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Strong Authentication Based on Mobile Application

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Strong Authentication Based on Mobile Application View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto STRONG AUTHENTICATION BASED ON MOBILE APPLICATION Helsingin yliopisto Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science Master's thesis Spring 2020 Harri Salminen Supervisor: Valtteri Niemi Tiedekunta - Fakultet - Faculty Osasto - Avdelning - Department Faculty of Science The Department of Computer Science Tekijä - Författare - Author Harri Salminen Työn nimi - Arbetets titel Title STRONG AUTHENTICATION BASED ON MOBILE APPLICATION Oppiaine - Läroämne – Subject Computer Science Työn laji/ Ohjaaja - Arbetets art/Handledare - Aika - Datum - Month and Sivumäärä - Sidoantal - Number of Level/Instructor year pages Master's thesis / Valtteri Niemi June, 2020 58 Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The user authentication in online services has evolved over time from the old username and password-based approaches to current strong authentication methodologies. Especially, the smartphone app has become one of the most important forms to perform the authentication. This thesis describes various authentication methods used previously and discusses about possible factors that generated the demand for the current strong authentication approach. We present the concepts and architectures of mobile application based authentication systems. Furthermore, we take closer look into the security of the mobile application based authentication approach. Mobile apps have various attack vectors that need to be taken under consideration when designing an authentication system. Fortunately, various generic software protection mechanisms have been developed during the last decades. We discuss how these mechanisms can be utilized in mobile app environment and in the authentication context. The main idea of this thesis is to gather relevant information about the authentication history and to be able to build a view of strong authentication evolution. This history and the aspects of the evolution are used to state hypothesis about the future research and development. We predict that the authentication systems in the future may be based on a holistic view of the behavioral patterns and physical properties of the user. Machine learning may be used in the future to implement an autonomous authentication concept that enables users to be authenticated with minimal physical or cognitive effort. Avainsanat – Nyckelord Keywords Authentication, Mobile computing, Software and application security Säilytyspaikka - Förvaringsställe - Where deposited Muita tietoja - Övriga uppgifter - Additional information 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 5 1.1 The past ............................................................................................................. 5 1.2 The present ........................................................................................................ 5 1.3 The future .......................................................................................................... 6 2 Basic concepts and definitions .......................................................................... 7 2.1 Authentication .................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Single sign-on ..................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Federated login ................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Mobile app authenticator ................................................................................... 7 2.5 Strong authentication ......................................................................................... 8 2.6 Personal identification number ........................................................................... 8 2.7 Blockchain .......................................................................................................... 8 2.8 White box cryptography...................................................................................... 9 2.9 Public key cryptography ...................................................................................... 9 2.10 Public key infrastructure ..................................................................................... 9 2.11 Identity and access management ...................................................................... 10 3 Statement of the problem ............................................................................... 10 3.1 Challenges and limitations ................................................................................ 10 4 Common authentication solutions .................................................................. 11 4.1 Hardware tokens .............................................................................................. 11 4.2 Hardware code generators ................................................................................ 16 4.3 Smart cards ...................................................................................................... 17 4.4 Chip authentication program ............................................................................ 18 4.5 Transaction authentication numbers ................................................................. 19 4.6 Short message service ....................................................................................... 20 4.7 Legacy and backup methods: security questions & email ................................... 20 4.8 Biometric authentication .................................................................................. 22 5 Requirements for a successful authentication scheme ..................................... 24 5.1 The four-factor model ....................................................................................... 24 5.2 Usability in the strong authentication ................................................................ 25 5.3 Cost, privacy and security .................................................................................. 26 6 Architecture of the mobile app authenticator .................................................. 26 6.1 Peer-to-peer architecture .................................................................................. 27 6.2 Client-server architecture .................................................................................. 31 6.3 Secure communication channel ......................................................................... 34 6.4 Authentication server ....................................................................................... 36 7 Challenge to bootstrap the user identity ......................................................... 39 7.1 The authenticity of the authenticator ................................................................ 39 7.2 The root of trust ............................................................................................... 39 8 Security of the mobile apps ............................................................................. 40 8.1 App shielding .................................................................................................... 41 8.2 White box cryptography.................................................................................... 41 8.3 Obfuscation ...................................................................................................... 42 8.4 Anti-tampering technologies ............................................................................. 42 8.5 The reality about security of the mobile apps .................................................... 43 8.6 Summary about protecting technologies ........................................................... 44 9 End-to-end security of the system ................................................................... 45 9.1 The viewpoint of an attacker ............................................................................. 45 9.2 The PIN lifecycle model ..................................................................................... 45 10 Visions about the future ................................................................................. 48 10.1 Computational offloading ................................................................................. 48 10.2 Autonomous authentication ............................................................................. 49 11 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ 51 12 References ...................................................................................................... 52 5 1 Introduction Today millions of customers of online services are using smartphones. It is very common that the primary accessing channel for the service is either purpose built mobile application, or a web browser interface optimized for the mobile phone use. Also, the online services commonly use the smartphone of the end-user as an asset that identifies the individual user. This thesis studies the factors that helped the smartphone to become such an asset. The thesis further studies where the technical development is heading next and presents important topics that may affect the future. 1.1 The past During many decades, the most used access control mechanism on digital services has been username and password. The users are identified (authenticated) by the username and password
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