Web-based user authentication techniques and applications

Abstract

A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for performing user authentication. For example, one embodiment of a system comprises: media capture logic implemented as a component within a browser executed on a client, the media capture logic configured to capture a user's voice from a microphone on a client or images of the user's face or other portion of the user's body from a camera on the client, the media capture logic exposing an application programming interface (API); and a web authentication application implemented as another component within the browser for communicating with an authentication server to perform biometric authentication of a user, the web authentication application making calls to the API of the media capture logic to capture raw biometric data comprising the user's voice from the microphone and/or images of the user's face or other portion of the user's body from the camera, the web authentication application to implement a biometric authentication process to authenticate the user with the raw biometric data.

Description

BACKGROUND

Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for Web-based user authentication techniques and associated applications.

Description of Related Art

Systems have also been designed for providing secure user authentication over a network using biometric sensors. In such systems, the score generated by an authenticator, and/or other authentication data, may be sent over a network to authenticate the user with a remote server. For example, Patent Application No. 2011/0082801 (“'801 Application”) describes a framework for user registration and authentication on a network which provides strong authentication (e.g., protection against identity theft and phishing), secure transactions (e.g., protection against “malware in the browser” and “man in the middle” attacks for transactions), and enrollment/management of client authentication tokens (e.g., fingerprint readers, facial recognition devices, smartcards, trusted platform modules, etc).

The assignee of the present application has developed a variety of improvements to the authentication framework described in the '801 application. Some of these improvements are described in the following set of U.S. patent applications (“Co-pending Applications”), which are assigned to the present assignee: Ser. No. 13/730,761, Query System and Method to Determine Authentication Capabilities; Ser. No. 13/730,776, System and Method for Efficiently Enrolling, Registering, and Authenticating With Multiple Authentication Devices; Ser. No. 13/730,780, System and Method for Processing Random Challenges Within an Authentication Framework; Ser. No. 13/730,791, System and Method for Implementing Privacy Classes Within an Authentication Framework; Ser. No. 13/730,795, System and Method for Implementing Transaction Signaling Within an Authentication Framework; and Ser. No. 14/218,504, Advanced Authentication Techniques and Applications (hereinafter “'504 Application”).

Briefly, the Co-Pending Applications describe authentication techniques in which a user enrolls with authentication devices (or Authenticators) such as biometric devices (e.g., fingerprint sensors) on a client device. When a user enrolls with a biometric device, biometric reference data is captured by the biometric sensor of the authentication device (e.g., by swiping a finger, snapping a picture, recording a voice, etc). The user may subsequently register the authentication devices with one or more servers over a network (e.g., Websites or other relying parties equipped with secure transaction services as described in the Co-Pending Applications), and subsequently authenticate with those servers using data exchanged during the registration process (e.g., cryptogtaphic keys provisioned into the authentication devices). Once authenticated, the user is permitted to perform one or more online transactions with a Website or other relying party. In the framework described in the Co-Pending Applications, sensitive information such as fingerprint data and other data which can be used to uniquely identify the user, may be retained locally on the user's authentication device to protect a user's privacy. The '504 Application describes a variety of additional techniques including techniques for designing composite authenticators, intelligently generating authentication assurance levels, using non-intrusive user verification, transferring authentication data to new authentication devices, augmenting authentication data with client risk data, and adaptively applying authentication policies, and creating trust circles, to name just a few.

The World Wide Web Consortium has specified a new set of Javascript Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allows local media, including audio and video, to be requested from a platform. See, e.g., World Wide Web Consortium, W3C Working Draft: Media Capture and Streams (2013). Modern browsers such as Chrome® 21, Opera® 18, Firefox® 17 and their successors supporting these APIs can capture audio and video from a local device such as a video camera or microphone.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from the following detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A-B illustrate two different embodiments of a secure authentication system architecture;

FIG. 2 is a transaction diagram showing how keys may be registered into authentication devices;

FIG. 3 illustrates a transaction diagram showing remote authentication;

FIG. 4 illustrate one embodiment of the invention for authenticating with a relying party;

FIG. 5 illustrates how a registration or authentication operation may be implemented with a query policy;

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of a system for performing web-based authentication;

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a method for registering biometric data with a server;

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a method for authenticating using web-based authentication;

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a system for performing web-based authentication;

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a method for registering biometric data with a server;

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a method for authenticating using web-based authentication; and

FIGS. 12-13 illustrate exemplary embodiments of a computer system for executing embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Described below are embodiments of an apparatus, method, and machine-readable medium for implementing advanced authentication techniques and associated applications. Throughout the description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are not shown or are shown in a block diagram form to avoid obscuring the underlying principles of the present invention.

The embodiments of the invention discussed below involve authentication devices with user verification capabilities such as biometric modalities or PIN entry. These devices are sometimes referred to herein as “tokens,” “authentication devices,” or “authenticators.” While certain embodiments focus on facial recognition hardware/software (e.g., a camera and associated software for recognizing a user's face and tracking a user's eye movement), some embodiments may utilize additional biometric devices including, for example, fingerprint sensors, voice recognition hardware/software (e.g., a microphone and associated software for recognizing a user's voice), and optical recognition capabilities (e.g., an optical scanner and associated software for scanning the retina of a user). The user verification capabilities may also include non-biometric modalities, like PIN entry. The authenticators might use devices like trusted platform modules (TPMs), smartcards and secure elements for cryptographic operations and key storage.

In a mobile biometric implementation, the biometric device may be remote from the relying party. As used herein, the term “remote” means that the biometric sensor is not part of the security boundary of the computer it is communicatively coupled to (e.g., it is not embedded into the same physical enclosure as the relying party computer). By way of example, the biometric device may be coupled to the relying party via a network (e.g., the Internet, a wireless network link, etc) or via a peripheral input such as a USB port. Under these conditions, there may be no way for the relying party to know if the device is one which is authorized by the relying party (e.g., one which provides an acceptable level of authentication strength and integrity protection) and/or whether a hacker has compromised or even replaced the biometric device. Confidence in the biometric device depends on the particular implementation of the device.

