International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume: 3 | Issue: 4 | May-Jun 2019 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 - 6470

Graphical Password Authentication using image

Segmentation for Web Based Applications
Maw Maw Naing, Ohnmar Win
Department of Electronic Engineering, Mandalay Technological University, Mandalay, Myanmar

How to cite this paper: Maw Maw ABSTRACT

Naing | Ohnmar Win "Graphical One of the most important topics in information security today is user
Password Authentication using image authentication. User authentication is a fundamental component in most
Segmentation for Web Based computer security contexts. It provides the basis for access control and user
Applications" Published in International accountability. While there are various types of user authentication systems,
Journal of Trend in Scientific Research alphanumeric passwords are the most common type of user authentication. They
and Development are versatile and easy to implement and use. However, it can either be long and
(ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456- secure or short and hard to remember. A graphical based password is one
6470, Volume-3 | promising alternatives of textual passwords. According to human psychology,
Issue-4, June 2019, humans are able to remember pictures easily. In this paper, graphical passwords
pp.1461-1464, URL: have been designed to try to make password more memorable and easier for
https://www.ijtsrd.c people to use, and it is less vulnerable to brute force attacks than a text-based
om/papers/ijtsrd25 IJTSRD25184 password. The aim of the system is to implement a strong security. The proposed
184.pdf system segments the image like a grid, which has a maximum four fragments.
Then, each segment of the image is dragged in a particular sequence onto an
Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and empty grid of size 6x6 and placed on a particular segment of the empty grid, to
International Journal of Trend in form the user’ password. When the user logs into the system, the user needs to
Scientific Research and Development drag each segment of the image onto the same empty grid of size 6x6 in the
Journal. This is an Open Access article correct sequence and position of the segments that user had specified during
distributed under registration.
the terms of the
Creative Commons Keywords: Authentication, Graphical Passwords, Images Segmentation
Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/4.0)
I. INTRODUCTION
Authentication based on passwords is used largely in the main problems is the difficulty of remembering
applications for computer security and privacy. Currently passwords. Graphical passwords systems are the most
the authentication methods can be broadly divided into promising alternative to conventional password based
three main areas. Token based, Biometric based, and authentication systems.
Knowledge based authentication [1]. Text Based Password
and Graphical Password are the type of Knowledge based Graphical passwords (GP) use pictures instead of textual
Authentication. Graphical based passwords schemes can be passwords and are partially motivated by the fact that
broadly classified into four main categories: First is humans can remember pictures more easily than a string of
Recognition based Systems which are also known as characters [3]. The idea of graphical passwords was
Cognometric Systems or Searchmetric Systems. Recognition originally described by Greg Blonder in 1996 [4]. An
based techniques involve identifying whether one has seen important advantage of GP is that they are easier to
an image before. The user must only be able to recognize remember than textual passwords. Human beings have the
previously seen images, not generate them unaided from ability to remember faces of people, places they visit and
memory. Second is Pure Recall based systems which are also things they have seen for a longer duration. Thus, graphical
known as Drwanmetric Systems. In pure recall-based passwords provide a means for making more user-friendly
methods the user has to reproduce something that he or she passwords while increasing the level of security. The key
created or selected earlier during the registration stage. feature of the system is that it uses image as a password
Third is Cued Recall based systems which are also called which makes it more memorable. The proposed system
Iconmetric Systems. In cued recall-based methods, a user is requires a user to upload a memorable image and also
provided with a hint so that he or she can recall his/her remember the position of segmented images as registration.
password. Fourth is Hybrid systems which are typically the
combination of two or more schemes. Like recognition and II. Overview of proposed system
recall based or textual with graphical password schemes [2]. A. Appliances of Web Technology
The most common computer authentication method is for a Web is the most critical technology to carry data via internet.
user to submit a user name and a text password. The The primary function of a web server is to store, process and
vulnerabilities of this method have been well known. One of deliver web pages to clients. Generally, most of the web

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
servers support server-side scripting using Active Server C. Compute the width and height of segment. Width of
Pages (ASP), PHP or other scripting languages. Web servers segment= width/ Horizontal segment and High of
are not only used for serving the World Wide Web but also segment= height/ Vertical segment.
found embedded in devices such as printers, routers, and
webcam. No additional software has to be installed on the D. Hash Function
client computer because only a web browser is required. The segmented image is encrypted by using Hash function in
the system and it is stored into database. Firstly, the image is
There are three main parts in this technology. They are compared whether it is jpg or png format. If it is compact
hypertext document, web server and web browser. with the image format type, the format type is changed into
the standard type again. The image is resized into (8*8)
The communication between client and server takes place pixels which are converted into gray scale format. The
using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Pages system computes the mean value of the gray scale image and
delivered are most frequently Hypertext Mark-up Language it also computes the bits which are based on whether the
(HTML) documents, which may include images, style sheets color value is above or below the mean value. The mean
and scripts in addition to text content. Hypertext document value will take out the bit value in 0, 1. If a gray value is
also called web document is a text document including higher than the mean value, it will be 1. Otherwise, it will be
HTML element. 0. In constructing Hash function, it sets the 64bits binary
from left to right, top to bottom using big endian.
Web server is a system collecting the web document by
using computer and can retrieve when it is required. The III. System FLOW
heart of the web is Uniform Resource Locater (URL). The This figure below explains the flow of the system i.e. how
address consisting of domain name and Uniform Resource data is being transferred from one module to another.
Identifier (URI) is called URL. A URL will have the following
format such as protocol name, domain name, path and
parameter.

