Automated Password Generation Using Compromised Credential Distance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users are vulnerable to brute-force attacks due to the reuse of common passwords exposed in data breaches, which can lead to significant financial and reputational losses for service providers and users.
Innovation Solution
A password suggestion system that includes a password complexity service and a password generator service, which assesses the strength of proposed passwords against exposed password lists and suggests more secure passwords by combining random terms with alphanumeric strings, ensuring a sufficient distance from compromised passwords.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users employ common passwords for ease of use, then ease of operation is improved, but security reliability deteriorates due to vulnerability to brute-force attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to automatically generate and manage strong passwords through an automated password generation service. The service evaluates password strength against exposed password lists and generates secure passwords without requiring user expertise in cryptography or security best practices, thus maintaining ease of use while improving security reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The password complexity service provides feedback by evaluating proposed passwords against exposed password lists and determining their strength. This feedback mechanism guides users or automated systems to select or generate passwords that meet security requirements, resolving the contradiction between ease of use and security reliability
2Ease of operation
If users reuse passwords across multiple websites, then ease of operation is improved, but security reliability deteriorates due to cascading breach risks
Solution Approach 1:
The system generates unique passwords for each account or service, segmenting the password space so that each credential is independent. This eliminates the risk of cascading breaches where a single compromised password could affect multiple accounts, while the automated generation process maintains convenience by removing the burden of managing multiple complex passwords
3Reliability
If strong unique passwords are generated for each account, then security reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to management overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The automated password generation service provides multiple functions including evaluating password strength, generating secure passwords, and potentially storing or managing them. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate tools or processes, reducing the perceived complexity while maintaining high security reliability
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are system, method, and device embodiments for implementing password suggestion. An embodiment operates by selecting one or more random terms from dictionary information, generating an alphanumeric string based on a password requirement, combining the one or more random terms and the alphanumeric string to form a generated password, determining a password strength of the generated password based on compromised password information, and presenting the generated password for selection by a user device when the password strength meets or exceeds a threshold value.