Password Authentication Circuit Brute Force Mitigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing password authentication systems are vulnerable to brute force attacks due to their inability to effectively prevent unauthorized access, as the delay mechanism in previous technologies does not sufficiently secure the password against mechanical brute force attempts, allowing malicious users to decipher the password within a manageable time frame.
Innovation Solution
A password authentication circuit and method that divides the authentication period into multiple segments, including an invalid period and a valid period, where password input is only enabled during the valid period, and the password register is updated only during this time, making it difficult for attackers to determine the correct password input timing and increasing the time required for a brute force attack.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a delay mechanism is implemented to increase response time after authentication failures, then security against casual attacks is improved, but the system remains vulnerable to brute force attacks that can systematically test all password combinations within a manageable time frame
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the authentication period into multiple distinct periods: a first period where password input is disabled, and a second period where password input is enabled. This segmentation prevents continuous brute force attacks by forcing attackers to wait through the disabled period between each authentication attempt, thereby exponentially increasing the time required to test all password combinations while maintaining the same delay mechanism.
2Ease of operation
If password authentication is continuously enabled, then ease of operation for legitimate users is maintained, but the system becomes vulnerable to mechanical brute force attacks that can automatically generate and input passwords without interruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by alternating between periods where password input is enabled and periods where it is disabled. During the second period, legitimate users can authenticate normally, while during the first period, brute force attacks are blocked. This periodic enablement and disablement creates an operational rhythm that maintains user convenience while systematically preventing continuous automated attacks.
Data Source
AI summary
A password authentication circuit includes a timer that measures first and second periods of a password authentication period, a control circuit that, in a first period, disables writing of a password received into a password register, in a predetermined period within a second period enables writing of a password received into the password register and outside the predetermined period within the second period disables writing of a password received into the password register; a password comparison unit that compares a password in the password register and a password expected value to perform authentication of the password; and a first period generation unit that controls variably the first period, a password last written into the password register in the predetermined period of the second period being made a target for authentication.