Offline Brute Force Analysis for Login Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security systems struggle to distinguish between malicious brute force attacks and benign errors in login attempts, often locking legitimate users out of their accounts, which can lead to weakened security and user frustration.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses encrypted login attempts and offline brute force attacks to determine whether the same password is being used repeatedly, indicating a benign error, or different passwords are being tried, indicating a brute force attack, without needing to know the actual password, by employing a passive security device that monitors network traffic and applies authentication keys to decrypt messages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If account locking rules are applied after multiple login attempts, then security against brute force attacks is improved, but legitimate users may be locked out due to benign errors
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of directly analyzing login attempts to detect attacks, the system applies offline brute force attacks to encrypted login attempt data to determine whether the same password is being reused. This inverted approach allows detection of benign errors (same password reused) versus actual attacks (different passwords tried) without requiring decryption or knowing the actual password, thus resolving the contradiction between security and user access.
2Reliability
If account locking is implemented to prevent brute force attacks, then system security is improved, but administrator time and resources are consumed due to false positives
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-diagnosis by applying offline brute force attacks to encrypted login attempt data to automatically determine whether attempts represent benign errors or malicious attacks. This self-service capability eliminates the need for administrator intervention in distinguishing between the two cases, reducing administrator time consumption while maintaining system security.
3Reliability
If encrypted authentication is used to protect password transmissions, then security is improved, but the ability to detect brute force attacks is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system converts the harm of encrypted authentication (which hides password information) into a benefit by using the encrypted data itself as the object of offline brute force analysis. By applying offline brute force attacks to the encrypted authentication data, the system can detect whether the same password is being reused across multiple login attempts without needing to decrypt the data or know the actual password, thus maintaining password security while enabling attack detection.
Data Source
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AI summary
Brute force attacks on a given account with various password attempts are a common threat to computer security. When a suspected brute force on an account is detected, systems may lock the account from access, which is frustrating to users and time consuming for administrators in the event of a false positive. To reduce the number of false positives, brute force counterattacks are taught in the present disclosure. A brute force counterattack is used to learn whether the login attempts change the passwords attempted, and are to be classified as malicious, or keep the attempted password the same in multiple attempts, and are to be classified as benign.