Security Skins: Single Sign-On with Images

Appol writes "Berkeley researchers propose a Mozilla extension to stop phishing. They claim that users only need to remember one password and one image for their lifetime to securely log in to any number of sites. They also use uniquely generated visual hashes to "skin" trusted windows and webpages, which is harder to spoof than the SSL lock icon. To verify that the skin is legit, the user has to compare two images, which is easier for novices than verifying a certificate."

Comments

What About Netcraft?

[dshaw858]

Isn't this a lot like Netcraft's new Anti-Phishing plugin? I'm glad that all these people are finally taking initiative against phishers, even though it's almost definitely due to the heightened media attention that phishing is currently getting.

In practice though, I think the only way this would really work is if it's shipped by default in Firefox. The peoplen that would install this anti-phishing plugin aren't usually the people that would get tricked by phishing scams anyway.

- dshaw

Note: This is all IMO; and yes, I understand that some scams are so realistic that anyone could get caught in their webs.

No to discriminate

[a3217055]

There are people who are blind what do they do ? Stare at the screen hoping there eye sight comes back?

Not a good over all solution, you need a seperate medium/channel to display such pictures.

Re:No to discriminate

[Council]

There are people who are blind what do they do ? Stare at the screen hoping there eye sight comes back?

Not a good over all solution, you need a seperate medium/channel to display such pictures.

Don't be silly. The not-too-large group of blind heavy computer users (a group including two of my friends) has to develop seperate tools for this stuff, such as screen readers (if you want Linux tools, there are plenty) and the like. "You need a seperate medium/channel to display such pictures" . . . sounds kind of silly. A non-visual channel for displaying pictures? These pictures are useful only because they make use of the human visual processing center. Blind people will verify certificates with separate software tools piled on top of this. No more convenient than the current system for them, unfortuantely, but they're used to working around this kind of thing.

Summary: The visual system is only useful because it's easy for people with sight to verify. Blind people will use separate tools, as they always have. Your objections don't seem to make that much sense.

Re:Colourblind?

[yotto]

*what if they're colour blind?*

They'll pick a black and white image?

infected computer

[tacroy]

I skimmed the article, and I noticed the adware section, but it didnt really answer my question: If the secure aspect is the local picture and the local picture needs to be pulled from the local machine by the page then what is to stop an adware program from grabbing that api and using the secure picture on a insecure site?

Stop Phishing?

[protolith]

Dear valued ebay customer,

You may be aware of a new technology to synch a picture with a web page to ensure it is legitimate, please click this link to download an executable to synch the picture you selected with our server to better provide you with secure transactions.

Anyone that sees this as a phishing scam, doesn't need this technology, Anyone that does need this technology is just as likely to fall for this.