Mobile User Authentication Scheme Based on Minesweeper Game

The latest boom in the prevalence of smartphones has been encouraging various personal services to store and utilize important data such as photos and banking information. Thus, the importance of user authentication has also been growing rapidly. Nevertheless, many problems have arisen as a result of the common method of using a four-digit personal identification number (PIN) because of its potential for being breached by a brute force attack or shoulder-surfing attack. Various authentication schemes have been developed to overcome these problems. In this paper, we also propose a new password-based user authentication scheme that utilizes the well-known Minesweeper game, providing better usability as well as greater security. The proposed scheme provides its users a simple method for memorizing their passwords and usable security by allowing them to enter calculated values rather than the password itself.