Hybrid Authentication Technique

Abstract: The most common type of computer authentication is using alphanumeric characters. This method has significant drawbacks as users tend to pick passwords that are easy to guess. To overcome this problem, some researchers have developed authentication methods that use images as passwords which is known as graphical password. Using graphical password, users click on images rather than entering keywords or alphanumeric characters which proves to be more beneficial in order to overcome the shoulder surfing attack. The authentication done using graphical password is called as graphical password authentication. This authentication strategy has been designed to make the password more memorable and provides a high level of security. In this study, we have proposed a new strategy where the user has to initially choose a certain number of images as his/her password and with each image the user has to enter the corresponding string for that image. During the log-in, the user will be displayed a grid consisting of random images including the first image of the password. The user has to enter the location of the first image along with the string corresponding to that image and continue till the complete password is authenticated.

Keywords: Graphical authentication, textual, password, security.