Title: Secure pairing with biometrics

Authors: Ileana Buhan, Bas Boom, Jeroen Doumen, Pieter H. Hartel, Raymond N.J. Veldhuis

Addresses: Information and System Security, Philips Research Laboratories, High Tech Campus 34, room 6033, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands. ' Signals and Systems Group, Electrical Engineering, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. ' Irdeto – Eindhoven, Flight Forum 89, 5657 DC Eindhoven, The Netherlands. ' Distributed and Embedded Security, University of Twente, Faculty of EEMCS, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. ' Signals and Systems Group, Electrical Engineering, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: Secure pairing enables two devices that share no prior context with each other to agree upon a security association, which they can use to protect their subsequent communication. Secure pairing offers guarantees of the association partner identity and it should be resistant to eavesdropping and to a man-in the middle attack. We propose the SAfE pairing system, a user friendly solution to this problem. Details are presented along with a discussion of the security features, experimental validation with two types of biometric data (face recognition and hand grip pressure pattern) and a usability analysis for face recognition biometric pairing.

Keywords: ad-hoc authentication; biometrics; fuzzy extractors; secure pairing; eavesdropping; MiTM; man-in the middle attacks; security; biometric data; hand grip pressure pattern; usability analysis; face recognition; biometric pairing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSN.2009.023424

International Journal of Security and Networks, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.27 - 42

Published online: 23 Feb 2009 *

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