The basic function of web browser is to carry the data from

user to web server and vice versa. The most popular web
browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox,
Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera.

B. Database Management System

Database Management System is an application/ program-
enabling user to store, organize, select and analyse data in a
database. Hence it is needed for accessing information from
a database. Some of Database Management Systems are
MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2 etc. There are
different types of DBMSs according to the management of
database structures. Some of the types of DBMS are
Hierarchical DBMS, Network DBMS, Relational DBMS, and
Object-oriented DBMS. The most common used is the
relational database. In relational database, data are store in
data form. The table contains list of columns in which related
data are entered, stored and also retrieve when required.
MySQL Database Server uses Relational database model for
managing data. It is an open-source relational database
application that uses structured query languages. MySQL
Database Server is one of the widely used databases used in
web applications. With MySQL, the user can add, access and
manage content in database. SQL offers fast processing, ease,
scalable and flexibility in use. Also MySQL is part of open-
source PHP application. It is client-server system that
consists of multi-threaded SQL server that supports different
client programs, wide range of applications programming
interface.

C. Image Segmentation
The system segments the uploaded image. The initiations Figure 1: Flowchart of Graphical Password
steps are (1) upload a photo, (2) ask user about the segments Authentication Using Image Segmentation for Web
they want and (3) take upload photo width and height. The Based Applications
basis methods for segmenting the image are as follows:
A. Assign the width and height of image. width=width of IV. System Implementation
image and height=height of image. The proposed system is aimed to provide a system which
B. Compute the horizontal and vertical segment of image. gives strong authentication to the user and protects user
Horizontal segment= square root (fragment) and data from unauthorized access. The proposed system
Vertical segment=square root (fragment). consists of four parts:

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
A. Registration Process: Fig.5 shows how each segment and their position number

Input module: The user will be asked to upload a are saved represented by imghash and position. System is
unique image to the system and enter username implemented by encryption and decryption of data for the
password and email address as shown in fig.2. authentic user’s data. Further the data cannot be retrieved
by any hacker as it will be in encrypted form.

Image divides into segments: Then the system will
divide the uploaded image into 2x2 grid segments as
shown in fig.3. Each segment will be associated with a
unique number.

Mapping of image segments to empty grid: The

system will then present the segmented image alongside
an empty grid and ask the user to place the grid
segments from segmented image into the empty grid.
The segments of the empty grid will also be associated
with a unique number.

of segment: The position in which the user places the

segments into the empty grid is stored in database and
will act as authentication of the user.

Figure 4. Setting of User

Figure 2. Registration Form

Figure 5. Snapshot of Database for 2x2 Fragments

B. The Login Process:

Matching of input image with registered image: The
system will ask the user to upload the same image that
he/she had provided at the time of registration.

Image divides into segments: The system then

segments the image using algorithm and presents it to
the user along with an empty grid.

Verify sequence and position of segments mapped and

authenticate user: The user has to place the segments in
the empty grid in the correct position (Same as saved in
the database during the registration process) to be
considered as an authorized user.

Figure 3. Segmented Image C. The Learning Management System:

After the user is authenticated he will be directed to the web
User has to drag and drop each segment of image anywhere page. This is an application which is developed for the
on a 6x6 empty grid as shown in fig.4. User is supposed to department of a university, wherein data can be shared
remember the sequence and position of where the segment between the students and the faculty, faculty and the HOD,
is mapped in an empty grid. and HOD and students.

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
as a password and the system is designed to provide strong
security to computer systems. Although the images are
easier to remember or to recognize than texts, it is necessary
more storage space to store the image. In the system, MYSQL
database management system is used to store the image data
and also use the data encryption methods that make the user
data more secure and the data cannot be easily attacked by
the hackers. The graphical passwords are used in web log-in
application, ATM machines and also mobile devices and the
proposed system is aimed to the authentication process of
web based application.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Dr.Ohnmar Win, Professor,
Department of Electronic and Communication Engineering
for kindly permitting to prepare for this paper, for her
fruitful advice, close supervision, encouragement and
Figure6. Learning Management System User numerous invaluable guidance. The author would also thank
Homepage to all teachers and friends who willingly helped the author
throughout the preparation of the paper.
D. Forget Password
If the uploaded photo is damaged or lost then the user can REFERENCES
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