The term “local” is used herein to refer to the fact that the user is completing a transaction in person, at a particular location such as at an automatic teller machine (ATM) or a point of sale (POS) retail checkout location. However, as discussed below, the authentication techniques employed to authenticate the user may involve non-location components such as communication over a network with remote servers and/or other data processing devices. Moreover, while specific embodiments are described herein (such as an ATM and retail location) it should be noted that the underlying principles of the invention may be implemented within the context of any system in which a transaction is initiated locally by an end user.

The term “relying party” is sometimes used herein to refer, not merely to the entity with which a user transaction is attempted (e.g., a Website or online service performing user transactions), but also to the secure transaction servers implemented on behalf of that entity which may performed the underlying authentication techniques described herein. The secure transaction servers may be owned and/or under the control of the relying party or may be under the control of a third party offering secure transaction services to the relying party as part of a business arrangement.

The term “server” is used herein to refer to software executed on a hardware platform (or across multiple hardware platforms) that receives requests over a network from a client, responsively performs one or more operations, and transmits a response to the client, typically including the results of the operations. The server responds to client requests to provide, or help to provide, a network “service” to the clients. Significantly, a server is not limited to a single computer (e.g., a single hardware device for executing the server software) and may, in fact, be spread across multiple hardware platforms, potentially at multiple geographical locations.

Exemplary System Architectures

FIGS. 1A-B illustrate two embodiments of a system architecture comprising client-side and server-side components for authenticating a user. The embodiment shown in FIG. 1A uses a web browser plugin-based architecture for communicating with a website while the embodiment shown in FIG. 1B does not require a web browser. The various techniques described herein such as enrolling a user with authentication devices, registering the authentication devices with a secure server, and verifying a user may be implemented on either of these system architectures. Thus, while the architecture shown in FIG. 1A is used to demonstrate the operation of several of the embodiments described below, the same basic principles may be easily implemented on the system shown in FIG. 1B (e.g., by removing the browser plugin 105 as the intermediary for communication between the server 130 and the secure transaction service 101 on the client).

Turning first to FIG. 1A, the illustrated embodiment includes a client 100 equipped with one or more authentication devices 110-112 (sometimes referred to in the art as authentication “tokens” or “Authenticators”) for enrolling and verifying an end user. As mentioned above, the authentication devices 110-112 may include biometric device such as fingerprint sensors, voice recognition hardware/software (e.g., a microphone and associated software for recognizing a user's voice), facial recognition hardware/software (e.g., a camera and associated software for recognizing a user's face), and optical recognition capabilities (e.g., an optical scanner and associated software for scanning the retina of a user) and support for non-biometric modalities, such as PIN verification. The authentication devices might use trusted platform modules (TPMs), smartcards or secure elements for cryptographic operations and key storage.

The authentication devices 110-112 are communicatively coupled to the client through an interface 102 (e.g., an application programming interface or API) exposed by a secure transaction service 101. The secure transaction service 101 is a secure application for communicating with one or more secure transaction servers 132-133 over a network and for interfacing with a secure transaction plugin 105 executed within the context of a web browser 104. As illustrated, the Interface 102 may also provide secure access to a secure storage device 120 on the client 100 which stores information related to each of the authentication devices 110-112 such as a device identification code, user identification code, user enrollment data (e.g., scanned fingerprint or other biometric data) protected by he authentication device, and keys wrapped by the authentication device used to perform the secure authentication techniques described herein. For example, as discussed in detail below, a unique key may be stored into each of the authentication devices and used when communicating to servers 130 over a network such as the Internet.

As discussed below, certain types of network transactions are supported by the secure transaction plugin 105 such as HTTP or HTTPS transactions with websites 131 or other servers. In one embodiment, the secure transaction plugin is initiated in response to specific HTML tags inserted into the HTML code of a web page by the web server 131 within the secure enterprise or Web destination 130 (sometimes simply referred to below as “server 130”). In response to detecting such a tag, the secure transaction plugin 105 may forward transactions to the secure transaction service 101 for processing. In addition, for certain types of transactions (e.g., such as secure key exchange) the secure transaction service 101 may open a direct communication channel with the on-premises transaction server 132 (i.e., co-located with the website) or with an off-premises transaction server 133.

The secure transaction servers 132-133 are coupled to a secure transaction database 120 for storing user data, authentication device data, keys and other secure information needed to support the secure authentication transactions described below. It should be noted, however, that the underlying principles of the invention do not require the separation of logical components within the secure enterprise or web destination 130 shown in FIG. 1A. For example, the website 131 and the secure transaction servers 132-133 may be implemented within a single physical server or separate physical servers. Moreover, the website 131 and transaction servers 132-133 may be implemented within an integrated software module executed on one or more servers for performing the functions described below.

As mentioned above, the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to a browser-based architecture shown in FIG. 1A. FIG. 1B illustrates an alternate implementation in which a stand-alone application 154 utilizes the functionality provided by the secure transaction service 101 to authenticate a user over a network. In one embodiment, the application 154 is designed to establish communication sessions with one or more network services 151 which rely on the secure transaction servers 132-133 for performing the user/client authentication techniques described in detail below.

In either of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1A-B, the secure transaction servers 132-133 may generate the keys which are then securely transmitted to the secure transaction service 101 and stored into the authentication devices within the secure storage 120. Additionally, the secure transaction servers 132-133 manage the secure transaction database 120 on the server side.

