Authors: Assistant Professor G.Chandram, Bhargavi Sammeta
Abstract: The necessity for trustworthy and secure user authentication methods has grown dramatically due to the quick expansion of online services. Traditional password-based authentication techniques are susceptible to security risks such phishing, brute-force attacks, credential theft, and password reuse. This paper proposes a safe two-factor authentication (2FA) architecture that combines customized photo verification with conventional login credentials to solve these issues. Users provide basic login credentials and choose one or more personal photos, each linked to a distinct keyword, during user registration. One of the registered keywords is shown at random by the system once the username and password have been verified during the login procedure. The matching customized image must then be uploaded by the user as the second authentication factor. The Perceptual Hashing (pHash) technique, which effectively evaluates image similarity while retaining robustness against small image alterations, is used in image verification. The framework enhances system security by reducing the possibility of unauthorized access through password-guessing attacks by applying distinct authentication attempt limitations for recognized and unrecognized devices. Without the need for extra hardware or intricate verification processes, the suggested authentication paradigm improves account security. The framework is appropriate for contemporary web applications, cloud platforms, financial systems, educational portals, and enterprise authentication environments because it strikes a balance between security, usability, and computational efficiency by fusing personalized visual authentication with perceptual image hashing.
