Serial hook-ups: a comparative usability study of secure device pairing methods

Secure Device Pairing is the bootstrapping of secure communication between two previously unassociated devices over a wireless channel. The human-imperceptible nature of wireless communication, lack of any prior security context, and absence of a common trust infrastructure open the door for Man-in-the-Middle (aka Evil Twin) attacks. A number of methods have been proposed to mitigate these attacks, each requiring user assistance in authenticating information exchanged over the wireless channel via some humanperceptible auxiliary channels, e.g., visual, acoustic or tactile. In this paper, we present results of the first comprehensive and comparative study of eleven notable secure device pairing methods. Usability measures include: task performance times, ratings on System Usability Scale (SUS), task completion rates, and perceived security. Study subjects were controlled for age, gender and prior experience with device pairing. We present overall results and identify problematic metho...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: SOUPS
• Authors: Alfred Kobsa, Rahim Sonawalla, Gene Tsudik, Ersin Uzun, Yang Wang 0005
• Keywords: Device Pairing, Secure Device Pairing, Security Privacy, SOUPS 2009, Wireless Channel