Security Through Entertainment: Experiences Using a Memory Game for Secure Device Pairing
Alexander Gallego, Nitesh Saxena, Jonathan Voris

TL;DR
This paper explores using a memory-based game called Alice Says to improve the usability and security of device pairing, especially for two users, by making the process enjoyable and reducing human errors.
Contribution
It introduces a novel game-based approach for secure device pairing, demonstrating its feasibility and highlighting design challenges and potential improvements.
Findings
Alice Says is fun and engaging for users.
The game-based pairing process is feasible in terms of security.
Speed of pairing needs improvement for practical use.
Abstract
The secure "pairing" of wireless devices based on auxiliary or out-of-band (OOB) communication, such as audio, visual, or tactile channels, is a well-established research direction. However, prior work shows that this approach to pairing can be prone to human errors of different forms that may directly or indirectly translate into man-in-the-middle attacks. To address this problem, we propose a general direction of the use of computer games for pairing. Since games are a popular means of entertainment, our hypothesis is that they may serve as an incentive to users and make the pairing process enjoyable for them, thus improving the usability, as well as the security, of the pairing process. We consider an emerging use case of pairing whereby two different users are involved, each in possession of his or her own device (e.g., Alice and Bob pairing their smartphones for social…
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Taxonomy
TopicsUser Authentication and Security Systems · Advanced Malware Detection Techniques · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
