A HYBRID APPROACH FOR GRID SECURITY AUTHENTICATION AND AUTHORIZATION USING FINGERPRINT BIOMETRICS AND ATTRIBUTE BASED ACCESS CONTROL TECHNIQUES

Well Researched and Ready to use Ph.D Thesis, page numbers: 181, Department: Computer Science

ABSTRACT 

Computational grid is an interconnection of computer systems for the purpose of sharing resources. The need for computational grid is increasing on daily basis. The resource shared in computational grid is not limited to files alone but also includes computer resources such as memory and processors. The security challenges resulting from this sharing is enormous including authentication, authorization, integrity and availability. These challenges call for research attentions as evidenced from the reviewed literature. Several research had proposed cryptographic approaches as a plausible solution to the various security challenges in computational grid. . However, issues surrounding the cryptographic-based approach include but not limited to passwords lost, keys distribution, keys and certificates management as the grid increases in size. These issues associated with the existing approaches make them unfit for securing today's enormous computational grid resources. Also, the existing approach separate authentication and authorization of users in grid environment Thus, this study aimed at hybridizing fingerprint biometric and Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) for authenticating and authorizing computational grid users in the use of computational grid resources based on attributes of the users. The specific objectives were to: (i) design fingerprint biometric model for authentication of computational grid users in grid environment; (ii) develop ABAC model for authorization of computational grid users in grid environment; (iii) hybridize the proposed fingerprint biometric and ABAC models for grid security; and (iv) implement the proposed model. The hybridized model was developed using fingerprint biometric and attribute based access control techniques. The biometric-based aspect provided authentication of users while the ABAC part provided authorization of computational grid resources only to the authenticated users. The hybridized model enhanced computational grid security in three folds: (i) it authenticates users via their fingerprints, which can neither be lost nor forgotten; (ii) a fraction of the fingerprint was stored in a card and the other fraction in the server, which made it impossible to access computational grid resources without both fractions matching the presented fingerprint; and (iii) the attributes of the users saved in the card provided access to the authenticated users based on the attributes presented in the card. The findings of the study showed that: i. the fingerprint biometric model designed removed issues of forgotten password, password loss associated with the existing models, and eliminated impersonation of computational grid users; ii. ABAC model developed removed the issue of authenticated users having access to unwanted computational resources in the grid; iii. the proposed model incorporated fingerprint biometric and ABAC for both authentication and authorization of users in grid environment; and iv. the model was automated using MATLAB and MySQL. With this model, the issue of password lost is eliminated just as the grid user fingerprint to the grid cannot be forgotten. Thus, it became difficult to impersonate the grid user. Also there is no key involved, hence, there is no need for keys and certificates management and distribution. Thus, the results from the study showed that the model outperformed the existing method of cryptographic approach used in grid security. It was recommended that the hybridized model developed be used in the Automated Teller Machine services to provide authentication to users; thereby serving as an alternative to the existing cryptographic approach.

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