Master Print: Fingerprint-Spoof Authenticatio...

Master Print: Fingerprint-Spoof Authentication Systems

Author Name : R.Nithya, Mothilal

ABSTRACT

The  investigation of the security of partial fingerprint-based authentication systems,especially when multiple fingerprints of a user are enrolled. To compensate for the limited size, these devices often acquire multiple partial impressions of a single finger during enrolment to ensure that at least one of them will successfully match with the image obtained from the user during authentication. Furthermore, in some cases, the userid allowed to enroll multiple fingers, and the impressions pertaining to multiple partial fingers are associated with the same identity(i.e., one user). A user is said to be successfully authenticated if the partial fingerprint obtained during authentication matches any one of the stored templates. This paper investigates the possibility of generating a “MasterPrint,” a synthetic or real partial fingerprint that serendipitously matches one or more of the stored templates for a significant number of users. Our preliminary results on an optical fingerprint data set and a capacitive fingerprint data set indicate that it is indeed possible to locate or generate partial fingerprints that can be usedto impersonate a large number of users. In this regard, we expose a potential vulnerability of partial fingerprint-based authentication systems, especially when multiple impressions are enrolled per finger.

Keywords:Fingerprint,Spoofing,Face recognition,Authentication,Image processing