Paper 2011/172

The weak password problem: chaos, criticality, and encrypted p-CAPTCHAs

T. V. Laptyeva, S. Flach, and K. Kladko

Abstract

Vulnerabilities related to weak passwords are a pressing global economic and security issue. We report a novel, simple, and effective approach to address the weak password problem. Building upon chaotic dynamics, criticality at phase transitions, CAPTCHA recognition, and computational round-off errors we design an algorithm that strengthens security of passwords. The core idea of our method is to split a long and secure password into two components. The first component is memorized by the user. The second component is transformed into a CAPTCHA image and then protected using evolution of a two-dimensional dynamical system close to a phase transition, in such a way that standard brute-force attacks become ineffective. We expect our approach to have wide applications for authentication and encryption technologies.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Foundations
Publication info
Published elsewhere. Unknown where it was published
Contact author(s)
kladko @ axiomaresearch com
History
2011-04-05: received
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2011/172
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2011/172,
      author = {T. V.  Laptyeva and S.  Flach and K.  Kladko},
      title = {The weak password problem: chaos, criticality, and encrypted p-CAPTCHAs},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2011/172},
      year = {2011},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2011/172}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2011/172}
}
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