INTRODUCTION

Users nowadays are provided with major password stereotypes such as textual passwords,
biometric scanning, tokens or cards (such as an ATM) etc. Current authentication systems
suffer from many weaknesses.

Textual passwords are commonly used; however, users do not follow their requirements.
Users tend to choose meaningful words from dictionary or their pet names, relatives etc.
Ten years back Klein performed such tests and he could crack 10-15 passwords per day.
On the other hand, if a password is hard to guess, then it is often hard to remember. Users
have difficulty remembering a password that is long and random appearing. So, they create
short, simple, and insecure passwords that are susceptible to attack. Which make textual
passwords easy to break and vulnerable to dictionary or brute force attacks. Graphical
passwords schemes have been proposed. The strength of graphical passwords comes from
the fact that users can recall and recognize pictures more than words. Most graphical
passwords are vulnerable for shoulder surfing attacks, where an attacker can observe or
record the legitimate user’s graphical password by camera. Token based systems such as
ATMs are widely applied in banking systems and in laboratories entrances as a mean of
authentication. However, Smart cards or tokens are vulnerable to loss or theft. Moreover,
the user has to carry the token whenever access required. Biometric scanning is your
"natural" signature and Cards or Tokens prove your validity. But some people hate the fact
to carry around their cards, some refuse to undergo strong IR exposure to their retinas
(Biometric scanning).

In this paper, we present and evaluate our contribution, i.e., the 3-D password. The 3-D
password is a multifactor authentication scheme. To be authenticated, we present a 3-D
virtual environment where the user navigates and interacts with various objects. The
sequence of actions and interactions toward the objects inside the 3-D environment
constructs the user’s 3-D password. The 3-D password can combine most existing
authentication schemes such as textual passwords, graphical passwords, and various types
of biometrics into a 3-D virtual environment. The design of the 3-D virtual environment
and the type of objects selected determine the 3-Dpassword key space.

WHAT IS AUTHENTICATION?

Authentication is the act of establishing or confirming something as authentic, that is, that
claims made by or about the subject are true. This might involve confirming the identity of
a person, tracing the origins of an artifact, ensuring that a product is what it's packaging
and labeling claims to be, or assuring that a computer program is a trusted one. For
example, when you show proper identification credentials to a bank teller, you are asking
to be authenticated to act on behalf of the accountholder. If your authentication request is

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approved, you become authorized to access the accounts of that account holder, but no
others.

AUTHENTICATION METHODS
There are two types of techniques for doing this:-
>The first is comparing the attributes of the object itself to what is known about objects of
that origin. For example, an art expert might look for similarities in the style of painting,
check the location and form of a signature, or compare the object to an old photograph. An
archaeologist might use carbon dating to verify the age of an artifact, do a chemical
analysis of the materials used, or compare the style of construction or decoration to other
artifacts of similar origin. The physics of sound and light, and comparison with a known
physical environment, can be used to examine the authenticity of audio recordings,
photographs, or videos.

>The second type relies on documentation or other external affirmations. For example, the
rules of evidence in criminal courts often require establishing the chain of custody of
evidence presented. This can be accomplished through a written evidence log, or by
testimony from the police detectives and forensics staff that handled it. Some antiques are
accompanied by certificates attesting to their authenticity. External records have their own
problems of forgery and perjury, and are also vulnerable to being separated from the
artifact and lost.

Currency and other financial instruments commonly use the first type of authentication
method. Bills, coins, and cheques incorporate hard-to-duplicate physical features, such as
fine printing or engraving, distinctive feel, watermarks, and holographic imagery, which
are easy for receivers to verify.

Consumer goods such as pharmaceuticals, perfume, fashion clothing can use either type
of authentication method to prevent counterfeit goods from taking advantage of a popular
brand's reputation (damaging the brand owner's sales and reputation). A trademark is a
legally protected marking or other identifying feature which aids consumers in the
identification of genuine brand-name goods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM

The proposed system is a multi-factor authentication scheme. It can

combine all existing authentication schemes into a single 3Dvirtual environment. This 3D
virtual environment contains several objects or items with which the user can interact. The
user is presented with this 3D virtual environment where the user navigates and interacts
with various objects. The sequence of actions and interactions toward the objects inside the
3D environment constructs the user’s 3Dpassword.The 3D password can combine most
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existing authentication schemes such as textual passwords, graphical passwords, and
various types of biometrics into a 3D virtual environment.

