The identification of mobile phones through the fingerprints of their built-in magnetometer: An analysis of the portability of the fingerprints

Abstract

The identification of mobile phones through their built-in electronic sensors has been proven in literature for cameras, microphones and accelerometers demonstrating to have various applications in security, forensics or in the fight against the counterfeiting of electronic products. The identification of a sensor (and consequently of the mobile phone) is possible through the exploitation of small but significant differences in the physical components of the sensor itself. These physical differences are mainly generated during the production process of the sensor in the manufacturing plant producing small but reproducible variations in the digital output generated by the built-in sensor. In particular, in this paper, we investigate the identification of mobile phones through the built-in magnetometer sensor, which has received very limited attention by the research community so far. In particular, the specific aspects of robustness and portability of such a fingerprint have been analyzed. Different stimulation conditions, diverse kinds of features and classification procedures have been considered achieving very promising results.