Biometric-based Authentication Research Articles

Three measures for secure palmprint identification

Most previous research in the area of personal authentication using the palmprint as a biometric trait has concentrated on enhancing accuracy yet resistance to attacks is also a centrally important feature of any biometric security system. In this paper, we address three relevant security issues: template re-issuances, also called cancellable biometrics, 1 1 In this paper, we use the definition of cancellable biometrics proposed by Ratha and his co-workers, who are the first inventors of cancellable biometrics based on our best knowledge [N.K. Ratha, J.H. Connell, R.M. Bolle, Enhancing security and privacy in biometrics-based authentication systems, IBM Syst. J. 40(3) (2001) 614–634]. replay attacks, and database attacks. We propose to use a random orientation filter bank (ROFB) as a feature extractor to generate noise-like feature codes, called Competitive Codes for templates re-issuances. Secret messages are hidden in templates to prevent replay and database attacks. This technique can be regarded as template watermarking. A series of analyses is provided to evaluate the security levels of the measures.

Generating Cancelable Fingerprint Templates

Biometrics-based authentication systems offer obvious usability advantages over traditional password and token-based authentication schemes. However, biometrics raises several privacy concerns. A biometric is permanently associated with a user and cannot be changed. Hence, if a biometric identifier is compromised, it is lost forever and possibly for every application where the biometric is used. Moreover, if the same biometric is used in multiple applications, a user can potentially be tracked from one application to the next by cross-matching biometric databases. In this paper, we demonstrate several methods to generate multiple cancelable identifiers from fingerprint images to overcome these problems. In essence, a user can be given as many biometric identifiers as needed by issuing a new transformation "key." The identifiers can be cancelled and replaced when compromised. We empirically compare the performance of several algorithms such as Cartesian, polar, and surface folding transformations of the minutiae positions. It is demonstrated through multiple experiments that we can achieve revocability and prevent cross-matching of biometric databases. It is also shown that the transforms are noninvertible by demonstrating that it is computationally as hard to recover the original biometric identifier from a transformed version as by randomly guessing. Based on these empirical results and a theoretical analysis we conclude that feature-level cancelable biometric construction is practicable in large biometric deployments.

Two-Factor Cancelable Biometrics Authenticator

Biometrics-based authentication system offers advantages of providing high reliability and accuracy. However, the contemporary authentication system is impuissance to compromise. If a biometrics data is compromised, it cannot be replaced and rendered unusable. In this paper, a cancelable biometrics-based authenticator is proposed to solve this irrevocability issue. The proposed approach is a two-factor authentication system, which requires both of the random data and facial feature in order to access the system. In this system, tokenized pseudo-random data is coupled with moment-based facial feature via inner product algorithm. The output of the product is then discretized to generate a set of private binary code, coined as 2factor-Hashing code, which is acted as verification key. If this biometrics-based verification key is compromised, a new one can be issued by replacing a different set of random number via token replacement. Then, the compromised one is rendered completely useless. This feature offers an extra protection layer against biometrics fabrication since the verification code is replaceable. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system provides zero Equal Error Rate in which there is a clear separation in between the genuine and the imposter distribution populations.

An Efficient Selective Encryption of Fingerprint Images for Embedded Processors

Biometric-based authentication can provide a strong security guarantee of the identity of users. However, the security of biometric data is particularly important as any compromise of the biometric data will be permanent. In this paper, we propose a secure and efficient protocol to transmit fingerprint images from a fingerprint sensor to a client by exploiting the characteristics of the fingerprint images. Because the fingerprint sensor is computationally limited, a standard encryption algorithm may not be applied to the full fingerprint images in real-time to guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of the fingerprint images transmitted. To reduce the computational workload on the resource-constrained sensor, we apply the encryption algorithm to a nonce for integrity and to a specific bitplane of each pixel of the fingerprint image for confidentiality. Experimental results show that the integrity and confidentiality of the fingerprint images can be guaranteed without any leakage of the fingerprint ridge information and can be completed in real-time on embedded processors.

