Dynamic Scoring for Knowledge-Based Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current authentication methods, relying on passwords and personal questions, face challenges in balancing security with user convenience, as users often struggle to remember multiple unique credentials and may reach guess limits due to incorrect entries, leading to inconvenience and potential unauthorized access.
Innovation Solution
Implementing evidence-based dynamic scoring to limit guesses in knowledge-based authentication, where inputs are scored based on similarity and popularity, with penalties for similar responses and popular answers, and dynamically adjusting access attempts to enforce additional security measures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed guess limit is imposed to prevent unauthorized access, then security is improved, but user convenience deteriorates because legitimate users may be blocked due to data entry mistakes or unfamiliarity with the system
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic scoring that adjusts the guess limit based on real-time analysis of user input characteristics. Instead of a fixed guess limit, the system dynamically modifies the number of allowed attempts by evaluating factors such as input similarity to previous attempts, popularity of the answer, and user behavior patterns. This allows the system to adapt the security threshold to individual user contexts, preventing unauthorized access while accommodating legitimate users who may make occasional errors.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of guess limit from a static value to a dynamic value that varies based on multiple factors including input similarity scores, answer popularity thresholds, and accumulated scoring over time. By modifying this critical parameter dynamically, the system can tighten security when suspicious patterns emerge while maintaining accessibility for legitimate users with different input behaviors.
2Reliability
If multiple personal questions are used to verify identity, then security is improved by making it difficult to guess responses, but device complexity and time required for authentication increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where the scoring algorithm continuously analyzes user input characteristics and adjusts the authentication threshold accordingly. By providing feedback about input similarity and popularity patterns, the system can identify legitimate users who may require additional verification questions while blocking obvious guessers. This feedback-driven approach allows the system to maintain security without uniformly increasing complexity for all users.
3Reliability
If strict validation of personal question responses is enforced, then security is improved, but user convenience deteriorates because users may reach guess limits due to ambiguous questions or data entry mistakes
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides beforehand cushioning by implementing a dynamic scoring mechanism that accumulates tolerance for minor errors before enforcing strict validation. The scoring algorithm continuously monitors input characteristics and builds up a tolerance threshold, allowing users multiple opportunities to correct minor data entry mistakes or respond to ambiguous questions. This cushioning approach prevents immediate rejection of legitimate inputs while maintaining security against obvious guesses.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques to provide evidence-based dynamic scoring to limit guesses in knowledge based authentication are disclosed herein. In some aspects, an authenticator may receive an input from a user in response to a presentation of a personal question that enables user access to a restricted resource. The authenticator may determine that the input is not equivalent to a stored value, and thus is an incorrect input. The authenticator may then determine whether the input is similar to a previous input received from the user. A score may be assigned to the input. When the input is determined to be similar to the previous input, the score may be reduced. Another request for an input may be transmitted by the authenticator when a sum of the score and any previous scores of the session is less than a threshold.