Re: Fingerprint as cryptokey

"Kim G. S. Øyhus" <kim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ebd8f9$6q1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <vy_Bg.4919$9T3.3064@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Joseph Ashwood <ashwood@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Selling a product. The problem with this is that you offer no benefit over
the currently available technology, at least none that you have mentioned.

I mentioned one advantage: That I know how to actually make
fingerprints work as cryptokeys, while the others do not. Having a
product that works is a benefit.

Other products work, so this is a method of working, and not an advantage.
Further, it is actually a _disadvantage_ because once a key is compromised
it is permanently compromised, so anyone who has more than 1 such login has
immediately lowered security.

An advantage is what increases the disparity between the use and attack
costs.

The truth is that hardware verification to unlock a key is functionally as
secure as using the print itself for a key.

The advantage of this is that people have their fingers with them.

Seemingly every laptop manufacturer disagrees with you, many have integrated
fingerprint authentication into their laptops. What is the advantage of your
method over the others?

Now on to the more important part, and the claim that quickly become
non-functional. Any attempt to choose or fix the private key in an RSA key
pair results in a very large public key, this slows the system, and
becomes
detrimental. This means that still you would be using the print to control
access to the key. Unless your design is notably cheaper I don't see the
benefit.

The keys become normal sized, not large. And they can be revoked.

Actually they do not, the normal public key for RSA is 65537, a public key
generated from your system will be the length of the modulus.

One
finger can have several keys.

Then you have to be storing additional data on the token, so once again,
what is your advantage?

So what is your real benefit?

Ease of use. The finger is a token.

Everyone has this benefit, what is *your* real benefit?
Joe


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