In 2004, Tsuji and Shimizu proposed a one-time password authentication protocol, named 2GR (Two-Gene-Relation password authentication protocol). The design goal of the 2GR protocol is to eliminate the stolen-verifier attack on SAS-2 (Simple And Secure password authentication protocol, ver.2) and the theft attack on ROSI (RObust and SImple password authentication protocol). Tsuji and Shimizu claimed that in the 2GR an attacker who has stolen the verifiers from the server cannot impersonate a legitimate user. This paper, however, will point out that the 2GR protocol is still vulnerable to an impersonation attack, in which any attacker can, without stealing the verifiers, masquerade as a legitimate user.

SAS-2 is an alternative of a one-time password authentication protocol SAS, and is developed in order to reduce overhead due to the use of hash functions. The idea of both algorithms is sharing a similar secret number called the verifier that allows a client to be authenticated and that is changed for each new session. However, some of the combinations proposed in [1] to transmit the verifier may contain a security flaw, and the insecure combination results in vulnerability to impersonation attacks.

In 2002, Yeh, Shen, and Hwang proposed a one-time password authentication scheme using smart cards. However, Tsuji et al. and Ku et al. showed that it is vulnerable to the stolen verifier attack. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved one-time password authentication scheme, which not only keeps the security of the scheme of Yeh-Shen-Hwang but also can withstand the stolen verifier attack.

Yeh, Shen, and Hwang recently proposed a secure one-time password authentication scheme using smart cards. They modified the famous S/KEY scheme to achieve security against preplay attacks and off-line dictionary attacks. However, this article shows that their scheme is vulnerable to preplay attacks.

Recently, Yeh, Shen and Hwang proposed an one-time password authentication scheme, which enhances the S/KEY scheme to resist server spoofing attacks, preplay attacks and off-line dictionary attacks. In this letter, the weaknesses and inconveniences of their scheme are demonstrated.

Applications for transforming money or personal information are increasingly common on the Internet and in mobile communications. These applications require user authentication for confirming legal users. One-time password authentication methods change the verifier every time by sending the present verifier along with the next verifier. However, such methods risk attacks because those protocols use two verifiers every session. The SAS (Simple And Secure password authentication protocol) is a one-time password authentication method that the method uses a hash function five times, but it requires high overhead on low spec machines. In this paper, we propose a new method, SAS-2, which reduces overhead of hash function adaptation by 40%. This method has a mutual authentication phase, which maintains synchronous data communications in its authentication procedure. Moreover, SAS-2 can be applied to key-free systems.

The Internet and mobile communication systems are being developed, and related applications for managing personal information require user authentication for confirming legitimate users. One-time password authentication methods secure user's authorities by changing the verifier every time. The S/Key is a famous one-time password authentication scheme, which is based on Lamport's scheme. T.-C. Yeh et al. have point out security problems of the S/Key scheme and have proposed a variant of the S/Key scheme, which can be applied to smart cards. However, this method risks certain attacks, too. Those two proposed schemes use counter value, which can easily be modified by an attacker. Herein we discuss security problems of the S/Key and Yeh-Shen-Hwang's password authentication schemes using forgery attacks and stolen-verifier attacks.

Software applications for the transfer of money or personal information are increasingly common on the Internet. These applications require user authentication for confirming legitimate users. One-time password authentication methods risk a stolen-verifier problem or other steal attacks because the authentication on the Internet server stores the user's verifiers and secret keys. The SAS-2 (Simple And Secure password authentication protocol, ver.2) and the ROSI (RObust and SImple password authentication protocol) are secure password authentication protocols. However, we have found attacks on SAS-2 and ROSI. Here, we propose a new method which eliminates such problems without increasing the processing load and can perform high security level same as S/Key systems without resetting the verifier.

User authentication is necessary on the Internet and in mobile communications to protect the legal user's rights. One-time password authentication methods change the verifier every time by sending the present verifier along with the next verifier. However, such methods risk impersonation attacks because those protocols use two verifiers every session. The OSPA (Optimal Strong-Password Authentication) method is a one-time password method which prevents stolen-verifier problems, replay attacks, and denial of service attacks. In this letter, we devise an impersonation attack on the OSPA method and discuss how to break down the OSPA method.

Most network systems provide an authentication mechanism based on a user identification number and a password. In such systems, it is easy to obtain a user's password using a sniffer program with illegal eavesdropping. The one-time password method and the challenge-response method are useful authentication schemes that protect a user's password against eavesdropping. In client/server environments, the one-time password scheme using time is especially useful because it solves the synchronization problem. However, it has a problem of time-slippage, and this problem causes the authentication to be failed. In this paper, we propose an effective one-time password algorithm, which solves the time-slippage problem through the use of 1-bit information, which denotes the duration in which the authentication could be failed because of time-slippage. This algorithm can be added easily and quickly to current one-time password systems using time without requiring any change of protocols.

Using the great one-time password concept, the widely utilized one-way authentication scheme S/Key provides well protection against replay attacks. In this paper, S/key is enhanced to secure transactions in a critical environment. The proposed scheme is free from any of server spoofing attacks, preplay attacks, and off-line dictionary attacks. A session key here is also established to provide confidentiality. Moreover, simplicity and efficiency are taken into consideration from the user's point of view. A smart card is applied to simplify the user login process and only the hash function is used to keep its efficiency. Therefore, the scheme proposed hereinafter is able to build a safer shield for sensitive transactions like on-line banking or on-line trading in bonds and securities.

A password-based mechanism is the most widely used method of authentication in distributed environments. However, because people are used to choosing easy-to-remember passwords, so-called "weak-passwords," dictionary attacks on them can succeed. The techniques used to prevent dictionary attacks lead to a heavy computational load. Indeed, forcing people to use well-chosen passwords, so-called "strong passwords," with the assistance of tamper-resistant hardware devices can be regarded as another fine authentication solution. In this paper, we examine a recent solution, the SAS protocol, and demonstrate that it is vulnerable to replay and denial of service attacks. We also propose an Optimal Strong-Password Authentication (OSPA) protocol that is secure against stolen-verifier, replay, and denial of service attacks, and minimizes computation, storage, and transmission overheads.