Device Registration, Authentication, and Transaction Confirmation

In one embodiment of the invention, strong authentication between a client and an authentication service is carried over different channels (e.g., to different relying parties). As such, certain basic principles associated with registering and authenticating with an authentication service will be described with respect to FIGS. 2-5, followed by a detailed description of embodiments of the invention for carrying strong authentication over different channels.

FIG. 2 illustrates a series of transactions for registering authentication devices. During registration, a key is shared between the authentication device and one of the secure transaction servers 132-133. The key is stored within the secure storage 120 of the client 100 and the secure transaction database 120 used by the secure transaction servers 132-133. In one embodiment, the key is a symmetric key generated by one of the secure transaction servers 132-133. However, in another embodiment discussed below, asymmetric keys may be used. In this embodiment, the public key may be stored by the secure transaction servers 132-133 and a second, related private key may be stored in the secure storage 120 on the client. Moreover, in another embodiment, the key(s) may be generated on the client 100 (e.g., by the authentication device or the authentication device interface rather than the secure transaction servers 132-133). The underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular types of keys or manner of generating the keys.

A secure key provisioning protocol such as the Dynamic Symmetric Key Provisioning Protocol (DSKPP) may be used to share the key with the client over a secure communication channel (see, e.g., Request for Comments (RFC) 6063). However, the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular key provisioning protocol.

Turning to the specific details shown in FIG. 2, once the user enrollment or user verification is complete, the server 130 generates a randomly generated challenge (e.g., a cryptographic nonce) that must be presented by the client during device registration. The random challenge may be valid for a limited period of time. The secure transaction plugin detects the random challenge and forwards it to the secure transaction service 101. In response, the secure transaction service initiates an out-of-band session with the server 130 (e.g., an out-of-band transaction) and communicates with the server 130 using the key provisioning protocol. The server 130 locates the user with the user name, validates the random challenge, validates the device's authentication code if one was sent, and creates a new entry in the secure transaction database 120 for the user. It may also generate the key, write the key to the database 120 and send the key back to the secure transaction service 101 using the key provisioning protocol. Once complete, the authentication device and the server 130 share the same key if a symmetric key was used or different keys if asymmetric keys were used.

FIG. 3 illustrates a series of transactions for user authentication with the registered authentication devices. Once device registration is complete the server 130 will accept a token generated by the local authentication device as a valid authentication token.

Turning to the specific details shown in FIG. 3, which shows a browser-based implementation, the user enters the uniform resource locator (URL) of the server 130 in the browser 104. In an implementation which uses a stand alone application or mobile device app (rather than a browser), the user may enter a network address for a network service or the application or app may automatically attempt to connect to the network service at the network address.

For a browser-based implementation, the website embeds a query for registered devices in the HTML page. This may be done in many ways other than embedding the query in an HTML page, such as through Javascript or using HTTP headers. The secure transaction plugin 105 receives the URL and sends it to secure transaction service 101, which searches the looks into the secure storage 120 (which, as discussed, includes a database of authentication device and user information) and determines whether there is a user enrolled within this URL. If so, the secure transaction service 101 sends a list of provisioned devices associated with this URL to the secure transaction plugin 105. The secure transaction plugin then calls the registered JavaScript API and passes this information to the server 130 (e.g., the website). The server 130 chooses the appropriate device from the sent device list, generates a random challenge and sends the device information, and argument back to the client. The website displays the corresponding user interface and asks for authentication from the user. The user then provides the requested authentication measure (e.g., swiping a finger across the fingerprint reader, speaking for voice recognition, etc). The secure transaction service 101 identifies the user (this step can be skipped for devices which don't support storing users), obtains the username from the database, generates an authentication token using the key and sends this information to the website via the secure transaction plugin. The server 130 identifies the user from the secure transaction database 120 and verifies the token by generating the same token on the server 130 (e.g., using its copy of the key). Once verified, the authentication process is complete.

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of an authentication process in which the client automatically detects that the challenge has expired and transparently requests a new challenge from the server (i.e., without user intervention). The server then generates a new random challenge and transmits it to the client which may then use it to establish secure communication with the server. The end user experience is improved because the user does not receive an error or denial of an authentication request.

At 451, the user enters a particular website URL into the browser 104 and is directed to the web server 131 within the enterprise/web destination servers 130 which includes the secure transaction servers 132-133. At 452, a query is sent back to the secure transaction service (via the browser and plugin) to determine which device(s) are registered with the website's URL. The secure transaction service 101 queries the secure storage 720 on the client 100 to identify a list of devices which are sent back to the server 130 at 453. At 454, the server 454 chooses a device to use for authentication, generates a random challenge and a timeout indication and, at 455, sends this information back to the secure transaction service 101.

At 456, the secure transaction service 456 automatically detects that the random challenge is no longer valid upon reaching the end of the timeout period. Various different techniques may be employed for indicating and detecting the end of the timeout period. In one embodiment, the timeout period comprises a period of time for which the random challenge is considered valid. After the timeout period has elapsed, the random challenge is no longer considered valid by the server 130. In one embodiment, the timeout period is specified simply as a point in time at which the random challenge will no longer be valid. Once this point in time is reached, the random challenge is invalid. In another embodiment, the timeout period is specified by using a current timestamp (i.e., the time at which the random challenge is generated by the server 130) and a duration. The secure transaction service 101 may then calculate the timeout time by adding the duration value to the timestamp to calculate the point in time when the random challenge becomes invalid. It should be noted, however, that the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any specific technique for calculating the timeout period.

Upon detecting the expiration of the random challenge, at 457, the secure transaction service 101 transparently (i.e., without user intervention) notifies the server 130 and requests a new random challenge. In response, at 458, the server 130 generates a new random challenge and a new indication of the timeout period. As mentioned, the new timeout period may be the same as previously sent to the client or may be modified. In either case, at 459, the new random challenge and timeout indication are sent to the secure transaction service 101.

