Facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10284547-B2
Application number	US-201715841770-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2017
Priority date	Sep 16, 2013
Publication date	May 7, 2019
Grant date	May 7, 2019

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system configured to facilitate users to provide credentials for user authentication, the system comprising:
one or more processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
manage user accounts of individual users that comprise user information regarding the individual users, the user information including user credentials for user authentication such that a first user account comprising first user information regarding a first user is managed, the first user information including a first user credential for authenticating the first user;
receive user authentication requests for authenticating users such that a first user authentication request is received to authenticate the first user;
obtain prompt character sequences associated with the individual users for prompting the individual users to provide characters in the user credentials for user authentication such that responsive to the first user authentication request being received, a first prompt character sequence associated with the first user is obtained;
compose prompt strings by obfuscating the obtained prompt character sequences such that responsive to the first prompt character sequence being obtained, a first set of prompt strings is composed by obfuscating the first prompt character sequence;
compose noise strings for obfuscating the composed prompt strings such that responsive to the first set of prompt strings being composed, a first set of noise strings that do not comprise the first prompt character sequence is composed; and
construct string sequences for presentation on client computers by obfuscating the composed prompt strings among the composed noise strings such that responsive to the first set of prompt strings being composed and the first set of noise strings being composed, a first string sequence is composed by obfuscating the first set of prompt strings among the first set of noise strings.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions to obtain noise characters for obfuscating the prompt character sequences, the obtained noise characters including a first set of noise characters that are not in the first prompt character sequence, such that obfuscating the first prompt character sequence comprises interspersing the first prompt character sequence with the first set of noise characters.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions to:
receive user credential responses from the client computers associated with the users;
extract user provided credentials from the received user credential responses based on the corresponding string sequences constructed, wherein extracting a first user provided credential from a first user credential response based on the first string sequence comprises:
extracting characters in the first user credential response according to positions of prompt strings in the first string sequence; and
constructing the first user provided credential by joining the extracted characters in an order by which the extracted characters appear in the first user credential response.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first user credential response comprises multiple characters and individual ones of the multiple characters correspond to either an individual prompt string or an individual noise string within the first string sequence, such that extracting the first user provided credential from the first user credential response comprises extracting characters that correspond to the prompt strings within the first string sequence wherein a single character corresponds to a single prompt string within the first string sequence.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions such that the prompt strings in the first set of prompt strings are of the same length, and the noise strings in the first set of noise strings are of the same length as that of the prompt strings in the first set of prompt strings.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions such that the number of noise strings in the first set of noise strings are three times the number of prompt strings in the first set of prompt strings.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions such that the first set of noise strings comprise at least one character sequence different from the first prompt character sequence multiple times.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured by machine-readable instructions such that prompt characters in the first prompt character sequence are alpha-numerical characters.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured by machine-readable instructions such that the first prompt character sequence is three characters long.

10. A method for facilitating users to provide credentials for user authentication, the method being implemented in a physical processor configured by machine-readable instructions, the method comprising:
managing user accounts of individual users that comprise user information regarding the individual users, the user information including user credentials for user authentication such that a first user account comprising first user information regarding a first user is managed, the first user information including a first user credential for authenticating the first user;
receiving user authentication requests for authenticating users such that a first user authentication request is received to authenticate the first user;
obtaining prompt character sequences associated with the individual users for prompting the individual users to provide characters in the user credentials for user authentication such that responsive to the first user authentication request being received, a first prompt character sequence associated with the first user is obtained;
composing prompt strings by obfuscating the obtained prompt character sequences such that responsive to the first prompt character sequence being obtained, a first set of prompt strings is composed by obfuscating the first prompt character sequence;
composing noise strings for obfuscating the composed prompt strings such that responsive to the first set of prompt strings being composed, a first set of noise strings that do not contain the first prompt character sequence is composed; and
constructing string sequences for presentation on client computers by obfuscating the composed prompt strings among the composed noise strings such that responsive to the first set of prompt strings being composed and the first set of noise strings being composed, a first string sequence is composed by obfuscating the first set of prompt strings among the first set of noise strings.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising obtaining noise characters for obfuscating the prompt character sequences, the obtained noise characters including a first set of noise characters that are not in the first prompt character sequence, and wherein obfuscating the first prompt character sequence comprises interspersing the first prompt character sequence with the first set of noise characters.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving user credential responses from the client computers associated with the users; and
extracting user provided credentials from the received user credential responses based on the corresponding string sequences constructed, wherein extracting a first user provided cre

Assignees

• Electronic Arts Inc

Inventors

• Holtz Brian

Classifications

• H04L63/083 Primary

  using passwords (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226) · CPC title