{"id":13264,"date":"2021-12-08T20:23:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T01:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/?page_id=13264"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:59:23","slug":"tr-08-14-user-interface-design-affects-security-patterns-in-click-based-graphical-passwords","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/research\/scs-technical-reports\/technical-reports-2008\/tr-08-14-user-interface-design-affects-security-patterns-in-click-based-graphical-passwords\/","title":{"rendered":"TR-08-14: User interface design affects security: Patterns in click-based 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-08-14: User interface design affects security: Patterns in click-based 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-2008\/\">Technical Report<\/a> TR-08-14<br>\nJune 16, 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"user-interface-design-affects-security-patterns-in-click-based-graphical-passwords\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">User interface design affects security: Patterns in click-based 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<p class=\"tr_t3\">Sonia Chiasson, Alain Forget, Robert Biddle, P.C. van Oorschot<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Abstract<\/h3>\n<p>Design of the user interface influences users and may encourage either secure or insecure behaviour. Using data from four different but closely related click-based graphical password studies, we show that user-selected passwords vary considerably in their predictability. Our analysis looks at click-point patterns within passwords and shows that PassPoints passwords follow distinct patterns. Surprisingly, these patterns occur independently of the background image. Conversely, CCP and PCCP passwords are nearly indistinguishable from those of a random dataset. These results provide insight on modeling effective password spaces and on how user interface characteristics lead to more (or less) secure user behaviour.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/260\/TR-08-14-Chiasson.pdf\">TR-08-14.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carleton University Technical Report TR-08-14 June 16, 2008 User interface design affects security: Patterns in click-based graphical passwords Sonia Chiasson, Alain Forget, Robert Biddle, P.C. van Oorschot Abstract Design of the user interface influences users and may encourage either secure or insecure behaviour. Using data from four different but closely related click-based graphical password studies, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":12410,"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-13264","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13264","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=13264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13267,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13264\/revisions\/13267"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=13264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}