Biometrics-based generation of Diffie–Hellman key exchange parameters

Abstract

When two parties need to securely communicate over an insecure channel, Diffie–Hellman is often employed as the key exchange algorithm. This paper presents two novel approaches to generating Diffie–Hellman parameters for key exchange based on user biometrics, namely their fingerprint data. Fingerprint templates are extracted as bit strings via a fingerprint scanner and later used as inputs. In one approach, the whole fingerprint template is utilized as a user’s private key. In the second approach, fingerprint data is scrambled into smaller chunks and rearranged into two strings that serve as the user’s private key and the basis for prime p. Both approaches were implemented and tested experimentally. After analysis, the second approach that uses scrambled fingerprint data shows better execution times and improved security and usability considerations.