An improved timestamp-based remote user authentication scheme

To protect the remote server from various malicious attacks, many authentication schemes have been proposed. Some schemes have to maintain a password verification table in the remote server for checking the legitimacy of the login users. To overcome potential risks of verification tables, researchers proposed remote user authentication schemes using smartcard, in which the remote server only keeps a secret key for computing the user’s passwords and does not need any verification table for verifying legal user. In 2003 Shen, Lin, and Hwang proposed a timestamp-based password authentication scheme using smartcards in which the remote server does not need to store the passwords or verification table for user authentication. Unfortunately, this scheme is vulnerable to some deadly attacks. In this paper, we analyze few attacks and finally propose an improved timestamp-based remote user authentication scheme. The modified scheme is more efficient and secure than original scheme.

► We have shown that Shen et al.’s authentication scheme is vulnerable to the forged login.
► We proposed an improved protocol to patch this attack.
► This scheme uses less memory on smartcard.
► The user is free to choose his/her memorable and short identity.
► Modified scheme is more efficient and secure than Shen’s scheme.