ACCessory: Password inference using accelerometers on smartphones

Emmanuel Owusu, Jun Han, Sauvik Das, Adrian Perrig, Joy Zhang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

278 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We show that accelerometer readings are a powerful side channel that can be used to extract entire sequences of entered text on a smart-phone touchscreen keyboard. This possibility is a concern for two main reasons. First, unauthorized access to one's keystrokes is a serious invasion of privacy as consumers increasingly use smartphones for sensitive transactions. Second, unlike many other sensors found on smartphones, the accelerometer does not require special privileges to access on current smartphone OSes. We show that accelerometer measurements can be used to extract 6-character passwords in as few as 4.5 trials (median).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHotMobile 2012 - 13th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Event13th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, HotMobile 2012 - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: 2012 Feb 282012 Feb 29

Publication series

NameHotMobile 2012 - 13th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

Conference

Conference13th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, HotMobile 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego, CA
Period12/2/2812/2/29

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Computer Science Applications

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