Security Assessment of the Image-Based Authentication Using Screen-Capture Tools

A password-based user-authentication method is inputted from the keyboard, but the safety of the data is no longer ensured due to the theft of keyboard data. For this reason, a novel authentication method emerged whereby both mouse data and screen information are used, and this image-based authentication does not require the keyboard for the input of the password. This important method authenticates users based on the clicked information from the mouse that are within the specific positions of a displayed image. Just like the password-authentication method for which the keyboard is used, the security of the image-based authentication method is also now threatened because the displayed image and the clicked information of the mouse can be exposed; furthermore, the research studies that have assessed these security threats are insufficient. In this paper, the security of the image-based authentication is therefore analyzed according to the screen-capture tools that are easy to obtain from the Internet. The results of this paper can be utilized as a reference to improve the security of the image-based authentication in the future.