James Conners (Brigham Young University), Corey Devenport (Brigham Young University), Stephen Derbidge (Brigham Young University), Natalie Farnsworth (Brigham Young University), Kyler Gates (Brigham Young University), Stephen Lambert (Brigham Young University), Christopher McClain (Brigham Young University), Parker Nichols (Brigham Young University), Daniel Zappala (Brigham Young University)

Passwords have numerous drawbacks, and as a result many systems have been designed to replace them. Password replacements have generally failed to dislodge passwords due to the complexity of balancing usability, deployability, and security. However, despite this lack of success, recent advances with password managers and FIDO2 afford new opportunities to explore system design for password replacements. In this work, we explore the feasibility of a system for user authentication based on certificates. Rather than developing new cryptography, we develop a new *system*, called Let's Authenticate, which combines elements of password managers, FIDO2, and certificates. Our design incorporates feedback from a survey of 397 participants to understand their preferences for system features. Let’s Authenticate issues privacy-preserving certificates to users, automatically manages their credentials, and eliminates trust in third parties. We provide a detailed security and privacy analysis, an overhead analysis, and a systematic comparison of the system to a variety of alternatives using a well-known framework. We discuss how Let’s Authenticate compares to other systems, lessons learned from our design, and issues related to centralized management of authentication data.

View More Papers

Repttack: Exploiting Cloud Schedulers to Guide Co-Location Attacks

Chongzhou Fang (University of California, Davis), Han Wang (University of California, Davis), Najmeh Nazari (University of California, Davis), Behnam Omidi (George Mason University), Avesta Sasan (University of California, Davis), Khaled N. Khasawneh (George Mason University), Setareh Rafatirad (University of California, Davis), Houman Homayoun (University of California, Davis)

Read More

Cross-Language Attacks

Samuel Mergendahl (MIT Lincoln Laboratory), Nathan Burow (MIT Lincoln Laboratory), Hamed Okhravi (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)

Read More

Privacy in Urban Sensing with Instrumented Fleets, Using Air...

Ismi Abidi (IIT Delhi), Ishan Nangia (MPI-SWS), Paarijaat Aditya (Nokia Bell Labs), Rijurekha Sen (IIT Delhi)

Read More