Image-Based Authentication Using Positional Matrix and Shuffle Algorithm
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional password and PIN-based authentication systems are inadequate for modern computing environments due to vulnerabilities such as easy guessability, manageability issues, and susceptibility to attacks like keylogging and phishing, as well as the need for frequent password changes, which compromise security and user convenience.
Innovation Solution
An image-based authentication system using a positional matrix to present and track image selections without referencing explicit image identifiers, employing a shuffle formula for each user to create a unique authentication challenge, ensuring that images are stored and presented in a way that obscures their selection from detection, and allowing the same images to be used across multiple access points without compromising security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional password and PIN-based authentication systems are used, then the authentication process is simple to implement, but the security is compromised due to easy guessability and susceptibility to attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between the user and the authentication verification. Instead of directly handling passwords or PINs, the system uses image selection as an intermediate authentication mechanism. The user selects images based on positional coordinates, and the system verifies authentication through these selections without exposing the underlying credential structure, thereby enhancing security while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical typing of passwords or PINs with a visual interaction mechanism where users select images based on positional coordinates. This substitution eliminates the need for users to type sensitive information, reducing susceptibility to keylogging attacks while maintaining the fundamental authentication process.
2Reliability
If users are required to choose complex passwords to resist attacks, then security is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in remembering and typing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the authentication parameter from alphanumeric characters (passwords/PINs) to visual image selections based on positional coordinates. This parameter change allows users to authenticate through visual recognition and spatial memory, which are more intuitive and easier to remember than complex password requirements, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining security.
3Productivity
If image identifiers are explicitly referenced and stored, then the authentication system can track selections, but security is compromised as identifiers can be detected and used for attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the identifying information from the images themselves and replaces it with positional coordinate references. Instead of storing or transmitting image identifiers that could be compromised, the system only handles positional data (coordinates) that reference the selected images. This extraction of identifying information eliminates the security vulnerability while preserving the ability to track and verify user selections.
4Ease of manufacture
If the same images are used across multiple access points, then administrative overhead is reduced, but security is compromised as selections can be observed and replicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds the dimension of positional coordinates to the authentication process. Even when the same set of images is used across multiple access points, the authentication security is maintained because the system verifies selections based on the specific positional coordinates of the selected images rather than the images themselves. This dimensional addition (coordinate space) prevents replication attacks while allowing consistent image sets to be deployed across multiple locations.
Data Source
AI summary
An authentication system is presented that relies on an arrangement of positions defined through a positional matrix to determine the order in which two or more sets of images are extracted from a file structure and presented to a user through the mutually parallel rows or columns of a selection mechanism during the administration of an authentication challenge and which then attempts to authenticate the user's right of access or verify their identity based on the representational positions and relative alignment of the images matched by the user in some prescribed manner through the selection mechanism thus allowing the system to perform its authentication functions without having to explicitly reference, process, transmit or store any specific image identifiers, display coordinates or file designators that could, if otherwise compromised, reveal the proprietary images chosen by the user for the purpose of their authentication.