Biblio

Every person using different online services is concerned with the security and privacy for protecting individual information from the intruders. Many authentication systems are available for the protection of individuals' data, and the password authentication system is one of them. Due to the increment of information sharing, internet popularization, electronic commerce transactions, and data transferring, both password security and authenticity have become an essential and necessary subject. But it is also mandatory to ensure the strength of the password. For that reason, all cyber experts recommend intricate password patterns. But most of the time, the users forget their passwords because of those complicated patterns. In this paper, we are proposing a unique algorithm that will generate a strong password, unlike other existing random password generators. This password will he based on the information, i.e. (some words and numbers) provided by the users so that they do not feel challenged to remember the password. We have tested our system through various experiments using synthetic input data. We also have checked our generator with four popular online password checkers to verify the strength of the produced passwords. Based on our experiments, the reliability of our generated passwords is entirely satisfactory. We also have examined that our generated passwords can defend against two password cracking attacks named the "Dictionary attack" and the "Brute Force attack". We have implemented our system in Python programming language. In the near future, we have a plan to extend our work by developing an online free to use user interface. The passwords generated by our system are not only user-friendly but also have achieved most of the qualities of being strong as well as non- crackable passwords.

An information system is only as secure as its weakest point. In many information systems that remains to be the human factor, despite continuous attempts to educate the users about the importance of password security and enforcing password creation policies on them. Furthermore, not only do the average users' password creation and management habits remain more or less the same, but the password cracking tools, and more importantly, the computer hardware, keep improving as well. In this study, we performed a broad targeted attack combining several well-established cracking techniques, such as brute-force, dictionary, and hybrid attacks, on the passwords used by the students of a Slovenian university to access the online grading system. Our goal was to demonstrate how easy it is to crack most of the user-created passwords using simple and predictable patterns. To identify differences between them, we performed an analysis of the cracked and uncracked passwords and measured their strength. The results have shown that even a single low to mid-range modern GPU can crack over 95% of passwords in just few days, while a more dedicated system can crack all but the strongest 0.5% of them.

Abstract Despite decades of research into developing abstract security advice and improving interfaces, users still struggle to make passwords. Users frequently create passwords that are predictable for attackers [1, 9] or make other decisions (e.g., reusing the same password across accounts) that harm their security [2, 8]. In this thesis,1 I use data-driven methods to better understand how users choose passwords and how attackers guess passwords. I then combine these insights into a better password-strength meter that provides real-time, data-driven feedback about the user's password. I first quantify the impact on password security and usability of showing users different password-strength meters that score passwords using basic heuristics. I find in a 2,931- participant online study that meters that score passwords stringently and present their strength estimates visually lead users to create stronger passwords without significantly impacting password memorability [6]. Second, to better understand how attackers guess passwords, I perform comprehensive experiments on password-cracking approaches. I find that simply running these approaches in their default configuration is insufficient, but considering multiple well-configured approaches in parallel can serve as a proxy for guessing by an expert in password forensics [9]. The third and fourth sections of this thesis delve further into how users choose passwords. Through a series of analyses, I pinpoint ways in which users structure semantically significant content in their passwords [7]. I also examine the relationship between users' perceptions of password security and passwords' actual security, finding that while users often correctly judge the security impact of individual password characteristics, wide variance in their understanding of attackers may lead users to judge predictable passwords as sufficiently strong [5]. Finally, I integrate these insights into an open-source2 password-strength meter that gives users data-driven feedback about their specific password. This meter uses neural networks [3] and numerous carefully combined heuristics to score passwords and generate data-driven text feedback about a given password. I evaluate this meter through a ten-participant laboratory study and 4,509-participant online study [4]. Under the more common password-composition policy we tested, we find that the data-driven meter with detailed feedback leads users to create more secure, and no less memorable, passwords than a meter with only a bar as a strength indicator. In sum, the objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how integrating data-driven insights about how users create and how attackers guess passwords into a tool that presents real-time feedback can help users make better passwords.

Password auditing can enhance the cyber situational awareness of defenders, e.g. cyber security/IT professionals, with regards to the strength of text-based authentication mechanisms utilized in an organization. Auditing results can proactively indicate if weak passwords exist in an organization, decreasing the risks of compromisation. Password cracking is a typical and time-consuming way to perform password auditing. Given that defenders perform password auditing within a specific evaluation timeframe, the cracking process needs to be optimized to yield useful results. Existing password cracking tools do not provide holistic features to optimize the process. Therefore, the need arises to build new password auditing toolkits to assist defenders to achieve their task in an effective and efficient way. Moreover, to maximize the benefits of password auditing, a security policy should be utilized. Currently the efforts focus on the specification of password security policies, providing rules on how to construct passwords. This work proposes the functionality that should be supported by next-generation password auditing toolkits and provides guidelines to drive the specification of a relevant password auditing policy.