The remainder of the transaction diagram shown in FIG. 4 operates in substantially the same manner as described above (see, e.g., FIG. 3). For example, at 460, an authentication user interface is displayed (e.g., directing the user to swipe a finger on a fingerprint sensor) and, at 461, the user provides authentication (e.g., swipes a finger on the fingerprint scanner). At 462, the secure transaction service verifies the identity of the user (e.g., comparing the authentication data collected from the user with that stored in the secure storage 720) and uses the key associated with the authentication device to encrypt the random challenge. At 463, the user name (or other ID code) and the encrypted random challenge are sent to the server 130. Finally, at 464, the server 130 identifies the user within the secure transaction database 120 using the user name (or other ID code), and decrypts/verifies the random challenge using the key stored in the secure transaction database 120 to complete the authentication process.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a client-server architecture for implementing these techniques. As illustrated, the secure transaction service 101 implemented on the client 100 includes a policy filter 401 for analyzing the policy provided by the server 130 and identifying a subset of authentication capabilities to be used for registration and/or authentication. In one embodiment, the policy filter 401 is implemented as a software module executed within the context of the secure transaction service 101. It should be noted, however, that the policy filter 401 may be implemented in any manner while still complying with the underlying principles of the invention and may include software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof.

The particular implementation shown in FIG. 5 includes a secure transaction plugin 105 for establishing communication with the secure enterprise or Web destination 130 (sometimes referred to simply as “server 130” or “relying party” 130) using techniques previously discussed. For example, the secure transaction plugin may identify a specific HTML tag inserted into the HTML code by a web server 131. Thus, in this embodiment, the server policy is provided to the secure transaction plugin 105 which forwards it to the secure transaction service 101 implementing the policy filter 501.

The policy filter 501 may determine the client authentication capabilities by reading the capabilities from the client's secure storage area 520. As previously discussed, the secure storage 520 may comprise a repository of all of the client's authentication capabilities (e.g., identification codes for all of the authentication devices). If the user has already enrolled the user with its authentication devices, the user's enrollment data is stored within the secure storage 520. If the client has already registered an authentication device with a server 130, then the secure storage may also store an encrypted secret key associated with each authentication device.

Using the authentication data extracted from the secure storage 520 and the policy provided by the server, the policy filter 501 may then identify a subset of authentication capabilities to be used. Depending on the configuration, the policy filter 501 may identify a complete list of authentication capabilities supported by both the client and the server or may identify a subset of the complete list. For example, if the server supports authentication capabilities A, B, C, D, and E and the client has authentication capabilities A, B, C, F, and G, then the policy filter 501 may identify the entire subset of common authentication capabilities to the server: A, B, and C. Alternatively, if a higher level of privacy is desired, as indicated by user preferences 530 in FIG. 5, then a more limited subset of authentication capabilities may be identified to the server. For example, the user may indicate that only a single common authentication capability should be identified to the server (e.g., one of A, B or C). In one embodiment, the user may establish a prioritization scheme for all of the authentication capabilities of the client 100 and the policy filter may select the highest priority authentication capability (or a prioritized set of N authentication capabilities) common to both the server and the client.

Depending on what operation has been initiated by server 130 (Registration or Authentication), the secure transaction service 130 performs that operation on the filtered subset of authentication devices (110-112) and sends the operation response back to server 130 via the secure transaction plugin 105 as shown in FIG. 5. Alternatively, in an embodiment which does not rely on a plugin 105 component of a Web browser, the information may be passed directly from the secure transaction service 101 to the server 130.

System and Method for Web-Based User Authentication Techniques and Applications

In one embodiment of the invention, browsers that allow local media (e.g., audio and video) to be requested from a computing platform are used to support voice and video capture for user registration and authentication. For example, in one embodiment, the browser media capture and stream API is used to capture audio and video during registration and authentication with a remote server (e.g., such as the relying party's secure transaction servers described above). This capability allows web applications to implement user authentication via biometric matching without the need for additional client software (including browser extensions). For example, user authentication via voice/face matching may be performed directly from web applications running in the browser. In some embodiments described below, it is assumed that the user has already created an account with the relying party, which has a unique identifier such as user name.

FIG. 6 illustrates a client 600 with a browser 604 equipped with media capture logic 605 and a Web authentication application 601 for coordinating the registration and authentication techniques described herein. In one embodiment, the web authentication application 601 captures raw audio (e.g., the user's voice) and video (e.g., snapshots of the user's face, hands, ears, fingers or other portions of the user's body usable for authentication purposes) via an API exposed by the media capture logic 605. The web authentication application 601 captures the raw audio and video to generate biometric reference data (during registration) and to authenticate the user using voice recognition, face recognition, or recognition of other portions of the user's body (as described in detail below).

As illustrated, the media capture logic 605 may interface with a microphone 610 for capturing audio and with a camera 611 for capturing video. The medial capture logic 605 may access the microphone 610 and camera 611 via the device drivers configured on the client 600 for these devices. In one embodiment, the media capture logic 605 comprises the Javascript Media Capture and Streams API (see World Wide Web Consortium, W3C Working Draft: Media Capture and Streams (2013)). However, the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular type of program code or API implementation.

In the embodiments described below, the user registers and authenticates remotely with a relying party 630 having a website 631 and one or more authentication servers 650. For registration, the user initially logs in his/her account at the website 631 from the browser 604. The browser 604 and the authentication server 650 may then establish a secure communication channel using a protocol such as secure sockets layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS) (although the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular secure communication protocol).

