Embedded Security Component for Phishing-Resistant Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online threats such as phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks compromise user authentication, making it difficult to ensure the identity of websites and protect sensitive information.
Innovation Solution
A security component is integrated into network-enabled applications, which displays a user-customizable embedded region within the application's interface, authenticates user credentials through an assertion provider, and forwards an assertion token to the relying party for secure transactions, preventing unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional web authentication is used, then users can access websites, but users cannot reliably distinguish between authentic and phishing sites
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a security component as an intermediary between the user and the website. This component intercepts authentication requests, validates the website's authenticity through certificate verification, and only allows credentials to be sent if the site is verified as legitimate. This mediator approach directly addresses the phishing problem by preventing direct credential entry into unverified sites while maintaining normal web browsing functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The security component performs preliminary authentication of the website's identity before allowing any user credentials to be transmitted. By verifying the website's digital certificate and identity upfront, the system ensures that users are interacting with legitimate sites before any sensitive information exchange occurs, thereby preventing phishing attacks at the source.
2Reliability
If security verification steps are added to authentication process, then authentication security is improved, but authentication time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The website authentication verification is performed in advance before the user enters any credentials. The security component validates the website's certificate and identity upfront, so when the user eventually provides their credentials, the verification is already complete. This preliminary action separates the verification time from the authentication time, minimizing the impact on user experience while maintaining high security.
3Reliability
If custom interface elements are added to display authentication information, then user trust in authentication process is improved, but interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The security component adds localized visual indicators (such as padlocks, shield icons, or highlighted borders) at specific critical points in the authentication interface where trust is most needed. Rather than redesigning the entire interface, the component selectively enhances only the authentication-related elements, providing visual reassurance without overwhelming complexity throughout the entire user interface.
Data Source
AI summary
A security component may be associated with a network-enabled application. The security component may initiate the display of an embedded region of a window drawn according to display information received from a relying party. The security component may define at least a portion of the appearance of the embedded region; the relying party may not define this portion. The embedded region may include customization information configured by a user, and “Card” information received from an assertion provider, indicating how to authenticate user credentials in order to gain access to relying party restricted content. The security component may request authentication of user credentials from the assertion provider, which may be trusted by the relying party. The security component may receive an assertion token from the assertion provider indicating the credentials are authentic. The security component may forward the assertion token to the relying party to gain access to the restricted content.