The choice of what authentication schemes will be part of the user's 3D password reflects
the user's preferences and requirements. A user who prefers to remember and recall a
password might choose textual and graphical password as part of their 3D password. On
the other hand users who have more difficulty with memory or recall might prefer to
choose smart cards or biometrics as part of their 3D password. Moreover user who prefers
to keep any kind of biometric data private might not interact with object that requires
biometric information. Therefore it is the user's choice and decision to construct the
desired and preferred 3D password.

INNOVATIVE COMPONENT
The proposed system is a multi-factor authentication scheme that combines the benefits
of various authentication schemes. Users have the freedom to select whether the 3D
password will be solely recall, recognition, or token based, or combination of two schemes
or more. This freedom of selection is necessary because users are different and they have
different requirements. Therefore, to ensure high user acceptability, the user’s freedom of
selection is important.
The following requirements are satisfied in the proposed scheme
1. The new scheme provide secrets that are easy to remember and very difficult for
intruders to guess.
2. The new scheme provides secrets that are not easy to write down on paper. Moreover,
the scheme secrets should be difficult to share with others.
3. The new scheme provides secrets that can be easily revoked or changed.

COMPARISON WITH CURRENT AUTHENTICATION SYSTEMS

Suffer from many weaknesses. Textual passwords are commonly used. Users tend to
choose meaningful words from dictionaries, which make textual passwords easy to break
and vulnerable to dictionary or brute force attacks. Many available graphical passwords
have a password space that is less than or equal to the textual password space. Smart cards
or tokens can be stolen. Many biometric authentications have been proposed. However,
users tend to resist using biometrics because of their intrusiveness and the effect on their
privacy. Moreover, biometrics cannot be revoked. The 3D password is a multi factor
authentication scheme. The design of the 3D virtual environment and the type of objects
selected determine the 3D password key space. User have freedom to select whether the
3D password will be solely recall, recognition, or token based, or combination of two
schemes or more.
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WHAT IS A 3D PASSWORD?

The 3-D password is a multifactor authentication scheme. It can combine all existing
authentication schemes into a single 3-D virtual environment. This 3-D virtual
environment contains several objects or items with which the user can interact. The type of
interaction varies from one item to another. The 3-D password is constructed by observing
the actions and interactions of the user and by observing the sequences of such actions. It
is the user’s choice to select which type of authentication techniques will be part of their 3-
D password. This is achieved through interacting only with the objects that acquire
information that the user is comfortable in providing and ignoring the objects that request
information that the user prefers not to provide.

For example, if an item requests an iris scan and the user is not comfortable in providing
such information, the user simply avoids interacting with that item. Moreover, giving the
user the freedom of choice as to what type of authentication schemes will be part of their
3-D password and given the large number of objects and items in the environment, the
number of possible 3-D passwords will increase. Thus, it becomes much more difficult for
the attacker to guess the user’s 3-D password.

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION IN BRIEF

The 3Dpassword is a multi-factor authentication scheme. The 3Dpassword presents a

3Dvirtual environment containing various virtual objects. The user navigates through this
environment and interacts with the objects. The 3Dpassword is simply the combination
and the sequence of user interactions that occur in the 3Dvirtual environment.

The 3Dpassword can combine recognition, recall, token, and

biometrics based systems into one authentication scheme. This can be done by designing a
3Dvirtual environment that contains objects that request information to be recalled,
information to be recognized, tokens to be presented, and biometric data to be verified.

For example, the user can enter the virtual environment and type something on a
computer that exists in (x1 , y1 , z1 ) position, then enter a room that has a fingerprint
recognition device that exists in a position (x2 , y2 , z2 ) and provide his/her fingerprint.
Then, the user can go to the virtual garage, open the car door, and turn on the radio to a
specific channel. The combination and the sequence of the previous actions toward the
specific objects construct the user’s 3Dpassword.

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We can have the following objects:
1) A computer with which the user can type;
2) A fingerprint reader that requires the user’s fingerprint;
3) A biometric recognition device;
4) A paper or a white board that a user can write, sign, or draw on;
5) An automated teller machine (ATM) that requests a token;
6) A light that can be switched on/off;
7) A television or radio where channels can be selected;
8) A staple that can be punched;
9) A car that can be driven;
10) A book that can be moved from one place to another;
11) Any graphical password scheme;
12) Any real life object;
13) Any upcoming authentication scheme.

