A practical approach for secure biometric template storage for authentication

Abstract

Biometric is being increasingly used for authentication of user. During enrolment, an enrolment biometric template is generated from the user's raw biometric data. This template is typically stored in the authentication database and used for matching with the template generated when the user presents himself/herself for login. The stored enrolment template can be vulnerable and lead to security problems if it is not secured. For instance, an attacker who has been able to gain access to the database may replace the template with an imposter's such that the imposter can gain access to the system. In this work, a practical solution is proposed for securing the template by using encryption. Encryption involves a key which then has to be stored securely, otherwise, an attacker who has gained access to the server may retrieve the key and use it to encrypt/decrypt the templates. Our solution proposes the use of dynamic keys which are not stored in the database but which are generated on the fly when the user provides a password. Our proposed practical solution to securing biometric template can be easily implemented with any biometric device.