Secure User Authentication Using Graphical Passwords

The paper discusses secure user authentication mechanisms using graphical passwords. Graphical Password is an alternative to a textual password, which uses images, designs patterns etc. as a password instead of alphanumeric password. Graphical passwords provide better security and usability over textual password, but along with so many advantages of graphical password, they have a major issue of Shoulder Surfing Attack. In this report different techniques of graphical passwords are discussed. To combat shoulder surfing attack, two different techniques of graphical password based authentication are implemented as part of this project. Different user based surveys are conducted. Based on results of user surveys, a comparative analysis is carried out between two prototypes developed in this project. In the end, conclusion is written in terms of application’s security, reliability, user convenience and security against the shoulder surfing attack.