Variable Trusted Image for Secure Data Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for securely inputting confidential information on terminals do not provide absolute protection against phishing attacks, as malicious third parties can intercept and replicate trusted images displayed on the screen to deceive users.
Innovation Solution
A method that takes exclusive control of the input interface by a trusted program, displays a variable part of a user-selected trusted image on the screen, and varies the image for each input, making it difficult for malicious parties to reproduce the entire image in a phishing program.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a trusted image is displayed on the screen to indicate secure state, then the user is notified of the secure state, but the trusted image can be intercepted and replicated by malicious third parties for phishing attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The trusted image is segmented into multiple parts that are displayed in different locations on the screen. Each part alone is meaningless, but together they form the complete trusted image. This segmentation prevents phishing attacks because malicious programs can only intercept and replicate individual meaningless parts, not the complete trusted image that would indicate a secure state.
Solution Approach 2:
A trusted program acts as an intermediary between the secure environment and the display system. This trusted program is responsible for generating and displaying the segmented trusted image parts, ensuring that only the complete, properly assembled image appears on screen. The intermediary prevents direct manipulation of the trusted image by malicious programs.
2Ease of operation
If the complete trusted image is displayed to clearly indicate secure state, then user notification is clear, but the image becomes vulnerable to interception and replication
Solution Approach 1:
The trusted image is divided into multiple segments displayed at different screen locations. Users can still recognize the secure state by seeing all segments present, while the segmentation itself provides security by making interception and replication of the complete image impractical for phishing attacks.
3Device complexity
If a single static trusted image is used, then the implementation is simple, but the image can be easily replicated by malicious programs
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single static trusted image, the system uses multiple segmented images that are dynamically displayed. This increases implementation complexity slightly but provides significantly improved security by preventing easy replication of the complete trusted image by malicious programs.
Solution Approach 2:
The trusted image system becomes dynamic through segmentation and selective display of different parts. The system can adaptively display different segments in different configurations, making it more secure while maintaining reasonable implementation complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method of inputting confidential data on a terminal including an input interface, at least one processor for running a trusted program and a display screen, the method including the following steps applied before the input:taking exclusive control of the input interface by the trusted program;displaying on the screen a trusted image known to the user of the terminal to indicate that exclusive control of the input interface has been taken by the trusted program;after control has been taken and before displaying the trusted image, selecting the trusted image as part of a reference image predetermined by the user, wherein the selected trusted image varies from one input to another.The invention also relates to a terminal for use of said method.