AuthContentGuard: Android Authentication using Contactless SmartCard and User-Driven Policy Enforcement For Android Applications

Abstract

The usage of Android smart phones is very popular now a days and dramatically increasing around the globe since 2008. Android smart phones are more powerful today than are and getting smarter day by day. It provides rich functionality under one umbrella with state of the art hardware support. It may contain data including personal or even sensitive information. Unauthorized access of an Android device could be dangerous and prone to reveal secret information. In smart phones a secure authentication mechanism is required to protect user's privacy, crucial information or even access to critical applications. Android provides built-in authentication system typically knowledge based. In some cases Androids built-in authentication system is vulnerable to several attacks. In this research, we propose SmartAuth, a secure and usable authentication mechanism for NFC enabled Android devices using contactless smartcard. The SmartAuth application provides ownership bases authentication system using contactless smart-card via NFC in an Android device. The SmartAuth uses industry standards encryption algorithms for secure authentication. The proposed solution can be used in an Android device for authentication purposes including but not limited to 1) lock screen, 2) lock an application, 3) login for applications and 4) multi-factor authentication using contactless smartcard and Android device on web cloud. The proposed authentication mechanism is implemented without any change in Android code.