{"id":13096,"date":"2021-12-05T21:04:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T02:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/?page_id=13096"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:59:24","slug":"tr-04-01-analyzing-user-choice-in-graphical-passwords","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/research\/scs-technical-reports\/technical-reports-2004\/tr-04-01-analyzing-user-choice-in-graphical-passwords\/","title":{"rendered":"TR-04-01: Analyzing User Choice in Graphical Passwords"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        TR-04-01: Analyzing User Choice in Graphical Passwords\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Carleton University<br>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/research\/scs-technical-reports\/technical-reports-2004\/\">Technical Report<\/a> TR-04-01<br>\nMay 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"analyzing-user-choice-in-graphical-passwords\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Analyzing User Choice in Graphical Passwords<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">Deholo Nali &amp; Julie Thorpe<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Abstract<\/h3>\n<p>In ubiquitous textual password schemes, users choose passwords that contain predictable characteristics that are roughly equated with what users find easy to recall. This motivates us to examine user choice in graphical passwords to determine whether predictable characteristics exist that may reduce the entropy of the password space. We present an informal user study of the scheme proposed by Jermyn et al. (1999), and the results, both in context of the study&#8217;s goals and a separate analysis of the results performed at a later date. Our results support that user drawings contain the predictable characteristics relating to symmetry, number of composite strokes, and centering within the grid. Our results also highlight a usability challenge with the DAS scheme.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/260\/TR-04-01.pdf\">TR-04-01.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carleton University Technical Report TR-04-01 May 2004 Analyzing User Choice in Graphical Passwords Deholo Nali &amp; Julie Thorpe Abstract In ubiquitous textual password schemes, users choose passwords that contain predictable characteristics that are roughly equated with what users find easy to recall. This motivates us to examine user choice in graphical passwords to determine whether [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":12325,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[],"class_list":["post-13096","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13099,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13096\/revisions\/13099"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=13096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}