The action toward an object (assume a fingerprint recognition device)that

exists in location (x1 , y1 , z1 ) is different from the actions toward a similar object
(another fingerprint recognition device) that exists in location (x2 , y2 , z2 ),where x1 =
x2 , y1 = y2 , and z1 = z2 . Therefore, to perform the legitimate 3Dpassword, the user must
follow the same scenario performed by the legitimate user. This means interacting with the
same objects that reside at the exact locations and perform the exact actions in the proper
sequence.

3DPASSWORD SELECTION AND INPUTS

Let us consider a 3D virtual environment space of size G ×G × G. The 3Denvironment

space is represented by the coordinates (x, y, z) ∈ [1. . . G] × [1. . . G] × [1. . . G]. the
objects are distributed in the 3Dvirtual environment with unique (x, y, z) coordinates. We
assume that the user can navigate into the 3Dvirtual environment and interact with the
objects using any input device such as a mouse, key board, fingerprint scanner, iris
scanner, stylus, card reader, and microphone. We consider the sequence of those actions
and interactions using the previous input devices as the user’s 3Dpassword.
For example, consider a user who navigates through the
3Dvirtualenvironment that consists of an office and a meeting room. Let us assume that
the user is in the virtual office and the user turns around to the door located in (10, 24, 91)
and opens it. Then, the user closes the door. The user then finds a computer to the left,
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which exists in the position (4, 34, 18), and the user types “FALCON.” Then, the user
walks to the meeting room and picks up a pen located at (10, 24, 80) and draws only one
dot in a paper located in (1, 18, 30), which is the dot (x, y) coordinate relative to the paper
space is (330, 130). The user then presses the login button.
The initial representation of user actions in the 3Dvirtual environment can be recorded as
follows:
· (10, 24, 91) Action = Open the office door;
· (10, 24, 91) Action = Close the office door;
· (4, 34, 18) Action = Typing, “F”;
· (4, 34, 18) Action = Typing, “A”;
· (4, 34, 18) Action = Typing, “L”;
· (4, 34, 18) Action = Typing, “C”;
· (4, 34, 18) Action = Typing, “O”;
· (4, 34, 18) Action = Typing, “N”;
· (10, 24, 80) Action = Pick up the pen;
· (1, 18, 80) Action = Drawing, point = (330, 130).

In order for a legitimate user to be authenticated, the user has to follow the same sequence
and type of actions and interactions toward the objects for the user’s original 3-D
password.

3D VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT DESIGN GUIDELINES

The design of the 3 D virtual environments affects the usability, effectiveness,

acceptability of 3D password. The first step in building a 3Dpassword system is to design
a 3Denvironment that reflects the administration needs and the security requirements.

The design of 3D virtual environments should follow these guidelines.

1) Real life-similarity
The prospective 3D virtual environment should reflect what people are
used to seeing in real life. Objects used in virtual environments should be
relatively similar in size to real objects (sized to scale). Possible actions and
interactions toward virtual objects should reflect real life situations. Object responses

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should be realistic. The target should have a 3D virtual environment that users can
interact.

2) Object uniqueness and distinction

Every virtual object or item in the 3 D virtual environment is different
from any other virtual object. The uniqueness comes from the fact that every virtual object
has its own attributes such as position. Thus, the prospective interaction with object 1 is
not equal to the interaction with object 2. However, having similar objects such
as 20 computers in one place might confuse the user. Therefore, the design of the 3D
virtual environment should consider that every object should be distinguishable from
other objects. Similarly, in designing a 3Dvirtual environment, it should be easy for users
to navigate through and to distinguish between objects. The distinguishing factor increases
the user’s recognition of objects. Therefore, it improves the system usability.

3) Three Dimensional Virtual Environment Size

A 3Dvirtual environment can depict a city or even the world. On the other
hand, it can depict a space as focused as a single room or office. A large 3¬D virtual
environment will increase the time required by the user to perform a 3Dpassword.
Moreover, a large3Dvirtual environment can contain a large number of virtual objects.
Therefore, the probable 3Dpassword space broadens. However, a small 3D virtual
environment usually contains only a few objects, and thus, performing a 3D password will
take less time.

