.
         | 
         | By your simple reasoning, all iphones would be cracked, yet
         | even the USA govt hasn't been able to crack into them.
         | 
         | And what they propose is vastly better than doing nothing.
        
         | TeeMassive wrote:
         | It will be very hard to extract those keys while hiding
         | evidence of tempering. Yes that leaves the threat of state
         | actors, but they will probably have they keys anyway and still
         | the technology will be good 99.99% of the time which means good
         | enough for most intent and purposes.
        
       | russellbeattie wrote:
       | Sony's marketing department and execs should know better than
       | over promise like this. The camera can and will be hacked,
       | guaranteed. Like PlayStation security, it may take a while, but
       | it'll be done. And that's only if they haven't overlooked any
       | obvious flaws. We all know if you have physical access to the
       | hardware, it'll happen.
       | 
       | Anyways, ignore the hyperbole. It's just a press release by
       | inexperienced marketers.
        
       | CoastalCoder wrote:
       | It seems reasonable for Sony to stake a bounty on this.
        
       | xchaotic wrote:
       | What's is the supposed business case for sharing raw, unmodified
       | 42Mpix photos? And if they are still modified later on, and
       | perhaps re-signed, that's where I would attack.
        
         | karamanolev wrote:
         | I would assume they can sign both RAWs and JPEGs. I can imagine
         | a hardened coprocessor that can sign things coming from the
         | sensor and image processor, so you get signed RAW and/or JPEG
         | and you can't extract the private keys. Any modification later
         | on means it's no longer signed. Unless I'm missing something,
         | this is pretty good until someone extracts or leaks the private
         | keys. Maybe they came up with something much smarter :)
        
         | TeeMassive wrote:
         | If they did things correctly (and I assume a company like Sony
         | did) then each camera will have its own signed certificates
         | attributed to it. Yes you can sign fake pictures, but the
         | signature won't be from the same camera, which is a pretty good
         | mitigation against this.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | > _What's is the supposed business case for sharing raw,
         | unmodified 42Mpix photos?_
         | 
         | TFA (TFPR?) answers this.
         | 
         | "This technology is particularly applicable for passports and
         | ID verification but goes further in tackling image manipulation
         | in the media, medical and law enforcement fields. For the
         | insurance and construction sectors, this technology will offer
         | a secure foundation for inspection and recording of damage."
         | 
         | > _And if they are still modified later on, and perhaps re-
         | signed, that's where I would attack._
         | 
         | Even so, the existence of an original capture makes post-
         | capture attacks useless. An effective attack will modify the
         | image before it's signed.
        
       | kelnos wrote:
       | Presumably this relies on some sort of private signing key being
       | stored securely on the camera somewhere. Do we really trust
       | Sony's abilities to make it impossible to read out that key?
        
         | ChrisLomont wrote:
         | Have all iphones been broken by state actors? It sure seems not
         | given the resources they pay yo try and crack cases.
         | 
         | Why would sony cameras not leverage knowledge gained from
         | iphone security features?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-08-14 23:00 UTC)