THREE LEVEL PASSWORD AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

THREE LEVEL PASSWORD AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, we have known that computer security mostly depends on password to verify and authenticate users. There are many authentication schemes proposed and most of them are still have weaknesses. Some of them are based on the physical and behavioral properties of the user such as voice recognition, and some others are based on knowledge of the user such as textual and graphical passwords. However, these schemes are still not secure enough and allow attackers to steal the data easily. Moreover, users often use simple password that attackers can guess easily. Therefore, it needs something for secure and user-friendly authentication schemes to overcome this problem. This paper presents a 3-level password authentication scheme to overcome the problem. The three different levels used in the 3-level password authentication scheme are text password, pattern-based password and one-time password (OTP). These authentication schemes are classified as knowledge based authentication. The main objective of the three level security system is to provide advanced security to the web applications, to prevent unauthorized access and to make the applications more user friendly. Hopefully, the system can give a better secure environment to the user from unauthorized access.

 

        

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The project involves three levels of user authentication. There are varieties of password systems available, many of which have failed due to bot attacks while few have sustained it but to a limit. In short, almost all the passwords available today can be broken to a limit. Hence this project is aimed to achieve the highest security in authenticating users.
Authentication is any protocol or process that permits one entity to establish the identity of another entity [5] . Nowadays, we can say password is mostly widely used to verify and authenticate users. For instance, online banking system is important to have high security level to secure users’ accounts and protect their asset as well as their personal data from malicious hands. One of the method to secure system is by using password. Password is a secret word or phrase created by the user in ensuring unauthorized user cannot access the restricted resource. At the same time, it is well known that there is a tension between the security and usability of passwords. Oftentimes, secure passwords tend to be difficult to memorize (i.e., less usable), whereas passwords that are memorable tend to be predictable [7] . Generally, in order for authentication system to be practical, three level authentication is designed to provide additional security.

There are many schemes that had been proposed but still have their weaknesses. For your information, the three level authentication is the combination of three existing scheme which is text-based password, pattern lock password/graphical and one time password to form a better protection. In this, the traditional method used is textbased password. These type of password are strings of letters and digits. In this technique, the password is usually short and easy to predict that lead to malicious activities easily. Hence, to increase the level of security in a system, three level authentication is proposed.

 

 

1.2   Problem Statement

Password-based authentication is one of the simplest and most common authentication mechanisms used to provide computer security. However, people prefer to create short and simple passwords as it can recognize easily. This type of password is usually lead to password guessing easily and caused malicious activities.

In addition, traditional authentications like passwords are the unwillingness of the users to remember long, challenging combination of numbers, letters and symbols that can be easily copy or guess. Therefore, users are restricted to add numbers or special characters in their passwords but such policies make the passwords hard to remember [16] .  Lastly, password thefts can and do happen on a daily basis because the password is not secure and allows attackers to steal or crack data easily. This may reduce the level security of the system. So, users need to choose a strong password like combine the alphabets, number and symbol together.

 

 

1.3    Objectives

 

The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of using three level authentication system to improve the security system. The objectives are as follows:

1. To design an implementation of password authentication that give highest security in authenticating users.
2. To implement the applications/system that more user friendly.

• To test and evaluate the authentication scheme in preventing unauthorized access.

1.4 Motivation of Study

 

Regardless with today’s environment, using only single-factor authentication is at risk and not secure enough. Thus, the use of three level password authentication  will increase the security protection against attacks. For information, the three level password authentication system is an authentication scheme which combines three existing password authentication scheme to form a better secure computer network and services.

 

Generally, authentication method can be categorized into three main areas which is Token based authentication, Biometric based authentication and Knowledge based authentication. Token based means “what you have”. Token based techniques, use tokens such as key cards, bank cards and smart cards that are widely used by everyone. Just as when a person loses a key, he would not be able to open the lock, a user who loses his token would not be able to login, as such the token based authentication category is quite vulnerable to fraud, theft or loss of the token itself [1] .

Biometric based techniques means “what you are”. This type of techniques use physiological biometrics like measurement of human body, such as fingerprint, face geometry and iris [2] .  The main problem of this approach is the system can be higher in cost and recognition can be slow.

 

Lastly, Knowledge based technique means “what you know”.  It is commonly used in authentication method. It includes  both text-based and graphical-based password [1] .

 

 

1.5  Scope of Work

 

Clearly, the main highlight of this project is to implement the security system by using three level authentication password which involves the user and system. The scope is involved the user scope and also system scope.

Firstly, for user’s scope, the user are able to register the application as a user. Besides, the users are also able to provide data regarding the registration form. The data is collected when the users done registered. This system is focusing on a firm or industry or institute where it will accessible only to some higher designation holding people, who need to store and maintain the crucial and confidential data secure.

The system’s scope  is using three existing schemes which are text based password, graphical/pattern lock password and one time password. The users need to input correct password in the previous level  before continuing with the next level. So, this will help to improve the security level in authentication.

 

1.6    Limitation of Work

There are three authentication scenarios which are text based, graphical/patter lock and one time password. If the users accidentally forget the password, it cannot retrieve it.

THREE LEVEL PASSWORD AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

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