4) Number of objects and their types

Part of designing a 3D virtual environment is determining the types of
objects and how many objects should be placed in the environment. The types of objects
reflect what kind of responses the object will have. For simplicity, we can consider
requesting a textual password or a fingerprint as an object response type. Selecting the
right object response types and the number of objects affects the probable password space
of a 3D password.

5) System Importance
The 3D virtual environment should consider what systems will be
protected by a 3D password. The number of objects and the types of objects that have been
used in the 3D virtual environment should reflect the importance of the protected system.

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3D PASSWORD APPLICATIONS

The 3D password can have a password space that is very large compared to other
authentication schemes, so the 3D password’s main application domains are protecting
critical systems and resources.

1. Critical servers
Many large organizations have critical servers that are usually protected by a
textual password. A 3D password authentication proposes a sound replacement for a
textual password.

2. Nuclear and military facilities-

Such facilities should be protected by the most powerful authentication
systems. The 3D password has a very large probable password space, and since it can
contain token, biometrics, recognition, and knowledge based authentications in a single
authentication system, it is a sound choice for high level security locations.

3. Airplanes and jet fighters

Because of the possible threat of misusing airplanes and jet fighters for religio -
political agendas, usage of such airplanes should be protected by a powerful authentication
system. In addition, 3D passwords can be used in less critical systems because the 3D
virtual environment can be designed to fit to any system needs. A small virtual
environment can be used in the following systems like

Some other application areas:

• ATM
• Desktop Computers & laptop logins
• Web Authentication

SECURITY ANALYSIS

To analyze and study how secure a system is, we have to consider,

• How hard it is for the attacker to break such a system
A Possible measurement is based on the information content of a password space.
The textual password space may be relatively large; however, an attacker might only need
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a small subset of the full password space is observed to successfully break such an
authentication system. It is important to have a scheme that has a very large possible
password space which increases the work required by the attacker to break the
authentication system. Find a scheme that has no previous or existing knowledge of the
most probable user password selection.

• Common guidelines for choosing good passwords are designed to make passwords
less easily discovered by intelligent guessing:

 Include numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters in passwords if allowed by

the system
 Password length should be around 12 to 14 characters if permitted, and longer still if
possible while remaining memorable
 If the system recognizes case as significant, use capital and lower-case letters
 Avoid any password based on repetition, dictionary words, letter or number
sequences, usernames, relative or pet names, romantic links (current or past), or
biographical information (e.g., dates, ID numbers, ancestors names or dates, ...)
 Password should be easy to remember for the user, and not force insecure actions
(e.g., the very bad and insecure practice of writing the password down on a Post-It note
stuck to the monitor)

3D PASSWORD SPACE SIZE

To determine the password space, we have to count all possible 3D passwords that have a
certain number of actions, interactions, and inputs towards all objects that exist in the 3D
virtual environments.

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 FIG: Password space of the 3-D password, textual password, Pass faces, and DAS with grid sizes of 5 × 5 and 10 × 10.
Length is the number of actions and interactions for a 3-D password, the number of characters for textual passwords,
the number of selections for Pass faces, and the number of points that represent the strokes for DAS. The length is up to
eight.

Fig: Observing the number of possible actions/interactions of a 3-D password within a 3-D environment specified in
Section V-A compared to the two critical Points of textual passwords. Point “a” is the bit size of Klein [2] (3 × 106)
dictionary of eight-character textual passwords. Point “b” represents the full password space of eight-character textual
passwords.

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3D PASSWORD DISTRIBUTION KNOWLEDGE

Users tend to use meaningful words for textual passwords. Therefore finding these
different words from dictionary is a relatively simple task which yields a high success rate
for breaking textual passwords. Pass faces users tend to choose faces that reflect their own
taste on facial attractiveness, race, and gender. Every user has different requirements and
preferences when selecting the appropriate 3D password. This fact will increase the effort
required to find a pattern of user’s highly selected 3D password. In addition, since the 3D
password combines several authentication schemes into a single authentication
environment, the attacker has to study every single authentication scheme and has to
discover what the most probable selected secrets are. Since every 3D password system can
be designed according to the protected system requirements, the attacker has to separately
study every 3D password system. Therefore, more effort is required to build the
knowledge of most probable 3D passwords.

