Hardening Fingerprint Fuzzy Vault Using Password

Security of stored templates is a critical issue in biometric systems because biometric templates are non-revocable. Fuzzy vault is a cryptographic framework that enables secure template storage by binding the template with a uniformly random key. Though the fuzzy vault framework has proven security properties, it does not provide privacy-enhancing features such as revocability and protection against cross-matching across different biometric systems. Furthermore, non-uniform nature of biometric data can decrease the vault security. To overcome these limitations, we propose a scheme for hardening a fingerprint minutiae-based fuzzy vault using password. Benefits of the proposed password-based hardening technique include template revocability, prevention of cross-matching, enhanced vault security and a reduction in the False Accept Rate of the system without significantly affecting the False Reject Rate. Since the hardening scheme utilizes password only as an additional authentication fac...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICB
• Authors: Karthik Nandakumar, Abhishek Nagar, Anil K. Jain
• Keywords: Biometrics, Fuzzy Vault, Fuzzy Vault Framework, ICB 2007, Vault Security