A biometrics encryption key algorithm to protect private key in bioPKI based security system

Abstract

the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provides an excellent security for e-transactions and other applications all over the world. However, it also encounters some problems as follows: Private Key is often stored at central databases or distributed smart-cards and protected by password or PIN that may be guessed or stolen; on the other hand, PKI could not differentiate a legitimate user from an attacker having victim's private key. Therefore, attacker may directly attacks to the storage-device to steal Private Key to use. An approach to the problem is using people's biology characteristics - known as biometric - to authenticate and protect the private key. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to generate Biometric Encryption Key (BEK) based on the computation of innerproductions and error correction coding to protect both Private Key and biometric information. We also present the BK-BioPKI system in which the algorithm is integrated and then we present the experiment results. ©2009 IEEE.