Evaluation of Risk-based Re-Authentication Methods
Stephan Wiefling, Tanvi Patil, Markus Dürmuth, Luigi Lo Iacono
备注：
14 pages, 5 figures. Paper accepted for IFIP SEC 2020. Keywords: Risk-based Authentication (RBA), Re-authentication, Usable Security
发表信息：
35th IFIP TC-11 International Conference on Information Security and Privacy Protection (IFIP SEC 2020). IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol. 580, pp. 280-294. Springer, Cham
Risk-based Authentication (RBA) is an adaptive security measure that improves the security of password-based authentication by protecting against credential stuffing, password guessing, or phishing attacks. RBA monitors extra features during login and requests for an additional authentication step if the observed feature values deviate from the usual ones in the login history. In state-of-the-art RBA re-authentication deployments, users receive an email with a numerical code in its body, which must be entered on the online service. Although this procedure has a major impact on RBA's time exposure and usability, these aspects were not studied so far.
We introduce two RBA re-authentication variants supplementing the de facto standard with a link-based and another code-based approach. Then, we present the results of a between-group study (N=592) to evaluate these three approaches. Our observations show with significant results that there is potential to speed up the RBA re-authentication process without reducing neither its security properties nor its security perception. The link-based re-authentication via "magic links", however, makes users significantly more anxious than the code-based approaches when perceived for the first time. Our evaluations underline the fact that RBA re-authentication is not a uniform procedure. We summarize our findings and provide recommendations.
Risk-based Authentication (RBA) is an adaptive security measure to strengthen password-based authentication. RBA monitors additional features during login, and when observed feature values differ significantly from previously seen ones, users have to provide additional authentication factors such as a verification code. RBA has the potential to offer more usable authentication, but the usability and the security perceptions of RBA are not studied well. We present the results of a between-group lab study (n=65) to evaluate usability and security perceptions of two RBA variants, one 2FA variant,…
Risk-based authentication (RBA) extends authentication mechanisms to make them more robust against account takeover attacks, such as those using stolen passwords. RBA is recommended by NIST and NCSC to strengthen password-based authentication, and is already used by major online services. Also, users consider RBA to be more usable than two-factor authentication and just as secure. However, users currently obtain RBA's high security and usability benefits at the cost of exposing potentially sensitive personal data (e.g., IP address or browser information). This conflicts with user privacy and r…
Risk-based authentication (RBA) aims to protect users against attacks involving stolen passwords. RBA monitors features during login, and requests re-authentication when feature values widely differ from previously observed ones. It is recommended by various national security organizations, and users perceive it more usable and equally secure than equivalent two-factor authentication. Despite that, RBA is still only used by very few online services. Reasons for this include a lack of validated open resources on RBA properties, implementation, and configuration. This effectively hinders the RBA…
Risk-based authentication (RBA) aims to strengthen password-based authentication rather than replacing it. RBA does this by monitoring and recording additional features during the login process. If feature values at login time differ significantly from those observed before, RBA requests an additional proof of identification. Although RBA is recommended in the NIST digital identity guidelines, it has so far been used almost exclusively by major online services. This is partly due to a lack of open knowledge and implementations that would allow any service provider to roll out RBA protection to…
Online services have difficulties to replace passwords with more secure user authentication mechanisms, such as Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). This is partly due to the fact that users tend to reject such mechanisms in use cases outside of online banking. Relying on password authentication alone, however, is not an option in light of recent attack patterns such as credential stuffing. Risk-Based Authentication (RBA) can serve as an interim solution to increase password-based account security until better methods are in place. Unfortunately, RBA is currently used by only a few major online se…
In recent cyber attacks, credential theft has emerged as one of the primary vectors of gaining entry into the system. Once attacker(s) have a foothold in the system, they use various techniques including token manipulation to elevate the privileges and access protected resources. This makes authentication and token based authorization a critical component for a secure and resilient cyber system. In this paper we discuss the design considerations for such a secure and resilient authentication and authorization framework capable of self-adapting based on the risk scores and trust profiles. We co…
Metaverse in general holds a potential future for cyberspace. At the beginning of Web 2.0, it was witnessed that people were signing in with various pseudonyms or 'nyms', risking their online identities by increasing presence of fake accounts leading to difficulty in unique identification for different roles. However, in Web 3.0, the metaverse, a user's identity is tied to their original identity, where risking one poses a significant risk to the other. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel authentication system for securing digital assets, online identity, avatars, and accounts called Metase…
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Mobile devices have been manufactured and enhanced at growing rates in the past decades. While this growth has significantly evolved the capability of these devices, their security has been falling behind. This contrast in development between capability and security of mobile devices is a significant problem with the sensitive information of the public at risk. Continuing the previous work in this field, this study identifies key Machine Learning algorithms currently being used for behavioral biometric mobile authentication schemes and aims to provide a comprehensive review of these algorithms…