In one embodiment, the web application 601 running in the browser 604 then prompts the user to enroll his/her voice/face/body part biometric. For voice, this process may record the user's speech of certain words or phrases using the microphone 610 and provide the raw voice data to the web authentication application 601 via the media capture logic 605 API (e.g., with the web authentication application 601 making a call to the API to gather the voice data). For facial recognition authentication, this may involve taking a snapshot of the user's face with the camera 611 and providing the raw image data to the web authentication application 601 via the media capture logic 605 API (e.g., with the web authentication application 601 making a call to the API to gather the image). For other body parts, this may involve capturing an image of the user's hand shape, tip of a finger (for fingerprint recognition), ear shape, iris pattern, or any other image which may be used for authentication purposes (i.e., for which a biometric matching algorithm may be employed).

In one embodiment, the web application 601 sends the raw biometric data to the authentication server 650. A feature extraction module 652 on the authentication server 650 extracts specified characteristics of the raw biometric data (e.g., focusing on certain regions of the user's face or other body part, certain characteristics of the user's voice, etc) to generate biometric reference data 656 that will be used for future authentication. For example, the feature extraction module 652 may extract certain spectral features of the user's voice and/or certain geometric or photometric characteristics of the image of the user's face or other body part to generate the biometric reference data 656. In one embodiment, the biometric reference data 656 is stored in a database and associated with the user's account at the relying party 630.

Once the biometric reference data 656 is stored, the following operations may be used for authentication. The browser 604 and authentication server 650 establish a secure communication channel (e.g., via SSL/TLS or other security protocol) and the user provides a user ID or other identification code in the web authentication application 601. The web authentication application 601 may then prompt the user to authenticate using his/her voice, face, or other portion of the user's body. For example, the user may be prompted to speak one or more words via the microphone 610 or to capture a facial/body part image via the camera 611. The media capture logic 605 may the provide the voice recording or image to the web authentication application 601.

The web authentication application 601 sends the user's identifier and the captured raw biometric data to the authentication server 650. In one embodiment, the authentication server 650 queries for the stored biometric reference data 656 with the user's identifier. Matcher logic 654 compares the biometric reference data 656 with certain features of the raw biometric data extracted by the feature extraction logic 652 and generates an authentication result. In one embodiment, the feature extraction module 652 is configured to extract the same features as those extracted during the registration process (e.g., spectral characteristics of the user's voice, geometric or photometric characteristics of the user's image, etc). The underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular set of extracted features. Any set of features which are useful for performing voice recognition, face recognition, or recognition of any portion of the user's body may be used.

In one embodiment, the “authentication result” comprises a score based on the similarity between the extracted features and the biometric reference data 110. The authentication server 650 may then use the score to determine whether the authentication was successful (e.g., if the score is above a certain specified threshold).

FIG. 7 illustrates a registration method and FIG. 8 illustrates an authentication method in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The method shown in FIGS. 7-8 may be performed using the architecture shown in FIG. 6, but are not limited to any particular architecture.

At 701, the user logs into a website of the relying party from a browser and establishes a secure communication channel with a server of the relying party. At 702, a Web application running in the browser prompts the user to enroll and register a new face/body part or voice biometric. At 703, the user's voice is sampled from a microphone and/or a picture of the user's face or other body part is captured with a camera on the client. As mentioned, in one embodiment, the voice/video is captured using built-in media capture logic within the browser context. At 704, the server receives and converts the raw biometric data to generate biometric reference data. For example, certain characteristics of the user's voice may be extracted from the raw voice data and/or certain characteristics of the user's face or other body part may be extracted from the raw video image(s). The resulting biometric reference data may be associated with the user's account and saved in a database (from which it may subsequently be accessed during authentication). At 705 the registration process is complete.

Turning to the authentication method of FIG. 8, at 801, the user attempts to enter into a transaction requiring authentication and, in response, the browser and the authentication server establish a secure communication channel (e.g., via SSL/TLS). At 802, the user enters his/her identifier in the web application running in the browser and, at 803, the web application prompts the user to authenticate using his/her voice/face/body part (e.g., recording the user's speech of certain words/phrases and/or taking a snapshot of the user's face or other body part). At 804, the biometric data is captured via the browser. As mentioned above, to capture the user's voice/face/body part biometric, one embodiment of the invention initiates a call to the dedicated media capture logic built into the browser (e.g., the web application calls the Javascript Media Capture and Streams API).

At 805, the web application sends the user's identifier and the captured raw biometric data to the server. At 806, the server identifies the stored biometric reference data based on the user's identifier and performs biometric matching based on extracted characteristics of the raw biometric data (e.g., characteristics of the raw voice/video data). If a match is detected, determined at 807, then the transaction is permitted at 808; if not, then the transaction is denied at 809 and/or additional authentication techniques are requested. As mentioned, a “match” may be determined by calculating a score based on the correlation between the characteristics extracted from the raw biometric data and the biometric reference data, and determining whether the score is above a specified threshold.

FIG. 9 illustrates another embodiment in which the operations of generating biometric reference data and matching are performed in the client 900. In particular, in this embodiment, the web authentication application 901 (executed within browser 904) includes a feature extraction module 952 for extracting specified characteristics of the user's voice/face/body part and storing the resulting biometric reference data in a secure storage 956 on the client 900. In one embodiment, the feature extraction module 952 operations in the same or a similar manner to the feature extraction module 652 in FIG. 6. In addition, the matcher module 954 performs matching between the biometric reference data and raw voice/face/body part biometric data during authentication in the same or a similar manner as the matcher 654 shown in FIG. 6 (with the primary difference being that the matcher 954 is executed within the web authentication application 901 in FIG. 9).