ADVANTAGES

 Easiness to memorize: Users can memorize a 3D password as a “little” story which

makes the password easy to remember
 Flexibility: 3d passwords allows multi-factor authentication. Smart cards,
biometrics and alpha num password can embedded in the 3d password technology
 Strength: A scenario in a 3D environment offers as almost unlimited combination
of possibilities. As such system can have specific 3d world, hack are extremely
difficult.
 The 3D password gives users the freedom of selecting what type of authentication
techniques.
 Secrets those are not easy to write down on paper.
 The scheme secrets should be difficult to share with others.
 Provide secrets that can be easily revoked or changed.

ATTACKS AND COUNTERMEASURES

1) Brute Force Attack

The attacker has to try all possible 3D passwords. This kind of attack is very difficult for
the following reasons.
Time required to login The total time needed for a legitimate user to login may vary
depending on the number of interactions and actions, the size of the 3D virtual
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environment, and the type of actions and interactions. Therefore, a brute force attack on a
3D password is very difficult and time consuming.
Cost of attacks –The 3D virtual environment contains biometric recognition objects and
token based objects. The attacker has to forge all possible biometric information and forge
all the required tokens. The cost of forging such information is very high, therefore
cracking the 3D password is more challenging. The high number of possible 3D password
spaces leaves the attacker with almost no chance of breaking the 3D password.

2) Well Studied Attack

The attacker tries to find the highest probable distribution of 3D passwords. In order
to launch such an attack, the attacker has to acquire knowledge of the most
probable 3D password distributions. This is very difficult because the attacker has to
study all the existing authentication schemes that are used in the 3D environment. It
requires a study of the user’s selection of objects for the 3D password. Moreover, a well
studied attack is very hard to accomplish since the attacker has to perform a
customized attack for every different 3D virtual environment design. This environment
has a number of objects and types of object responses that differ from any other 3D virtual
environment. Therefore, a carefully customized study is required to initialize an effective
attack

3) Shoulder Surfing Attack

An attacker uses a camera to record the user’s 3 D password or tries to watch the
legitimate user while the 3D password is being performed. This attack is the most
successful type of attack against 3D passwords and some other graphical passwords.
However, the user’s 3D password may contain biometric data or textual passwords that
cannot be seen from behind. Therefore, we assume that the 3D password should be
performed in a secure place where a shoulder surfing attack cannot be performed.

4) Timing Attack
In this attack, the attacker observes how long it takes the legitimate user to
perform a correct sign-in using the 3D password. This observation gives the attacker an
indication of the legitimate user’s 3D password length. However, this kind of
attack alone cannot be very successful since it gives the attacker mere hints. Therefore, it
would probably be launched as part of a well studied or brute force attack. Timing attacks
can be very effective if the 3D virtual environment is poorly designed.

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CONCLUSION

There are many authentication schemes in the current state. Some of them are based on
user’s physical and behavioral properties, and some other authentication schemes are
based on user’s knowledge such as textual and graphical passwords. Moreover, there are
some other important authentication schemes that are based on what you have, such as
smart cards. Among the various authentication schemes, textual password and token-based
schemes, or the combination of both, are commonly applied. However, as mentioned
before, both authentication schemes are vulnerable to certain attacks. Moreover, there are
many authentication schemes that are currently under study and they may require
additional time and effort to be applicable for commercial use.
The 3-D password is a multifactor authentication scheme that combines
these various authentication schemes into a single3-D virtual environment. The virtual
environment can contain any existing authentication scheme or even any upcoming
authentication schemes by adding it as a response to actions performed on an object.
Therefore, the resulted password space becomes very large compared to any existing
authentication schemes.
The design of the 3-D virtual environment, the selections of objects inside
the environment, and the object’s type reflect the resulted password space. It is the task of
the system administrator to design the environment and to select the appropriate object that
reflects the protected system requirements. Additionally, designing a simple and easy to
use 3-D virtual environment is a factor that leads to a higher user acceptability of a 3-D
password system.
The choice of what authentication schemes will be part of the user’s 3-D
password reflects the user’s preferences and requirements. A user who prefers to
remember and recall a password might choose textual and graphical passwords apart of
their 3-D password. On the other hand, user’s who have more difficulty with memory or
recall might prefer to choose smart cards or biometrics as part of their 3-D password.
Moreover, users who prefer to keep any kind of biometrical data private might not interact
with objects that require biometric information. Therefore, it is the user’s choice and
decision to construct the desired and preferred 3-D password.

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