Password strength

About: Password strength is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3112 publications have been published within this topic receiving 69357 citations. The topic is also known as: weak password.

Password authentication with insecure communication

Abstract: A method of user password authentication is described which is secure even if an intruder can read the system's data, and can tamper with or eavesdrop on the communication between the user and the system. The method assumes a secure one-way encryption function and can be implemented with a microcomputer in the user's terminal.

Encrypted key exchange: password-based protocols secure against dictionary attacks

Abstract: Classic cryptographic protocols based on user-chosen keys allow an attacker to mount password-guessing attacks. A combination of asymmetric (public-key) and symmetric (secret-key) cryptography that allow two parties sharing a common password to exchange confidential and authenticated information over an insecure network is introduced. In particular, a protocol relying on the counter-intuitive motion of using a secret key to encrypt a public key is presented. Such protocols are secure against active attacks, and have the property that the password is protected against offline dictionary attacks. >

A large-scale study of web password habits

Abstract: We report the results of a large scale study of password use andpassword re-use habits. The study involved half a million users over athree month period. A client component on users' machines recorded a variety of password strength, usage and frequency metrics. This allows us to measure or estimate such quantities as the average number of passwords and average number of accounts each user has, how many passwords she types per day, how often passwords are shared among sites, and how often they are forgotten. We get extremely detailed data on password strength, the types and lengths of passwords chosen, and how they vary by site. The data is the first large scale study of its kind, and yields numerous other insights into the role the passwords play in users' online experience.

Password security: a case history

Abstract: This paper describes the history of the design of the password security scheme on a remotely accessed time-sharing system. The present design was the result of countering observed attempts to penetrate the system. The result is a compromise between extreme security and ease of use.

The design and analysis of graphical passwords

Abstract: In this paper we propose and evaluate new graphical password schemes that exploit features of graphical input displays to achieve better security than text-based passwords. Graphical input devices enable the user to decouple the position of inputs from the temporal order in which those inputs occur, and we show that this decoupling can be used to generate password schemes with substantially larger (memorable) password spaces. In order to evaluate the security of one of our schemes, we devise a novel way to capture a subset of the "memorable" passwords that, we believe, is itself a contribution. In this work we are primarily motivated by devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) that offer graphical input capabilities via a stylus, and we describe our prototype implementation of one of our password schemes on such a PDA, namely the Palm PilotTM.