Strengthening Passwords Against Peeping Attacks

Abstract

Despite a multitude of vulnerabilities of textual passwords, they are more likely to remain widespread since no scheme has become able to come close to providing all desired benefits. Among those vulnerabilities, peeping attacks are recognized as a real threat but, yet remain much unexplored. Most often, applications and systems use textual passwords for authentication, without considering the threat of peeping attacks. Our study provides the first numerical evidence of strength reduction to represent the impact of the attack. We introduce a novel authentication scheme that is conceptually different but purely text-based, as an endeavour towards strengthening textual passwords against the impact of peeping attacks. An experimental approach was used to collect data, simulating a peeping attack. Researchers intended were to provide an idea to the community, at the level of which the strength of a password can be reduced. This vulnerability is something crucial, yet haven't focused enough. Having such an understanding is desirable, as it can provide an image on the impact that these attacks can have on strength of textual passwords.