Improving the security of ‘a flexible biometrics remote user authentication scheme’

Recently, Lin-Lai proposed 'a flexible biometrics remote user authentication scheme,' which is based on El Gamal's cryptosystem and fingerprint verification, and does not need to maintain verification tables on the server. They claimed that their scheme is secured from attacks and suitable for high security applications; however, we point out that their scheme is vulnerable and can easily be cryptanalyzed. We demonstrate that their scheme performs only unilateral authentication (only client authentication) and there is no mutual authentication between user and remote system, thus their scheme is susceptible to the server spoofing attack. To fill this security gap, we present an improvement which overcomes the weakness of Lin-Lai's scheme. As a result, our improved security patch establishes trust between client and remote system in the form of mutual authentication. Moreover, some standards for biometric-based authentication are also discussed, which should be followed during the development of biometric systems.

Personal authentication using digital retinal images

Traditional authentication (identity verification) systems, used to gain access to a private area in a building or to data stored in a computer, are based on something the user has (an authentication card, a magnetic key) or something the user knows (a password, an identification code). However, emerging technologies allow for more reliable and comfortable user authentication methods, most of them based on biometric parameters. Much work could be found in the literature about biometric-based authentication, using parameters like iris, voice, fingerprints, face characteristics, and others. In this work a novel authentication method is presented and preliminary results are shown. The biometric parameter employed for the authentication is the retinal vessel tree, acquired through retinal digital images, i.e., photographs of the fundus of the eye. It has already been asserted by expert clinicians that the configuration of the retinal vessels is unique for each individual and that it does not vary during his life, so it is a very well-suited identification characteristic. Before the verification process can be executed, a registration step is required to align both the reference image and the picture to be verified. A fast and reliable registration method is used to perform this step, so that the whole authentication process takes about 0.3 s.

VOICE.TRUST emerges onto European scene

German provider of speaker authentication solutions VOICE.TRUST has formalised its partnership with US company SpeechWorks International. The company, which was launched in 2000, uses SpeechWorks’ SpeechSecure speaker verification technology at the heart of its biometric-based authentication solution VOICE.TRUST Server. This is a short news story only. Visit www.compseconline.com for the latest computer security industry news

Personal authentication using palm-print features

Biometrics-based authentication is a verification approach using the biological features inherent in each individual. They are processed based on the identical, portable, and arduous duplicate characteristics. In this paper, we propose a scanner-based personal authentication system by using the palm-print features. It is very suitable in many network-based applications. The authentication system consists of enrollment and verification stages. In the enrollment stage, the training samples are collected and processed by the pre-processing, feature extraction, and modeling modules to generate the matching templates. In the verification stage, a query sample is also processed by the pre-processing and feature extraction modules, and then is matched with the reference templates to decide whether it is a genuine sample or not. The region of interest (ROI) for each sample is first obtained from the pre-processing module. Then, the palm-print features are extracted from the ROI by using Sobel and morphological operations. The reference templates for a specific user are generated in the modeling module. Last, we use the template-matching and the backpropagation neural network to measure the similarity in the verification stage. Experimental results verify the validity of our proposed approaches in personal authentication.

Enhancing security and privacy in biometrics-based authentication systems

Because biometrics-based authentication offers several advantages over other authentication methods, there has been a significant surge in the use of biometrics for user authentication in recent years. It is important that such biometrics-based authentication systems be designed to withstand attacks when employed in security-critical applications, especially in unattended remote applications such as e-commerce. In this paper we outline the inherent strengths of biometrics-based authentication, identify the weak links in systems employing biometrics-based authentication, and present new solutions for eliminating some of these weak links. Although, for illustration purposes, fingerprint authentication is used throughout, our analysis extends to other biometrics-based methods.

Multiparty Biometric-Based Authentication

A multiparty biometric-based access control might be desirable, or even required, in some applications. That is, a group of individuals might have to present valid readings of biometrics parameters in order to gain access to a system or application in order to receive authorization to use a particular resource. Such multiparty schemes can often provide greater protection. This paper presents several techniques for multiparty biometric-based authentication. It also shows a technique for biometric substitution which allows different biometrics to be used concurrently or substituted over time.

Networked Biometrics Systems — Requirements Based on Iris Recognition

Future user verification and validation for networked access to computer applications, trust services and e-commerce could rely upon biometrics-based user authentication. This paper discusses requirements for networked biometrics access, based on experience with iris recognition systems. Also described is the development of a prototype WindowsNT log-on system using iris recognition.