As in FIG. 6, the web authentication application 901 captures raw audio (e.g., the user's voice) and video (e.g., snapshots of the user's face or other portion of the user's body) via an API exposed by the media capture logic 905 configured in the browser 904 (e.g., to capture the biometric reference data during registration and to authenticate the user using voice, face, and/or body part recognition). As illustrated, the media capture logic 905 may interface with a microphone 910 for capturing audio and with a camera 911 for capturing video. The medial capture logic 905 may access the microphone 910 and camera 911 via the device drivers configured on the client 900 for these devices. In one embodiment, the media capture logic 905 comprises the Javascript Media Capture and Streams API (see World Wide Web Consortium, W3C Working Draft: Media Capture and Streams (2013)). However, the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular type of program code or API implementation.

In operation, the user logs in to his/her account on a relying party 930 website 931 from the browser 904 (e.g., using a user name/password). The browser 904 then establishes a secure communication channel (e.g., via SSL/TLS) with an authentication server 950 and (if not already registered) receives a registration request from the authentication server 950. The web authentication application 901 may process the registration request using the remote registration techniques described above (e.g., generating a public/private key pair, performing policy filtering, etc). If the registration policy permits, the web authentication application 901 prompts the user to enroll his/her voice/face/body part biometric (e.g., recording the user's speech of certain phrases and/or taking a snapshot of the user's face or other body part). As in prior embodiments, to capture the user's voice/face/body part biometric, the web application 901 may call the media capture logic 905 (e.g., using a Javascript Media Capture and Streams API).

In one embodiment, the web authentication application 901 processes the captured user biometric data and may convert the data to the form that it may used for authentication. For example, the web authentication application 901 may converts the raw biometric data to generate biometric reference data, stored within a secure storage 956 on the client 900. For example, certain characteristics of the user's voice may be extracted from the raw voice data and/or certain characteristics of the user's face or other portion of the user's body may be extracted from the raw video image(s). In one embodiment, using the media capture logic 905, this series of operations take place within the browser 904.

In one embodiment, the web authentication application generates a private/public key pair as described for some embodiments above. Once generated, the web authentication application 901 may securely store the private key within secure storage 956 and send a secure registration response to the authentication server 950 containing the public key. In one embodiment, the authentication server 950 may then store the public key in a database entry associated with the user's account. In one embodiment, the public/private key generation (and all other key-based operations) are implemented using the Javascript WebCrypto API. However, the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to any particular type of program code for processing and managing keys. Once the keys have been successfully generated and exchanged, the registration process terminates.

For authentication, in response to the user attempting to enter into a transaction with the relying party 930, the browser 904 and the authentication server 950 establish a secure communication channel (e.g., via SSL/TLS). The web authentication application 901 running in the browser initiates authentication with the authentication server 950, which then transmits an authentication request to the web authentication application 901 Upon receipt, the web authentication application 901 may process the server authentication request as described in the above embodiments (e.g., generating a random challenge, using policy filtering to select authentication methods, etc.). If permitted by the policy, the web authentication application 901 prompts the user to authenticate using a voice biometric, face biometric, or a biometric involving another portion of the user's body. As in prior embodiments, for voice, the media capture logic 905 may use the microphone 910 to capture the user's speech of certain words or phrases. For face/body, the media capture logic 905 may use the camera 911 take a snapshot of the user's face or portion of the user's body. The results are then provided to the web authentication application 901 via a call to the media capture API (e.g., the Javascript Media Capture and Streams API in one embodiment).

In one embodiment, the feature extraction module 952 extracts specified features from the raw voice/face/body part data and the matcher 954 compares the extracted features with features from the biometric reference data 956 to generates an authentication result. In one embodiment, the “authentication result” comprises a score based on the similarity between the extracted features and the biometric reference data 956. The web authentication application may then use the score to determine whether the authentication was successful (e.g., if the score is above a certain specified threshold).

In one embodiment, if authentication is successful, then the web authentication application 901 locates the private key associated with the matching biometric data. It then uses the private key as previously described to perform remote authentication with the authentication server 950 (e.g., using the private key to generate a signature over a challenge provided by the authentication server 950 and/or encrypting a session key to establish a secure channel). In one embodiment, the web authentication application performs all key-related operations using the Javascript WebCrypto API. If authentication is successful, then the relying party 930 will allow the user to perform the desired transaction (e.g., the transaction on the website 931 which prompted the authentication request).

FIG. 10 illustrates a registration method and FIG. 11 illustrates an authentication method in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. In both methods, biometric matching is performed on the client rather than the server. The method shown in FIGS. 10-11 may be performed using the architecture shown in FIG. 9, but are not limited to any particular architecture.

At 1001, the user logs into a website of the relying party from a browser and establishes a secure communication channel with a server of the relying party (e.g., the authentication server described above) and (if not already registered) receives a registration request at 1002 from the authentication server. The web authentication application 901 may process the registration request using the remote registration techniques described above (e.g., generating a public/private key pair, performing policy filtering, etc). If the registration policy permits, at 1003, the web authentication application prompts the user to enroll his/her voice/face/body part biometric (e.g., recording the user's speech of certain phrases and/or taking a snapshot of the user's face or portions of the user's body). The user's voice may be sampled from a microphone and/or a picture of the user's face/body part may be captured with a camera on the client. As mentioned, in one embodiment, the voice/video is captured using built-in media capture logic within the browser context (e.g., using a Javascript Media Capture and Streams API in one embodiment).

At 1004, the server receives and converts the raw biometric data to generate biometric reference data. For example, certain characteristics of the user's voice may be extracted from the raw voice data and/or certain characteristics of the user's face or other body part may be extracted from the raw video image(s). The resulting biometric reference data may be associated with the user's account and saved in a secure storage device on the client (from which it may subsequently be accessed during authentication).

