Biometric template protection based on biometric certificate and fuzzy fingerprint vault

Abstract

Biometric Certificate (BC) is a kind of data structure that binds user identity and biometric template, which is able to be applied to access control and identity authentication for various applications like electronic transactions in network environment. A critical issue in biometric system is that may be suffered from biometric template attack, such as "cross-matching attack", "hill climbing attacks" etc. Hence, it is extremely important to provide high security and privacy for biometric template in BC. This paper implemented a biometric template protection scheme in BC using fuzzy fingerprint vault and fingerprint-based pseudo random number generator (FBPRNG) technique. First, the fingerprint keys are derived from fingerprint template through FBPRG and fingerprint template is encrypted by fingerprint keys to keep it secret. Second, the fingerprint keys are hidden using the fingerprint-based fuzzy vault scheme, and then storing encrypted fingerprint template and fuzzy vault into BC. Finally, this scheme is implemented on open source CA software called EJBCA. The result of experiment shows that the scheme can not only generate the self-certified fingerprint keys, but also effectively secure fingerprint template. © Springer-Verlag 2013.