Terminal Authentication via Environmental Factors
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current authentication methods are often time-consuming and require users to remember complex passwords, which can be easily stolen, and may involve multiple stages of credential input, while password-less solutions often require additional equipment like fingerprint or iris scanners, compromising user usability and increasing system complexity.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that authenticates a terminal with a server using a selected set of environmental factors, such as configurable characteristics like operating system, software processes, and hardware-independent features, generating a customized environmental authentication information for registration and authentication, allowing for secure login without the need to remember passwords.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If classic password authentication is used, then authentication can be performed with simple infrastructure, but security is compromised as passwords can be stolen easily and users must remember complex passwords
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically collects environmental factors (hardware configuration, software version, operating system, installed applications) from the terminal device and uses them to generate the authentication credential. The user does not need to manually create or remember a password, as the system serves itself by using the device's inherent characteristics as the authentication basis.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication approach changes from using user-defined passwords to using device environmental parameters (hardware configuration, software environment, system settings). These parameters are inherently unique to each device and cannot be easily replicated, providing stronger security while requiring no user memory or input.
2Reliability
If password-less authentication with biometric scanners is used, then authentication security is improved, but system complexity and device requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using physical biometric scanners, the system creates a digital copy or representation of the device's environmental characteristics (hardware fingerprint, software configuration, system state). This digital environmental profile serves as the authentication credential, achieving password-less security without requiring additional physical scanning devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The environmental factors approach uses existing device components and software for authentication purposes, making the device itself serve multiple functions. The same hardware and software that run normal operations also provide the authentication credential, eliminating the need for separate biometric scanning hardware.
3Reliability
If multiple stage authentication with credential input is used, then authentication security is improved, but authentication time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The environmental factors (device configuration, hardware profile, software environment) are collected and prepared in advance as the authentication credential. This preliminary preparation creates a ready-to-use authentication token that can be quickly submitted for verification, eliminating the need for multiple interactive authentication stages during the login process.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A terminal is authenticated with a server based on multiple environmental factors. Each of the multiple environmental factors relates to a configurable characteristic of the terminal. Each of the multiple environmental factor is defined at least by an identifier and a value. The identifier identifies a respective environmental factor and the value indicates a state of the respective configurable characteristic. The multiple environmental factors constitute an environmental authentication information for authenticating the terminal with the server.