Graphical Password System Using Moveable Frames

By using standard alphanumeric passwords, attackers can easily compromise password systems through shoulder surfing or dictionary attacks. Unfortunately, the continuity of threats has been the motivator for the development of an alternative to alphanumeric password authentication systems, namely graphical passwords, which do not use alpha numeric characters, but instead images. This paper looks at the development and classification of graphical passwords. Graphical passwords can be classified into two major classes recognitional based and recall based. The pros and cons of relying on each method of graphical password authentication system are explained and an overview of the newer research and development in graphical passwords related to shoulder surfing attacks is presented. Finally, a novel password system is presented that utilizes a combination of the textual password and graphical images in order to develop an operationally secure password authentication system. The proposed password system will allow the users to register a textual password and graphical password with a movable frames grid and subsequently into a defined graphical image and produce an authentication response. Experimental results on the proposed system show that although user-friendly methods of authentication can be incorporated it will improve the security of graphical authentication against shoulder surfing attacks. Future studies in graphical passwords will also aim to determine whether these graphical passwords can also effectively secure alternate forms of user identification in different applications. Key Terms – Graphical Password Authentication, Movable Frame Scheme, Shoulder Surfing Resistance, Recognition-based Authentication, Recall-based Authentication, Image-based Password Security, AES-Rijndael Encryption, Banking Security Systems, User Authentication.