At 1005, the web authentication application generates a public/private key pair and stores the keys within a secure storage on the client (which may be the same or a different storage than that used for the biometric reference data). At 1006, a registration response is sent to the authentication server which includes the public key of the public/private key pair. At 1006, the server identifies the user account (e.g., using the user ID or other identifying code) and securely stores the public key.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of an authentication method in which biometric matching is performed on the client. At 1101, the user attempts to enter into a transaction requiring authentication and, in response, the browser and the authentication server establish a secure communication channel (e.g., via SSL/TLS). At 1102, the web application initiates an authentication transaction with the authentication server and, at 1103, the authentication server sends an authentication request which is received by the web application. The web application then selects one or more authentication techniques (e.g., based on an authentication policy for the transaction). For example, the web application may select voice authentication, face authentication, authentication of a body part or any combination thereof.

At 1104, the biometric data is captured via the browser. As mentioned above, to capture the user's voice/face/body part biometric, one embodiment of the invention initiates a call to the dedicated media capture logic built into the browser (e.g., the web application calls the Javascript Media Capture and Streams API).

At 1105, the web application compares the biometric reference data with certain features of the raw biometric data extracted in operation 1104 and generates an authentication result. In one embodiment, the same features are extracted as those extracted during the registration process (e.g., spectral characteristics of the user's voice, geometric or photometric characteristics of the user's image, etc). In one embodiment, the “authentication result” comprises a score based on the similarity between the extracted features and the biometric reference data. The web application may then use the score to determine whether the authentication was successful (e.g., if the score is above a certain specified threshold).

If successful, determined at 1107, then the transaction is permitted and an indication of successful authentication is sent to the authentication server at 1108. If not successful, then at 1109 the transaction is disallowed and an authentication failure is sent to the authentication server.

Exemplary Data Processing Devices

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary clients and servers which may be used in some embodiments of the invention. It should be understood that while FIG. 12 illustrates various components of a computer system, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components as such details are not germane to the present invention. It will be appreciated that other computer systems that have fewer components or more components may also be used with the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 12, the computer system 1200, which is a form of a data processing system, includes the bus(es) 1250 which is coupled with the processing system 1220, power supply 1225, memory 1230, and the nonvolatile memory 1240 (e.g., a hard drive, flash memory, Phase-Change Memory (PCM), etc.). The bus(es) 1250 may be connected to each other through various bridges, controllers, and/or adapters as is well known in the art. The processing system 1220 may retrieve instruction(s) from the memory 1230 and/or the nonvolatile memory 1240, and execute the instructions to perform operations as described above. The bus 1250 interconnects the above components together and also interconnects those components to the optional dock 1260, the display controller & display device 1270, Input/Output devices 1280 (e.g., NIC (Network Interface Card), a cursor control (e.g., mouse, touchscreen, touchpad, etc.), a keyboard, etc.), and the optional wireless transceiver(s) 1290 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, Infrared, etc.).

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary data processing system which may be used in some embodiments of the invention. For example, the data processing system 1300 may be a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable gaming system, a portable media player, a tablet or a handheld computing device which may include a mobile telephone, a media player, and/or a gaming system. As another example, the data processing system 1300 may be a network computer or an embedded processing device within another device.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the exemplary architecture of the data processing system 1300 may used for the mobile devices described above. The data processing system 1300 includes the processing system 1320, which may include one or more microprocessors and/or a system on an integrated circuit. The processing system 1320 is coupled with a memory 1310, a power supply 1325 (which includes one or more batteries) an audio input/output 1340, a display controller and display device 1360, optional input/output 1350, input device(s) 1370, and wireless transceiver(s) 1330. It will be appreciated that additional components, not shown in FIG. 13, may also be a part of the data processing system 1300 in certain embodiments of the invention, and in certain embodiments of the invention fewer components than shown in FIG. 13 may be used. In addition, it will be appreciated that one or more buses, not shown in FIG. 13, may be used to interconnect the various components as is well known in the art.

The memory 1310 may store data and/or programs for execution by the data processing system 1300. The audio input/output 1340 may include a microphone and/or a speaker to, for example, play music and/or provide telephony functionality through the speaker and microphone. The display controller and display device 1360 may include a graphical user interface (GUI). The wireless (e.g., RF) transceivers 1330 (e.g., a WiFi transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, a wireless cellular telephony transceiver, etc.) may be used to communicate with other data processing systems. The one or more input devices 1370 allow a user to provide input to the system. These input devices may be a keypad, keyboard, touch panel, multi touch panel, etc. The optional other input/output 1350 may be a connector for a dock.

Embodiments of the invention may include various steps as set forth above. The steps may be embodied in machine-executable instructions which cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor to perform certain steps. Alternatively, these steps may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components.

Elements of the present invention may also be provided as a machine-readable medium for storing the machine-executable program code. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic program code.

Throughout the foregoing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. For example, it will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art that the functional modules and methods described herein may be implemented as software, hardware or any combination thereof. Moreover, although some embodiments of the invention are described herein within the context of a mobile computing environment, the underlying principles of the invention are not limited to a mobile computing implementation. Virtually any type of client or peer data processing devices may be used in some embodiments including, for example, desktop or workstation computers. Accordingly, the scope and spirit of the invention should be judged in terms of the claims which follow.

Embodiments of the invention may include various steps as set forth above. The steps may be embodied in machine-executable instructions which cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor to perform certain steps. Alternatively, these steps may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components.

Claims

1. A system comprising: an authentication server of a relying party;a client communicatively coupled to the authentication server, the client receiving a request from a user to perform a transaction with the relying party which requires user authentication, the client comprising a secure transaction service to establish a secure communication channel between the authentication server and a web browser (browser) executed on the client;media capture logic implemented as a component within the browser, the media capture logic configured to capture a user's voice from a microphone on a client or images of the user's face or other portion of the user's body from a camera on the client, the media capture logic exposing an application programming interface (API); anda web authentication application implemented as another component within the browser for communicating with the authentication server to perform biometric authentication of a user, the web authentication application making calls to the API of the media capture logic to capture raw biometric data comprising the user's voice from the microphone and/or images of the user's face or other portion of the user's body from the camera, the web authentication application to implement a biometric authentication process to authenticate the user with the raw biometric data.

