An efficient QR-code authentication protocol using visual cryptography for securing ubiquitous multimedia communications

Abstract

Background: Now a day, data communication plays a vital role in day-to-day life. There is a strong desire to develop and implement more secure authentication protocol to protect secret information against security threats. Method: The paper proposes a Quick Response (QR) code Authentication Protocol (QRAP) using Visual Cryptography. Visual Cryptography (VC) is a model of cryptography split the secret into share images, which prevents the secret image from being altered by using the concepts of the cipher and can reconstruct the secret image by stacking the legitimate share images. Findings: The passwords for authentication are encoded as QR-codes and later encrypted into colour share images. Thus, the colour share images by itself convey no information, but when the shares are combined, the secret password can be revealed. The necessary is that the user needs to handle a device containing a QR-code reader, most probably a Smartphone. The experimental result shows that the proposed QRAP scheme provides secure data communication with less computational complexity. Applications/Improvement: This research work can give a way for providing authentication to all services which are related to electronic devices.