Password Pattern and Vulnerability Analysis for Web and Mobile Applications

Li, Shancang; Romdhani, Imed; Buchanan, William

Abstract

Text⁃based passwords are heavily used to defense for many web and mobile applications. In this paper, we investigated the patterns and vulnerabilities for both web and mobile applications based on conditions of the Shannon entropy, Guessing entropy and Minimum entropy. We show how to substantially improve upon the strength of passwords based on the analysis of text⁃password entropies. By analyzing the passwords datasets of Rockyou and 163.com, we believe strong password can be designed based on good usability, deployability, rememberbility, and security entropies.

Citation

Li, S., Romdhani, I., & Buchanan, W. (2016). Password Pattern and Vulnerability Analysis for Web and Mobile Applications. ZTE Communications, 14, 32-36. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1673-5188.2016.S0.006

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 30, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Aug 1, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 30, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 19, 2016
• Journal: ZTE Communications
• Print ISSN: 1673􀆼5188
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Pages: 32-36
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1673-5188.2016.S0.006
• Keywords: password strength; security entropies; password vulnerabilities
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/367587