A framework for context-aware authentication

Abstract

Context-aware computing facilitates the human-computer interaction by sensing and processing information about users and their environments. The surrounding environment becomes a smart space that actively communicates with the system about its users. In this environment, authentication is an integral part of security of the whole system. In this work, we propose a framework to construct a context-aware authentication system, where users customize their preferences and set their rules for authenticating other members. The context-aware authentication service uses context-data to establish trust and to share secrets between parties without undermining each party's privacy. Users' preferences are intuitively declared via lexical descriptions and are then combined with fuzzy logics. The framework utilizes an approximate private matching protocol which is combined with Identity Based Encryption. Our model is based upon reliable cryptographic primitives that are combined effectively to achieve the design specification. This results in a very flexible, scalable authentication service that is both context-aware and privacy preserving.