Delusio - Plausible Deniability For Face Recognition

Abstract

We developed an Android phone unlock mechanism utilizing facial recognition and specific mimics to access a specially secured portion of the device, designed for plausible deniability. The widespread adoption of biometric authentication methods, such as fingerprint and facial recognition, has revolutionized mobile device security, offering enhanced protection against shoulder-surfing attacks and improving user convenience compared to traditional passwords. However, a downside is the potential for third-party coercion to unlock the device. While text-based authentication allows users to reveal a hidden system by entering a special password, this is challenging with face authentication. We evaluated our approach in a role-playing user study involving 50 participants, with one participant acting as the attacker and the other as the suspect. Suspects successfully accessed the secured area, mostly without detection. They further expressed interest in this feature on their personal phones. We also discuss open challenges and opportunities in implementing such authentication mechanisms.