Evaluating the Influence of Multi-Factor Authentication and Recovery Settings on the Security and Accessibility of User Accounts

Andre Büttner, Nils Gruschka

2024

Abstract

Nowadays, most online services offer different authentication methods that users can set up for multi-factor authentication but also as a recovery method. This configuration must be done thoroughly to prevent an adversary’s access while ensuring the legitimate user does not lose access to their account. This is particularly important for fundamental everyday services, where either failure would have severe consequences. Nevertheless, little research has been done on the authentication of actual users regarding security and the risk of being locked out of their accounts. To foster research in this direction, this paper presents a study on the account settings of Google and Apple users. Considering the multi-factor authentication configuration and recovery options, we analyzed the account security and lock-out risks. Our results provide insights into the usage of multi-factor authentication in practice, show significant security differences between Google and Apple accounts, and reveal that many users would miss access to their accounts when losing a single authentication device.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Büttner A. and Gruschka N. (2024). Evaluating the Influence of Multi-Factor Authentication and Recovery Settings on the Security and Accessibility of User Accounts. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP; ISBN 978-989-758-683-5, SciTePress, pages 691-700. DOI: 10.5220/0012319000003648

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icissp24,
author={Andre Büttner and Nils Gruschka},
title={Evaluating the Influence of Multi-Factor Authentication and Recovery Settings on the Security and Accessibility of User Accounts},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP},
year={2024},
pages={691-700},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012319000003648},
isbn={978-989-758-683-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP
TI - Evaluating the Influence of Multi-Factor Authentication and Recovery Settings on the Security and Accessibility of User Accounts
SN - 978-989-758-683-5
AU - Büttner A.
AU - Gruschka N.
PY - 2024
SP - 691
EP - 700
DO - 10.5220/0012319000003648
PB - SciTePress