Graphical Password Authentication: Image Grid Based Digital Lock for Mobile Apps

Abstract

Over the past few decades, research on authentication methods has advanced significantly. While the initial focus was on using standardised password selection and management approaches to secure textual passwords, this was made possible by learning about the flaws in the existing systems based on the attacks performed on the same systems' vulnerabilities. With the rise of biometric-based authentication, the next stage in the study and development of improved solutions has begun. Although initially rather entertaining, this authentication method is very insecure. Once a person's biometrics have been stolen or replicated, new biometrics cannot be made. Compared to a person's one-step biometric authentication, biometrics in the multifactor authentication of an enterprise are less vulnerable. The development of graphical passwords is the result of all these issues with authentication systems. While multifactor graphical passwords impede smartphone users' usability and speedier processing-computational flexibility, overly simplistic graphical passwords are prone to shoulder surfing. Users of Android devices need an authentication system that is easy to use, quick, secure, and that gains faster access to the device. A study was done evaluating the usability, predictability, resistance to various attacks, and other characteristics of various graphical passwords. Grid-based graphical passwords outperformed their rivals among the different types of graphical passwords that were taken into consideration. The majority of graphical password implementations in the past have been on personal computers (PCs), while smartphone usage is far more prevalent than on PCs. We propose to develop an Android application with gridbased image-based graphical password authentication that will be secure and help a lot of users protect the secondary identities that they carry about in the form of smartphones. After evaluating which factors must remain in the system, the application was divided into five modules. Each module was first built using flowcharts, and later, the Java programming language was used to build the app in Android Studio.