research-article

Exploring usability effects of increasing security in click-based graphical passwords

Authors:

Elizabeth Stobert,

Sonia Chiasson,

P. C. van Oorschot,

Robert BiddleAuthors Info & Claims

ACSAC '10: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference

Pages 79 - 88

https://doi.org/10.1145/1920261.1920273

Published: 06 December 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Graphical passwords have been proposed to address known problems with traditional text passwords. For example, memorable user-chosen text passwords are predictable, but random system-assigned passwords are difficult to remember. We explore the usability effects of modifying system parameters to increase the security of a click-based graphical password system. Generally, usability tests for graphical passwords have used configurations resulting in password spaces smaller than that of common text passwords. Our two-part lab study compares the effects of varying the number of click-points and the image size, including when different configurations provide comparable password spaces. For comparable spaces, no usability advantage was evident between more click-points, or a larger image. This is contrary to our expectation that larger image size (with fewer click-points) might offer usability advantages over more click-points (with correspondingly smaller images). The results suggest promising opportunities for better matching graphical password system configurations to device constraints, or capabilities of individual users, without degrading usability. For example, more click-points could be used on smart-phone displays where larger image sizes are not possible.

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Cited By

D JV RP TIyer AS N(2023)Resisting Visual Hacking: A Novel Graphical Password Authentication System2023 3rd International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Social Networking (ICPCSN)10.1109/ICPCSN58827.2023.00155(910-915)Online publication date: Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICPCSN58827.2023.00155
Srinivasa Ravi Kiran TSrisaila ALakshmanarao A(2021)Implementing Multilevel Graphical Password Authentication Scheme in Combination with One Time PasswordInternational Conference on Innovative Computing and Communications10.1007/978-981-16-2594-7_2(11-28)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2594-7_2
Saravanos AZheng DZervoudakis SDelfino D(2021)Exploring the Effect of Resolution on the Usability of Locimetric AuthenticationHCI International 2021 - Late Breaking Papers: Design and User Experience10.1007/978-3-030-90238-4_27(387-396)Online publication date: 20-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90238-4_27
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Index Terms

Exploring usability effects of increasing security in click-based graphical passwords
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
2. Security and privacy
  1. Security services
    1. Authentication

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

ACSAC '10: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference

December 2010

419 pages

ISBN:9781450301336

DOI:10.1145/1920261

Conference Chair:
Carrie Gates
CA Labs
,
Program Chairs:
Michael Franz
University of California, Irvine
,
John McDermott
Naval Research Lab

Copyright © 2010 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 06 December 2010

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ACSAC '10: 2010 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference

December 6 - 10, 2010

Texas, Austin, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 104 of 497 submissions, 21%

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1109/ICPCSN58827.2023.00155
Srinivasa Ravi Kiran TSrisaila ALakshmanarao A(2021)Implementing Multilevel Graphical Password Authentication Scheme in Combination with One Time PasswordInternational Conference on Innovative Computing and Communications10.1007/978-981-16-2594-7_2(11-28)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2594-7_2
Saravanos AZheng DZervoudakis SDelfino D(2021)Exploring the Effect of Resolution on the Usability of Locimetric AuthenticationHCI International 2021 - Late Breaking Papers: Design and User Experience10.1007/978-3-030-90238-4_27(387-396)Online publication date: 20-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90238-4_27
Katsini CAvouris NFidas C(2020)CogniPGA: Longitudinal Evaluation of Picture Gesture Authentication with Cognition-Based Interventioni-com10.1515/icom-2019-001118:3(237-257)Online publication date: 14-Jan-2020
https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2019-0011
Ho YLau SAzman A(2020)Comparison Between BlindLogin and Other Graphical Password Authentication SystemsAdvances in Cyber Security10.1007/978-981-15-2693-0_17(235-246)Online publication date: 17-Jan-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2693-0_17
Liang HFleming CMan K(2019)Personal Mobile devices at work: factors affecting the adoption of security mechanismsMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-019-7349-2Online publication date: 26-Feb-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-019-7349-2
Katsini CRaptis GFidas CAvouris NSharif BKrejtz K(2018)Towards gaze-based quantification of the security of graphical authentication schemesProceedings of the 2018 ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications10.1145/3204493.3204589(1-5)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3204493.3204589
Shaikh ZMohadikar ANayak RPadamadan R(2017)Security and Verification of Server Data Using Frequent Itemset Mining in EcommerceInternational Journal of Synthetic Emotions10.4018/IJSE.20170101038:1(31-43)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2017
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Alomar NAlsaleh MAlarifi A(2017)Someone in Your Contact List: Cued Recall-Based Textual PasswordsIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2017.271212612:11(2574-2589)Online publication date: Nov-2017
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Chaudhry JFarmand SIslam SIslam MHannay PValli C(2017)Discovering Trends for the Development of Novel Authentication Applications for Dementia PatientsInternational Conference on Applications and Techniques in Cyber Security and Intelligence10.1007/978-3-319-67071-3_29(220-237)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2017
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