User interface design affects security: patterns in click-based graphical passwords

  • Authors:
  • Sonia Chiasson;Alain Forget;Robert Biddle;P. C. van Oorschot

  • Affiliations:
  • Carleton University, School of Computer Science and Human Oriented Technology Lab, Ottawa, Canada;Carleton University, School of Computer Science and Human Oriented Technology Lab, Ottawa, Canada;Carleton University, School of Computer Science and Human Oriented Technology Lab, Ottawa, Canada;Carleton University, School of Computer Science, Ottawa, Canada

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Information Security
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Design of the user interface for authentication systems influences users and may encourage either secure or insecure behaviour. Using data from four different but closely related click-based graphical password studies, we show that user-selected passwords vary considerably in their predictability. Our post-hoc analysis looks at click-point patterns within passwords and shows that PassPoints passwords follow distinct patterns. Our analysis shows that many patterns appear across a range of images, thus motivating attacks which are independent of specific background images. Conversely, Cued Click-Points (CCP) and Persuasive Cued Click-Points (PCCP) passwords are nearly indistinguishable from those of a randomly generated simulated dataset. These results provide insight on modeling effective password spaces and on how user interface characteristics lead to more (or less) security resulting from user behaviour.