Reading NFC Passport Chips in Linux

Many passports also contain digitized fingerprint scans. But those are even harder to access. You need a private key that only governments have.

> that only governments have

:-)

A corrupt government official selling a copy of that key to the highest bidder just sounds like the free market to me /s

Why would they make such an important key be copyable?

To be useful, that key needs to be present in countless border checkpoint or even police devices, so it's inherently very hard to keep secret.

That's a known trade-off, and I believe some countries accordingly restrict access to their own national authorities (which usually already have access to that data via other means, since they're issuing the document).

You wouldn't need the key to be copyable though - it can be an online check - ie. passport sends challenge, terminal sends challenge to government-hosted HSM, HSM sends response.