US 11,962,580 B2 · Browser extensionless phish-proof multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Abstract

A multi-factor authentication scheme uses an MFA authentication service and a browser extensionless phish-proof method to facilitate an MFA workflow. Phish-proof MFA verifies that the browser the user is in front of is actually visiting the authentic (real) site and not a phished site. This achieved by only allowing MFA to be initiated from a user trusted browser by verifying its authenticity through a signing operation using a key only it possesses, and then also verifying that the verified browser is visiting the authentic site. In a preferred embodiment, this latter check is carried out using an iframe postMessage owning domain check. In a variant embodiment, the browser is verified to be visiting the authentic site through an origin header check. By using the iframe-based or ORIGIN header-based check, the solution does not require a physical security key (such as a USB authenticator) or any browser extension or plug-in.

Claims17

Dependent claims

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for authenticating a user to a site, the user having a computing machine, and an associated mobile device, the computing machine having a browser and a web storage application programming interface (API) with a local storage component, comprising:

hardware and associated software comprising program code configured to:
during an MFA workflow initiated by the user logging into the site in association with a site page, receive a request, the request having been generated by an invisible iframe associated with the site page, the iframe configured to create the request by (a) catching a message from the site page that passes a random value, (b) retrieving a private key of a browser key pair from the local storage component, and (c) using the private key of the browser key pair to create a signature over an assertion comprising the random value together with a domain name of the site page;
upon verifying the signature using a public key of the browser key pair, forward the assertion to the associated mobile device to facilitate completion of the MFA workflow.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Browser extensionless phish-proof multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Life of this patent

Browser extensionless phish-proof multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17