2. The system as in claim 1 wherein the biometric authentication process comprises: initiating an authentication transaction with the authentication server through the secure communication channel;receiving an authentication request from the authentication server through the secure communication channel; andproviding the raw biometric data to the authentication server through the secure communication channel, the authentication server comprising a matcher module to compare the raw biometric data with biometric reference data associated with the user to determine a correlation between the raw biometric data and the biometric reference data.

3. The system as in claim 2 wherein a successful authentication is defined based on the correlation being above a specified threshold value.

4. The system as in claim 2 wherein the authentication server further comprises a feature extraction module to extract one or more specified features from the raw biometric data, wherein the matcher module compares the extracted features against corresponding features from the biometric reference data.

5. The system as in claim 4 wherein in response to the authentication server generating a successful authentication indication, the user is provided with access to one or more resources managed by the relying party.

6. The system as in claim 2 wherein the web authentication application is further configured to register with the authentication server using a registration process comprising: providing the raw biometric data to the authentication server through the secure communication channel;a feature extraction module on the authentication server extracting specified features of the raw biometric data to generate biometric reference data; andstoring the biometric reference data in a secure storage accessible by the authentication server.

7. The system as in claim 1 wherein the web authentication application comprises a matcher module to compare the raw biometric data with biometric reference data associated with the user to determine a correlation between the raw biometric data and the biometric reference data.

8. The system as in claim 7 wherein a successful authentication is defined based on the correlation being above a specified threshold value, wherein an indication of a successful authentication is transmitted from the web authentication application to the authentication server.

9. The system as in claim 7 wherein the web authentication application further comprises a feature extraction module to extract one or more specified features from the raw biometric data, wherein the matcher module compares the extracted features against corresponding features from the biometric reference data.

10. The system as in claim 9 wherein in response to the web authentication application generating a successful authentication indication, the user is provided with access to one or more resources managed by a relying party.

11. The system as in claim 7 wherein the web authentication application is further configured to register with the authentication server using a registration process, wherein the web authentication application comprising a feature extraction module to extract specified features of the raw biometric data during registration to generate biometric reference data, the biometric reference data being stored within a secure storage accessible by the matcher module.

12. The system as in claim 11 wherein the registration process further comprises: generating a public/private key pair on the client; andtransmitting a public key of the key pair to the authentication server through the secure communication channel, wherein the authentication server associates the public key with an account of the user and stores the public key in a secure storage.

13. A method to perform web-based user authentication, the method comprising: implementing media capture logic as a component within a web browser (browser) executed on a client;implementing a web authentication application as another component within the browser for communicating with an authentication server of a relying party to perform biometric authentication of a user;receiving, at the client, a request from the user to perform a transaction with the relying party, the transaction requiring user authentication;establishing a secure communication channel between the web authentication application and the authentication server via a secure transaction service of the client;initiating an authentication transaction with the authentication server by the web authentication application through the secure communication channel;receiving an authentication request from the authentication server by the web authentication application through the secure communication channel;using the media capture logic to capture the user's voice from a microphone on a client or images of the user's face or other portion of the user's body from a camera on the client, the media capture logic exposing an application programming interface (API); andmaking calls to the API of the media capture logic from the web authentication application to capture raw biometric data comprising the user's voice from the microphone and/or images of the user's face or other portion of the user's body from the camera, the web authentication application to implement a biometric authentication process to authenticate the user with the raw biometric data.

14. The method as in claim 13, further comprising: providing the raw biometric data to the authentication server through the secure communication channel, the authentication server comprising a matcher module to compare the raw biometric data with biometric reference data associated with the user to determine a correlation between the raw biometric data and the biometric reference data.

15. The method as in claim 14 wherein a successful authentication is defined based on the correlation being above a specified threshold value.

16. The method as in claim 14 wherein the authentication server further comprises a feature extraction module to extract one or more specified features from the raw biometric data, wherein the matcher module compares the extracted features against corresponding features from the biometric reference data.

17. The method as in claim 16 wherein in response to the authentication server generating a successful authentication indication, the user is provided with access to one or more resources managed by a relying party.

18. The method as in claim 16 wherein the web authentication application is further configured to register with the authentication server using a registration process comprising: providing the raw biometric data to the authentication server;a feature extraction module on the authentication server extracting specified features of the raw biometric data to generate biometric reference data; andstoring the biometric reference data in a secure storage accessible by the authentication server.

19. The method as in claim 13 wherein the web authentication application comprises a matcher module to compare the raw biometric data with biometric reference data associated with the user to determine a correlation between the raw biometric data and the biometric reference data.

20. The method as in claim 19 wherein a successful authentication is defined based on the correlation being above a specified threshold value, wherein an indication of a successful authentication is transmitted from the web authentication application to the authentication server.

21. The method as in claim 19 wherein the web authentication application further comprises a feature extraction module to extract one or more specified features from the raw biometric data, wherein the matcher module compares the extracted features against corresponding features from the biometric reference data.

22. The method as in claim 21 wherein in response to the web authentication application generating a successful authentication indication, the user is provided with access to one or more resources managed by a relying party.

23. The method as in claim 19 wherein the web authentication application is further configured to register with the authentication server using a registration process, wherein the web authentication application comprising a feature extraction module to extract specified features of the raw biometric data during registration to generate biometric reference data, the biometric reference data being stored within a secure storage accessible by the matcher module.

24. The method as in claim 23 wherein the registration process further comprises: generating a public/private key pair on the client; andtransmitting a public key of the key pair to the authentication server, wherein the authentication server associates the public key with an account of the user and stores the public key in a secure storage.