Paper 2010/316

A New Human Identification Protocol and Coppersmith's Baby-Step Giant-Step Algorithm

Hassan Jameel Asghar and Josef Pieprzyk and Huaxiong Wang

Abstract

We propose a new protocol providing cryptographically secure authentication to unaided humans against passive adversaries. We also propose a new generic passive attack on human identification protocols. The attack is an application of Coppersmith's baby-step giant-step algorithm on human identification protcols. Under this attack, the achievable security of some of the best candidates for human identification protocols in the literature is further reduced. We show that our protocol preserves similar usability while achieves better security than these protocols. A comprehensive security analysis is provided which suggests parameters guaranteeing desired levels of security.